Materials Science and Engineering Fall 2017 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

[shur42]

Hi all! 

Are there any Fall 17 MSE applicants lurking around here? Let's share our profiles and admission results! 

Here's a profile template from the biology thread: 

Undergrad Institution: (School or type of school, such as big state, lib arts, ivy, technical, foreign (what country?))
Major(s):
Minor(s):
GPA in Major:
Overall GPA:
Position in Class: (No numbers needed, but are you top? near top? average? struggling?)
Type of Student: (Domestic/International, male/female, minority?)

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q:
V:
W:


TOEFL Total: (if applicable, otherwise delete this)

Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications (Mth author out of N?) or conference talks etc...)

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, etc...)

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

School - Department - Research Interest
School - Department - Research Interest
School - Department - Research Interest

Edited December 13, 2016 by shur42

[shur42]

Here's mine: 

Undergrad Institution: A big, well-known Russian University
Major(s): Manufacturing Engineering
Overall GPA: 3.2
Position in Class: Kinda near the top
Type of Student: F, International

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 162
V: 162
W: 4.5

TOEFL Total: 119

Research Experience: 1st author publication in a decent journal, several materials-related research projects at universities and companies

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Got nominated for the best poster award at a big conference

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for two courses, 1 year in the industry

Special Bonus Points: M.Sc. in Materials

Applying to Where:

A bunch of UCs: UCLA, USC, UCSB, UCSD (Nanoengineering), UCI, UCR
Caltech

[jaylzee]

Undergrad Institution: Midwest school
Major(s): Materials Science and Engineering
Overall GPA: 3.95
Position in Class: Good
Type of Student: F

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 164
V: 167
W: 3.5 (lol)

TOEFL Total: N/A

Research Experience: 2+ years of research & 1 internship, 1 3rd author publication

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Best poster award at a small poster conference

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutor for two years, outreach/club experience

Special Bonus Points: Physics Minor

Applying to Where:
UCSB, UC Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Northwestern, Michigan, UPenn, Cornell (applied phys)

[shur42]

On 12/15/2016 at 4:24 PM, jaylzee said:

Undergrad Institution: Midwest school
Major(s): Materials Science and Engineering
Overall GPA: 3.95
Position in Class: Good
Type of Student: F

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 164
V: 167
W: 3.5 (lol)

TOEFL Total: N/A

Research Experience: 2+ years of research & 1 internship, 1 3rd author publication

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Best poster award at a small poster conference

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutor for two years, outreach/club experience

Special Bonus Points: Physics Minor

Applying to Where:
UCSB, UC Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Northwestern, Michigan, UPenn, Cornell (applied phys)

Nice to see another MSE applicant here! Have you heard from any of the schools yet? 

[ercofell]

Undergrad Institution: Scripps College (small liberal arts school in California)
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): French
GPA in Major: 3.5
Overall GPA: 3.54
Position in Class: Wasn't really a thing at my school since the majors were so small
Type of Student: F, domestic

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 163
V: 170
W: 4.5

TOEFL Total: N/A

Research Experience: 2 summer research internships in materials (1 international), and year-long thesis research in PV materials

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Third author on paper that won conference award and is up for publication 

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Physics grader/mentor, tutoring, community science outreach 

Special Bonus Points: This is my second round applying to schools, got into UC Davis last year but decided that I wanted to retake the GRE and apply to places that more closely matched my research interests

Applying to Where:
University of Minnesota, University of Michigan, Northwestern, Columbia, University of Washington, some international schools

[WhyTry]

Second year applying, first time was meche programs

Undergrad Institution: public university with strong engineering program in west coast

Major(s): MechE
GPA in Major: 3.70/4.00
Overall GPA: 3.56/4.00
Demographics/Background: 

GRE Scores:
Q: 162 
V: 154 
W: 4.0 

LOR: 

3 "Popeye the sailor man" strong 
Research Experience: 

1 summer and 2 academic years in ECE lab

1 summer in materials science lab 

2 quarters MechE lab

post graduation: 6 months full time and ongoing in molecular, cell and developmental bio lab

diversify!!!!!

Publications/Abstracts/Presentations: 1 2nd author. 1 4th author in review. Over ten oral/poster presentations. 

 

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 

Recognized most likely to dropout of highschool

Fellowships/Funding:

still broke and nothing's changing

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 

Advanced bird cage watching 

Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments:

Beat a scarecrow in a staring contest

Research Interests:

Energy materials, nano/micro science, fabrication 

Institutions/Programs:

All PhD programs

Harvard (meche & matrls program)

ut Austin

uc davis

stanford

Comments:

Low gpa and gre but I don't care anymore, it is their loss if that's what they value more 

 

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[shur42]

Hey guys, any news?

jaylzee, I think UCSB has started looking at the applications, I got a reminder from them to submit one form that I missed.

[seaslugs]

I heard back from UCSB last year late january. Good luck!

[Fishys]

Undergrad Institution: Small private university
Major(s): Engineering Science
Overall GPA: 3.90/4.00
Position in Class: Top 3 in engineering class
Type of Student: Domestic

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 170
V: 159
W: 4.0


Research Experience: 1 semester in analytical chemistry lab, 1.5 semesters in biomaterials, 2 REUs focused on materials science with both of my projects involving energy storage.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: University Scholar (Top 15 or so GPA in entire class, including all majors), various engineering department awards

Publications: Second author on a publication, conference paper, another paper in-prep.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutor for some physics classes and a circuits course, grader for three different engineering courses.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Volunteered at a local middle school robotics club once a week for a year.

Applying to Where:

Stanford, Georgia Tech, UT Austin, UCSD (Nanoengineering), Vanderbilt 

Comments:

I'm interested in materials for energy storage, and the schools that I applied to all have faculty that I would be excited to work with. I considered applying to a few more schools, but none of their faculty generated the same level of interest that I have in these five schools.

Edited January 8, 2017 by Fishys

[RanaYekani]

Undergrad Institution: Iran University of Science and Technology

Grad Institution: TU Darmstadt, Germany
Major(s): Materials Science and Engineering

Undergrad GPA: 2.67 (3.05 last two years)
Grad GPA: 3.2
Position in Class: near the top
Type of Student: F, International

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 164
V: 153
W: 4.0

TOEFL Total: 117

Research Experience: Diverse research experience(Graphene, nanomaterials, glasses and energy materials) at Max Planck, KIT and some other institutions

Publication: One 1st author in Nanoscale, two conference papers (One in Iran and one in Germany)

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Won the best poster award at TU Darmstadt

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for one course for two semesters

Applying to Where:

McGill, Boston University, Northwestern, USC
Low undergrad GPA and GRE but counting on my research profile to make my application look good! A professor at McGill has agreed to take me on(after a long time of exchanging emails) and but he asked me a few days ago to send him a memo addressed to him in which I explain the reason behind my low undergrad GPA. He sounded very supportive. Should I contact him to ask how the process is going? or should I just sit back and wait?
 

[Bhu_It]

Undergrad Institution: Indian Institute of Technology
Grad Institution: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY

Major(s): Materials Engineering
Undergrad GPA: 8.33/10 (~ 3.9/4)
Grad GPA: 3.4
Position in Class: top 10% for undergrad, average for MS
Type of Student: International, M

GRE Scores (revised version):
Q: 166
V: 157
W: 3.5

Research Experience: Two years of research on biological polymers during Master's, Currently a research technician in biomaterials somewhere in the northeast, all undergrad research is mostly unrelated to my current interests, two research posters in undergrad in mechanical behavior/composite materials.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Best poster award at a materials symposium

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: would have 8 months of experience as Research technician at the time of joining

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Naah

Special Bonus Points: Lol

Applying to Where:

Materials - Vanderbilt, Drexel, Delaware, Rochester, Arizona State
Macromolecular/Polymer science - Case Western, Virginia Tech, Connecticut, North Carolina State
Bioengineering - Utah, Syracuse

Edited January 11, 2017 by Bhu_It

[Bhu_It]

On 12/22/2016 at 0:45 AM, WhyTry said:

Other Miscellaneous Accomplishments:

Beat a scarecrow in a staring contest - good one, might come in handy when you stare at the microscope images for hours.

Comments:

Low gpa and gre but I don't care anymore, it is their loss if that's what they value more  - Way to go! Precisely my mindset right now.

[predoc]

2 hours ago, Bhu_It said:

Undergrad GPA: 8.33/10 (~ 3.9/4)

Woah ! Is that conversion true ? Seems highly unlikely that 8.33/10 will be so high on a 4 point scale. 

[shur42]

4 hours ago, RanaYekani said:

A professor at McGill has agreed to take me on(after a long time of exchanging emails) and but he asked me a few days ago to send him a memo addressed to him in which I explain the reason behind my low undergrad GPA. He sounded very supportive. Should I contact him to ask how the process is going? or should I just sit back and wait?

I think whatever you decide to do is ok in this case! Maybe you can wait until McGill starts sending out the interviews/acceptances, and, if you're not contacted, reach out to this prof? 

[Bhu_It]

4 hours ago, predoc said:

Woah ! Is that conversion true ? Seems highly unlikely that 8.33/10 will be so high on a 4 point scale. 

It actually is true according to one of the common grade conversion agencies that the universities use. The grading system is very different over there. In fact the highest GPA anyone got in my college was around 8.5-8.7 lol.

[Bhu_It]

9 hours ago, RanaYekani said:

McGill, Boston University, Northwestern, USC
Low undergrad GPA and GRE but counting on my research profile to make my application look good! A professor at McGill has agreed to take me on(after a long time of exchanging emails) and but he asked me a few days ago to send him a memo addressed to him in which I explain the reason behind my low undergrad GPA. He sounded very supportive. Should I contact him to ask how the process is going? or should I just sit back and wait?
 

The application deadline is yet to come for McGill. Most likely the application reviews will start after the deadline. So contacting him before the deadline isn't going to be helpful. So I'd say it's best to wait for at least a month or so past the deadline before you ask him/admission staff about this.

[Fishys]

I was admitted to Georgia Tech's Materials Science program today! Excited for my first acceptance.

[meggied]

Undergrad Institution: Big State University
Majors: Materials Science & Engineering, Zoology
GPA in Major: 3.47/4.0
Overall GPA: 3.42/4.00
Type of Student: Domestic/Female

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 170
V: 161
W: 4.5


Research Experience: 1 year of research experience

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: member of Honor's college

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: worked for two years at technology patent office

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: president of the largest club in the materials department, volunteered extensively throughout college

Special Bonus Points: double major

Applying to Where:

• UF - Biomedical Engineering
• UF- Materials Science
• Vanderbilt - Materials Science
• Carnegie Mellon - Materials Science
• Penn State - Materials Science
• UT Austin - Biomedical Engineering
• CU Boulder - Materials Science
• Colorado State - Mechanical Engineering
• University of Utah - Bioengineering

[shur42]

12 hours ago, Fishys said:

I was admitted to Georgia Tech's Materials Science program today! Excited for my first acceptance.

Congratulations @Fishys! Any news from UCSD Nanoengineering? 

I interviewed with UCI (in person) and with UCR (by phone).

Some people got admits from UCSB yesterday - did you guys interview at all? 

[Hadass]

Hi all, I recently received admission offers from Berkely, UCSB and Cornell (still having a hard time to believe this is true!)

I'll stay in California between UCB's and UCSB's visit weekend and was wondering if anyone would like to join me and travel across the west coast.

I interviewed for UCSB, but that was way back (October) so that could explain getting admitted early.

[shur42]

Congrats @Hadass! It seems that you've got a tough (but oh so pleasant) decision ahead of you!

[Hadass]

Thanks @shur42! Crossing my fingers for the rest of you guys

[Fishys]

Looks like Stanford has started to send out acceptances, I'm getting pretty anxious about it.

[perovskite]

@Hadass Can you share some of your stats? Do you know if these schools will be sending out more acceptances? Congrats and thanks in advance!

[shur42]

On 1/20/2017 at 7:49 PM, Fishys said:

Looks like Stanford has started to send out acceptances, I'm getting pretty anxious about it.

I know how you feel, it seems that if I don't get any communications from UCSB next week, this train has left the station without me :-(