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Grad School
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I'm currently a computer engineering major at a generic state school (University of Kansas), and next year will be my last year. So I'm looking at the possibility of going to grad school.
I don't know if I'm good enough/competitive enough to get in to one of the top tier schools (MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, etc).
Does anyone have experience applying to one of these grad schools? Do you know what kind of stuff they are looking for? What GPA? What GRE score? Work experience?
I don't know if I'm good enough/competitive enough to get in to one of the top tier schools (MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, etc).
Does anyone have experience applying to one of these grad schools? Do you know what kind of stuff they are looking for? What GPA? What GRE score? Work experience?
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What I'm getting at is that it's certainly possible and they don't look at any one thing. Grad school isn't like undergrad. There's no admissions board. Professors look for applicants that match their programs and research fields. This makes your statement of purpose very important. Research what professors at these schools are researching. If it interests you, include it in your SOP. Mentioning specific professors and their research is good. If no one at that school is researching something that interests, you probably shouldn't be applying.
That was my experience.
My currently GPA is pretty solid, but I expect it to go down a bit after this semester (Overall GPA: 3.85; Engineering GPA: 3.87).
I've also had some great work experiences, so hopefully that will help too. I did a co-op with Intel last year, and I will be interning with Garmin this summer.
t mts; so judging by that, would I have a decent shot even if I got a mediocre score on the GRE?
t DessertBox; that's actually an excellent idea. thanks!
The general is something you can't study for, really. You can practice but unless you already know what you're doing there's not a lot you can do to get better or worse. I find it comforting. If you are already at that stage of your educational career then you should be fine.
It's divided into three sections. The language section is very hit-or-miss. If you get a bunch of analogies with words you don't know, there's not a lot you can really do to prepare for that. If you get a couple of reading comprehension questions, you'll do better. With math, the GRE website has an 80 page PDF that goes over math from its most basic to what you'll be expected to do on the test. The math doesn't really get any harder than some basic geometry and ratio/decimal/percentage conversions. The analytical section was my favourite, and I got to do it first so it really calmed me down. You'll get two examples. The first will be a statement that you have to argue for or against. The second will be an argument that you have to evaluate. If you can argue on the internet, you can pretty much do this part easily. There are about a billion examples on the GRE website to practice with.
If you have a subject GRE to take as well, I cannot recommend a Kaplan study book strongly enough. Buy one of these books and know every single thing in it. They are created based on what questions have been on previous tests and are written in a way that is almost word-for-word the way the questions will be worded. It comes with two full practice tests and mini-tests after each chapter. You should take your test sometime early next fall and start studying as soon as you can. Really, just know this book inside out and it makes the test so much easier.
But honestly, I've found with grad school applications it's your references that help you the most. Make sure you have great references. Don't just leave it up to your professors. Give them a package that is basically a resume. Tell them everything you have done that you're going to tell the grad school. If you have any bad marks in anything then explain them. Tell your references EXACTLY what you want them to focus on in their letter. Your references will appreciate it and you'll get a better letter because of it.
Also, at least with Psychology, you're really applying to a professor. Find professors at that school you'd like to work with and email them saying how awesome you are and how you'd like to work with them. Ask them some intelligent questions about their work. This really goes a long way and you'll be able to have an idea of how your application is going before the official notice.
The verbal section of the GRE is a bitch. I scored 720 and that put me in the ~95th percentile. But I have no idea how much your score on the verbal section matters when applying to engineering grad schools. Us engineers are not exactly known for our communication skills. A great score would probably stand out but I'm certain they accept lots of mediocre verbal scores.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the GRE is an adaptive test, unlike the SATs. It is done on a computer and basically it adapts the difficulty as you go along. So if you get a hard question right, the next question will probably be harder. If you get it wrong, it will ease up. So if you are getting a seemingly endless string of impossible questions, it probably means you're doing well. It is basically seeing how far it can stretch you, without breaking. So it is not like X number of wrong answers always translates to Y score. It can translate to a significant range, if that makes sense. That knowledge helped ease some of my anxiety, so it might help you.
I did spend a month or two taking practice tests, too. There are a number of CDs you can buy. Princeton Review, etc.
However, the GRE is hardly everything. I did not have a good GPA or any work experience, which is why I focused so much on the GRE and my statement of purpose. I even shamelessly included my personal sob story (and subsequent triumph) in my SOP to try to explain away my poor GPA and lack of experience. I felt a little dirty, but it was worth it, I think.
Grad school admissions is basically about trying to match you to a particular program/professor, not any single metric.
If you applied to my program with those grades and had good real life work experience you would have an excellent shot. Get halfway decent boards and you will be set.
but again this was for my program in physiology, not a big name tech so i don't know the demands etc.
but i would think you had a good shot.
as far as the GREs go. honestly they are way easier than people think. Math only goes to trig. as far as the verbal part, get your vocabulary up and you will do fine. when i took them (granted it was before the writing section was put it) i just bought one of those aid books solely for the vocabulary. they help a lot.
so my advice is to keep your head up, get your references in order, especially if you are worried about your gres. they can easily make the difference if you are on the fence.
but IMO you have a good shot
Exactly what I was going to say. Especially if you're not great at standardized tests, your academic record might not help you much. Instead, consider getting a job, or even an internship, for a year. You'll get real experience, contacts, and people who specifically will be able to watch you work. If your work habits are strong, that can really make up for a poor GRE score.
I recently heard a financial show on NPR on which the interviewee suggested considering taking the money you'd pay for a year of grad school, live on that money, and take an unpaid internship for a year. It's not for everyone, obviously, but it's something I wish I had done in college.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
me? It's probably forum people.
My advice is not to "settle" (you lose nothing by going for it) but to evaluate your options more seriously than name alone. Stanford and Berkeley would not have been the right places for me, my current, serious, research in the video game space would have been laughed at. Here at UCSC, games and interactive media are treated as a first-class aspect of Computer Science and the professors and researchers here are equally first-class. The school isn't Stanford, but I am getting the best education I can in the area I want to be in. This is what you should be thinking about now. What do you want to research? Which classes got you fired up for grad school? If nothing fired you up, if nothing made you want to research it for perhaps the rest of your life, then you shouldn't be considering grad school.
Once you know what you want to research, start talking to professors in your school who taught you that area. Read papers from Google Scholar. You'll soon find where the hubs of activity are in the area. These are the other schools you should be applying to.
I have a distant uncle that got his PhD from Berkeley and is currently the dean of the engineering department for a fairly well-known institute in Asia.
That's something right? >.>
I used to play with his kids when I was like 7 or 8. And then, ugh, we exchanged emails one or twice since.
It doesn't seem like he could offer anything that could be considered a good letter if you've barely spoken to him...
Actually you're friends (or "friends", you know) with a girl who used to live across from me, my friend's crazy roommate and a random guy in eecs all of whom I know "IRL". Six Degrees and whatnot.
I wonder who they are. >.>
Out of state students have non-resident fees as well. Its the reason why my school is making me go through hoops to change my home-state status.
It depends on the grant funding; NIH training grants, for example, can't be used to pay for non-US grad students, so there's a fairly limited number of slots for foreigners in most biology programs
sad fact but oh so true
That said, the fact is that Stanford (and so I would guess Berkeley) say they're only going to look at your app if you got the Top 5 percentile for the GRE. That's a really high bar. My intention was not to be scary, but to err on realistic and recognize how many opportunities await.
Like I said, I am not saying to not apply to the very top schools, as there is nothing to lose. What I am saying is that it's important to spread your bets and investigate schools that would serve you very well, which aren't right at the top of the international university totem pole. There are lots of great schools that aren't right at the top, like UC Davis (I was there for a while), presumably where mts is right now. Really great school for CS, but you're not going to be fighting the rest of the world to get there.
As for getting the letter from the uncle, I would expect admissions people will be very good at spotting letters from people who know nothing about your character or academic achievement. I don't think it's going to be helpful.