Thinking about going back into school for engineering, help?

[CivilTwilight]

Hi! Argh, it logged me out while I was writing up this post, so now I'm going to try again, probably with much fewer words, haha . . . So I have a BS in mechanical engineering, but currently work as a software developer. Weird right? Back in school, I realized I thought robots were really cool but since they are so complex and interdisciplinary, I wanted to know which part of them was my favorite so I had a direction for grad school. I knew I liked the "brains" part of robots the most so I tried to get a minor in computer science while still doing my ME degree. I missed by one class but I still got a lot of great CS fundamental knowledge. However my grades were not great by that point. I ended up with a 2.7 or so. I think that my uncertainty about which path I should take made it hard to fully concentrate on classes. I was also in a really lousy relationship at the time. Since my grades weren't that great and I was still unsure about what path to take in grad school, I decided not to go at that time. So I went into software development instead because it seemed interesting. It was good for awhile but I haven't been able to move forward within that field. It turns out that maybe it wasn't the right fit for me after all. I've looked into lots of cool things like AI, machine learning, data science, etc. and I haven't been drawn in enough by any of it. I keep feeling like I don't want to continue with tech at least on the software side. So now my old dream of going to grad school has come back up and I'm examining it. I'm still narrowing things down but I think I want to study in a ME department things like robotics, controls, dynamics, multi-agent systems. I think I'd want to do MS for now though, since it's been awhile and it sounds like it's a bit easier to get in.

Oh and as for things I have besides my GPA, I had a research internship where I finished a small paper and a poster for a conference. I also worked in a research lab for a couple semesters although I didn't manage to finish anything there. I am hoping I could ask those professors for LORs, assuming they remember me after five years, haha.

So, my questions:

1) I see that there is a low GPA admittance thread which is great. I guess I am worried that being out of school for so long (5 years now) might hurt me, especially since it's not in a very related area. Will I still be able to get in somewhere decent?

2) Getting admitted is one thing but how likely will I be able to get some kind of financial aid as a MS student? How hard is it to get things like fellowships or RAships or stuff like that as a masters student?

3) Speaking of funding I'm a bit confused by it . . . so do you get admitted and THEN try to find funding or do you do those things at the same time? How do you find funding sources? Just ask the program people? I'm not sure where I'd start with that.

Thanks again for reading, I'd appreciate any help you can lend. It feels good to work on my old dream again but it still feels a bit impossible!

[fernandes]

Hey @CivilTwilight, welcome to the forum.

I will try to answer some of your questions, since I have just gone through grad school admission processes. Before applying, I tried to get as much information as I could and I ended up coming to the conclusion that MS students are hardly funded during their programs, except if you get admitted to top-tier ivy league schools. I have not applied to top 5 schools in my field because I tried to be realistic about my application and I was not willing to just throw away my application fee into a school that I would probably not be accepted.

2) I think that my first paragraph almost says enough about this question, but there are a few more things. While I was looking up schools and programs I have come to the conclusion that only a few schools will allow their MS students to work as a TA/RA for the school. And usually the schools which offer that are much harder to get in, since they are really well ranked and receive tons of applications per term. So I would say that, unless the school's website explicitly say that MS students are eligible to RA/TAships, you should not count on that option.

3) It really depends on the school you've applied to. Two examples: I have been admitted to a PhD program in February - that's when I got the admittance letter - and only received funding information in April. I had to email professors and RA/TA coordinators to check if they would have any funding for me. I was also admitted to a PhD program in April and I received funding information along with the offer letter. So, again, it really depends on the school/program you're applying to.

I hope I could help. I couldn't help more, since I have applied to 8 PhD programs and 1 MS program, but let me know if you need anything else.