So I know people in general hate "what are my chances?" posts and I'll do my best to avoid that cliche of a post. But I'm here asking for help because I need to decide on my life path (Masters first? Job First? Law school first?) and I'd appreciate a general idea of how I stack up.
Normally, you'd look at the 25th/75th percentiles for the GPA/GRE and your own research / work experience. This works great for U.S. schools, but I would like to go abroad. My dream school is ETH Zurich, quickly followed by EPFL Lausanne, the Technical University of Munich, Heidelberg University, and finally Uppsala University.
Across the board, these schools have no info on GRE, and only limited info on GPA, and I just can't get a feel by googling around whether I should spend the time/fees on applications now. The best I could find was that ETH and EPFL prefer GPA's from 3.33 - 3.66 on an american scale (5-5.5 on a swiss scale) but I can't tell if 3.33 is the hard cutoff or just a 25th percentile.
So here are my stats. If you have any experience with any of these universities, I'd appreciate your guidance. I've also attached my resume
Degree: Engineering
GPA -- 3.33 currently, 3.41 by time of application if I apply in the winter, 3.475 if I skip this application cycle entirely.
GRE -- 167/168/6
Research Experience: 3 official papers, 6 serious research projects (two funded by grants)
Work Experience: Private Tutor + Private WebDev + 2 Paid Summer Internships
Letters of Rec: 3 strong letters, one from the professor who mentored my Undergrad Thesis, one from my boss in Paid Summer Internship, and finally one from the director of my Honors program
Honors: Jefferson Scholar (35 students selected @ 1.8% acceptance rate for $250,000 full ride + stipend), Rodman Scholar (Honors engineering program), University Scholar (Competitive Global Health grant for research)
I know its hard to answer this question and that there is no "real answer". I just want to know: Am I wasting my time with applications now and should I focus on just getting a job for a year or two before I apply? I know U.S. masters require work experience but this does not seem to be the case in Europe.
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vaengineer
Hello everyone,
So I know people in general hate "what are my chances?" posts and I'll do my best to avoid that cliche of a post. But I'm here asking for help because I need to decide on my life path (Masters first? Job First? Law school first?) and I'd appreciate a general idea of how I stack up.
Normally, you'd look at the 25th/75th percentiles for the GPA/GRE and your own research / work experience. This works great for U.S. schools, but I would like to go abroad. My dream school is ETH Zurich, quickly followed by EPFL Lausanne, the Technical University of Munich, Heidelberg University, and finally Uppsala University.
Across the board, these schools have no info on GRE, and only limited info on GPA, and I just can't get a feel by googling around whether I should spend the time/fees on applications now. The best I could find was that ETH and EPFL prefer GPA's from 3.33 - 3.66 on an american scale (5-5.5 on a swiss scale) but I can't tell if 3.33 is the hard cutoff or just a 25th percentile.
So here are my stats. If you have any experience with any of these universities, I'd appreciate your guidance. I've also attached my resume
Degree: Engineering
GPA -- 3.33 currently, 3.41 by time of application if I apply in the winter, 3.475 if I skip this application cycle entirely.
GRE -- 167/168/6
Research Experience: 3 official papers, 6 serious research projects (two funded by grants)
Work Experience: Private Tutor + Private WebDev + 2 Paid Summer Internships
Letters of Rec: 3 strong letters, one from the professor who mentored my Undergrad Thesis, one from my boss in Paid Summer Internship, and finally one from the director of my Honors program
Honors: Jefferson Scholar (35 students selected @ 1.8% acceptance rate for $250,000 full ride + stipend), Rodman Scholar (Honors engineering program), University Scholar (Competitive Global Health grant for research)
I know its hard to answer this question and that there is no "real answer". I just want to know: Am I wasting my time with applications now and should I focus on just getting a job for a year or two before I apply? I know U.S. masters require work experience but this does not seem to be the case in Europe.
Anon Resume.pdf
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