Profile Evaluation

[MdAshik.Zaman]

GRE 308 Verbal 148 Quantitative 160 AWA 3.5

UnderGrad major Electrical Engineering from Bangladesh CGPA 2.84/4.00

Masters major Electrical Engineering from Lamar University CGPA 3.75/4.00

 

Please suggest me some universities for Phd in Electrical Engineering for FAll 2017.

[waderpanda]

This is definitely not my field and I am not sure how it works for electrical engineering. But since I just went through the process of looking into schools myself, I thought I might give my two cents. There are 4 ways I went about finalizing a list of schools.

1. If you have a primary advisor, ask them for recommendations. It's very likely that someone they know is currently looking for a student. Even if this is not the case, they have a better grasp of what your interests are than anyone on gradcafe and would be able to direct you to programs/PIs they might think would be suitable for you.
2. Look into the papers you read often. If you identify anyone whose name tends to reoccur then check them and their school out. 
3. Look into listservs/professional association websites to check out if PIs are actively looking for grad students
4. Just do a general search of the specific area of electrical engineering you are interested in. If you are broadly interested and do not have a well defined area of interested yet, that's fine. Just go off of what interests you right now.

That being said, PhD applications in my field (ecology, evolutionary biology) focus very much on the interest of your faulty of interest. Though the ultimate decision (probably) lies in the hands of the admission committee, if your faculty of interest can make a strong case for you, I am sure your chances of getting accepted increase tremendously. I am not sure how it works for electrical engineering, but I'm hoping that this helps.

Good luck on your grad school searches

[fadedfigures]

I would strongly advise against letting other people give you a list of schools. It is expected that you will be attending a school where a faculty member has a match in research interests with you. I could say "Apply for X University, Y University, and Z University," but it would make no difference because I don't know what your research interests are.

First and foremost, figure out a general idea of what your research interests are. You don't need to have anything set in stone; I guarantee it will change as you continue in graduate school. But think about topics that you'd be happy researching for 5-6 years, and specialize your interests based on those. Then, I would recommend taking a look at this list of research universities. Depending on your end goals, you'll want to form a list of schools mainly from R1 or R2 institutions (schools listed as R1 are the top-tier schools; a degree from such a university is solid). Create a list of schools based on states/cities where you will be happy living for 5-6 years. Then, visit the department's webpage for each school and see if there is a professor there that matches your research interests.

I will also echo @waderpanda and see if there's any professors whose names pop up frequently on your reading lists. You never know, though. There may be some up and coming new assistant professor who is just making a name for themselves in the field who you only discover from researching the schools. Point being is to use every tool and resource available to try and find a research fit. Talk to advisors, visit listserves, etc. 

Good luck! One of the funnest parts is researching new schools and thinking about where you could potentially end up in a year's time.