I've just realized I have no idea where to apply

[Chanda]

I am senior Chem E

I go to University of Maryland, College Park

I am planning on going to some sort of chemical engineering graduate school for Fall 2010.

I planned on focusing on my grades, GRE prep, and my research until winter break and then applying all over the place for grad school.

Well winter break is here and I have realized I actually have no idea where to apply. The only places I know I am applying are the Maryland phD program (the prof i do research for says he'll easily get me in) and Stanford masters (I asked about my chances on a previous thread).

Aside from those two I have no idea where to apply. I am interested in eventually doing a pHD. I don't mind doing a masters first at a different university or going straight into it.

I am just looking to get maximize my potential to get into a "good" grad school.

Its been very hard to find information on what actually is a good grad school. Yeah there are US news rankings, but how valid are they? Also is a ranking of chemical engineering department or the ranking of the engineering school as a whole more important?

I don't really care about location for schools. Also I am very flexible on the types of research conducted by the department (chem E research is broad, I have been leaning towards gels drug delivery but I am willing try other fields in chem e). What other criteria should I have for grad schools? I am simply looking for a place that is "good" for my profile (I value maximizing input for eventual ends).

At this moment I simply have no idea where I should consider applying with my profile.

I've missed some deadlines, but phD programs for schools like UCLA, Cornell are January 15th. Winter break is here and my only focus is Grad Schools (and the GRE on xmas eve).

My profile is below:

GPA: 3.49

Taking GREs December 24th 2009

Research:

3 Summers of Research at the National Institute of Health

I won a research award there in a competition among the 90 summer interns

The past semester I did research at school in a chem E nanoparticles lab ( I plan on continuing it till the end of my senior year).

Other ECs:

Vice President of Debate Team

Engineers without borders - I spent my junior year designing a water purification system for a poor village in Peru. Went to Peru during June last summer and implemented the designs.

LOR: the professor I do research with has been my adviser since sophomore year. I took two classes with him and got As in both, and he knows me really well. My other two come from my three summers at NIH. One was my mentor and the other was the lab chief who also knew me really well. I believe both will write strong letters on my research abilities.

Ok thats about it.

Actually I still have one question. Are there any like good postbac programs for chem Es? Something in between undergrad and grad where you work a couple years padding your app for grad school. I like this option not only because it helps my application, but I get a chance to potentially see another part of the country before I go to grad school.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[zilch]

there aren't very many engineers on these forums so you may not find the specific advice you're looking for. I know very little about chem eng programs and the best I can offer is stuff that would apply for most engineers.

your research experience is very good and likely to be among the best of the applicants. your GPA isn't bad either, it's not spectacular but these days nothing short of a 4.0 is.

try asking grad students in the research group you're with what schools they applied to when they were doing this and look around the web.