Fellow Engineers! Help a brother out ? Am I being realistic or delusional with these university choices ?

[oknowwhat]

Hello All,

I'm a masters graduate in Mech Eng from a reputed university in U.K , top 5 for Engineering some would say. I've got 3 recommendation letters, one of which is from a Prof well known in his field, one from a professor who I'm sure is virtually, if not literally, unheard of outside my university. And the third from a Research officer at my university (falls into the same category as the second prof). I really do want to do a Ph.D in the U.S, but at the same time , I've decided to be a bit ambitious about it and apply to only the best (ish) universities. My GRE being 1320. Here's my problem though.

1) I have ONE research publication to my name. It just so happens to be my masters dissertation which was converted to a research paper.

2) I have a 2.1 for my masters (U.K grading standards) i.e 68%. But I haven't the slightest idea how much this would be in the American GPA standard.

3) My undergraduate degree was again, 76%, but have no idea how much this is when converted to GPA.

4) I wouldn't mind sticking to the exact same field as my master's degree, but I've been toying with the idea of applying for something related within Mech Eng itself. Should I ?

If you're with me so far, thank you for not abandoning the thread yet! So, as I was saying. . .

I've selected Purdue, UMich, CMU, Duke, UC Berkeley and Stanford.

What I'd like your thoughts on is, given the right Personal statement , do I have a realistic chance of getting into one of these Unis ? Or am I being too ambitious ? Are my chances hampered/boosted by whether I apply for Spring/Fall ?

Thanks !

- V

[noojens]

A few things:

- check out the engineering PhD profiles thread in the engineering section of this forum

- convert your stats to US metrics if you want a meaningful evaluation (you're applying to US schools; you'll have to do this anyway)

- total GRE score doesn't tell me much; what was your quantitative and verbal? (most programs expect 800 or very near on the quantitative section)

- of the schools you mentioned, Berkeley/Stanford/CMU/Michigan are extremely competitive

- Purdue and Duke are less competitive but not by much

- you should definitely apply to some safety schools

- most schools don't accept engineering PhD applications for the spring semester

Best of luck.

[oknowwhat]

Thanks for replying Noojens.

I was hoping the British MSc and research paper would help boost my chances with regards to the competitive schools. I was also pondering the possibility of applying to Columbia and Cornell as well, but after reading your reminder about safety schools, I'm rethinking the same. Would you reckon one of these - Virginia Tech/Ohio State/UCLA/Texas@Austin - would be good choices for safety schools ?

[noojens]

Again, I don't really feel competent to comment unless you clarify your stats (GPA in US terms and quantitative vs. verbal GRE score).

The MS and publication will definitely help, but all factors are important.

As for safety schools, my suggestion would be to clearly define your research goals, and look for lower-ranked departments that are strong in your specific field. Without knowing your specialty, I can't really comment on that list.

Good luck

[solairne]

Some schools also have a link to current graduate students in their 'people' section or somewhere on the program page. Sometimes the grad students have a CV that you can look at and look at their profile before the PhD started to get an idea of what successful competition was like in the past.