During my undergrad in MechE, my only research experience was the ug thesis which is more in the side of materials science & engineering. Now when searching faculty members with similar research theme for admission to PhD, I find that MSE departments have many more professors than ME departments in similar topic. Generally, my interests and background are better fit for the MSE depts in most universities.

So will applying to MSE programs be a bad idea? I do not have the prerequisite courses for MSE, so wondering if it will be a deal-breaker in most schools? A senior told me that it will be and many of her friends actually f-ed up doing so, but two of the professors have told me that it won't be an issue. I really need some advice, the deadlines are imminent.

Also any idea on whether this switch will improve/hurt my career prospects after PhD? Although I don't think ug major will matter after PhD. Thanks.

I got an unconditional offer letter from University of Leeds to pursue masters in International Communication. As a international student I have to pay 27250 Euro. Although, I already applied to Chevening and awaiting the response. I am keen to know what other scholarships I can apply to? Are there any other funding opportunities I can look for?

I received an admit from ASU Tempe for the MSCS program (FALL 24). I applied on October 25 through Kaplan. I don't see any scholarships mentioned in the Myasu portal. How do I apply for scholarships as an international student?

Hey Everyone, I know this may sound dumb to some but I need some help/guidance What kind of jobs in the medical field can you get with a PhD in English? I was told their multiple but each person I asked they can't seem to point me in the right direction. when I looked it up all I saw was a medical writer.

Thank you in advance Future PhD grad

Hi, I am an international student, so sending English proficiency scores is required by all universities. As I am applying to more than 5 schools, I have to request British Council via email to electronically send my scores to insitutions. But they are not responding to my emails. How much does this hurt me chance of being admitted ? I have a good score, and I am self reporting on all insitution's applications. Should I not bother applying where my IELTS score has not reached ? Or do institutions review applications with self reported scores as well? (With IELTS reporting them after the deadline)

I am a mechanical engineer with a GRE score of 315 (Q:165, V:150), undergraduate score aggregate of 93.5% (3.95 GPA), have a decent TA and RA experience, no publication yet though, Which universities from the below pool are within reach and which would be hard to get into.

In addition which of these:

1- are more flexible in terms of courses, concentrations, changing of majors, ....etc

2- provide better RA and funding opportunities on the master's level

3- have decent ME concentration on Autonomous vehicles and computational sciences

4- provide better opportunities to be in the consulting industry after graduation

The pool

[UMichigan, Georgia Tech, UIUC, Purdue, CMU], (hard)

[Maryland, The OSU], (attainable)

[ASU, North Carolina SU, the George Washignton Uni, Colorado Boulder] (safe)

I will choose four universities from this pool that range from hard to safe to get into

Now my pool is: [Purdue - Maryland - OSU - ASU]

Hey all,

I’m an MSc student applying for PhD programmes. I started emailing a few potential supervisors months ago, I received this reply from one and have submitted an application for their project. I have yet to hear back about my application, but was just wondering whether I should get my hopes up based on the response I received?

Dear X,

Thank you very much for your interest in the PhD position in my lab. Please do apply.   long project description   So in summary, the sorts of techniques will be: advanced cell culture, genome editing, cell labelling, a lot of different cell biology techniques, western blots, qPCR, sc-RNA-seq and basic bioinformatics. We collaborate with our bioinformatics team to analyse sc-RNA-seq, but it is always good if the student learns a certain amount to be able to collaborate more effectively.   Don’t worry at all about whether you know the techniques in advance – the point of the PhD is the training. I’m basically looking for someone who has an aptitude for experimental biology and is interested and motivated to do the project and to learn.   I look forward to seeing your application.   Best wishes

Hi there, I'm a 20-year-old mechanical engineering student in my third year, studying in a MENA country. After I finish my bachelor's degree, I want to do a master's in Systems and Controls Engineering, focusing on robot control and reinforcement learning. I'm thinking about applying for Ph.D. programs in robotics at places like Gatech, CMU, Northwestern, UMich, UIUC, and Purdue. These places are really competitive, and I'm not sure if I have a good chance of getting in as an international student. Should I forget about doing a Ph.D. and work in my home country after my master's instead?

Hey Reddit!

Looking into grad programs at Northwestern and Boston University. Wondering if anyone knows about co-op opportunities for graduate students at these universities? Any insights or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hi I was applying for MSCS Fall 24 I don't have a clear picture on what is more imp and what needs to be showcased more Course I'm applying to MSCS Non-thesis, Professional MSCS, Meng in CS.

1. GPA 9.3/10
2. Workex Swe Juniper Networks 1.5 yrs, SDE Intern SAP Labs, Economize
3. Research Intern 6 months NTU, Singapore and summer training at IIT Delhi ( both AI, ml based)
4. 1 Patent Published
5. Gold Medalist at Uni
6. 6 hackathon victories
7. C++/DSA student mentor, gen sec ACM, hackathon organizer with 1000+ participants
8. Have like 5 good projects

Could someone suggest what would be the priority order for a University? And where would GRE sit on this list of items for a university?

Hi everyone, I wanted to ask this, when top universities have mentioned that GRE is optional, is it actually? Do people get into MSCS, Professional MSCS or Meng in Computer Science without GRE into these schools? Or it is optional but people who do get in will always have great GRE scores? Uni examples, UCLA , UCSD, UWisconsin Madison, UT Austin etc

Got a conditional offer roughly 48 hours after I applied to the Msc Computer Science program at Queen Mary University London , is this normal?

Also is this a good place to study computer science? The early admit is making me doubt if they're serious about the program. (I might be overthinking here but I'd like to hear what others have to say about this)

Anyone applied to FSU? Their PhD Business Administration with concentration on OBHR say unofficial transcript, unofficial GRE for application which i have uploaded awaiting my recommenders to submit their letters.

I got a mail this morning from FSU that major changes made to my application portal only for me to check and they marked X and wrote awaiting official transcript. It was written on their website, official transcript will only be requested if admitted to the program.

Am so confused now as to what to do.

So I gave my GRE and got an unofficial score of 314 (V:153, Q:161) - I was expecting Quants > 165, since i was getting more than 165 in all the mocks.

Although the programs that I’m applying have the requirement for GRE as optional, I wanted to send the scores to compensate for my bad cgpa (7.8/10) - BTech in ECE (tier-2 university)

I have over 4+ years of experience in 2 of the top fortune 50 companies as a software Engineer.

I’m applying to programs that closely align with my experience. And few of the universities have the priority deadline of 15th December.

I’m confused on what to do now. I’ve got 3 options :

1. Given my strong work experience, should I go ahead with my applications within the priority deadline for better chances, WITH this current not so good GRE score?

2. Submit it within priority deadline but WITHOUT the current gre (as it might weigh down the profile due to bad quant score)

3. To consider submitting the application for the LATE deadline after retaking the GRE. (I’m confident that i would be able to improve the quant score, but not sure if it would be a great difference)

The whole point of submitting GRE is to make up for my bad CGPA in undergrad. But would the cgpa be given a weightage, considering I have a strong 4+ years of experience in a different field?

TLDR : bad cgpa, but 4+ years of experience in a different field.

priority deadline or late deadline with better gre score?

If priority deadline, With current not so good gre score or without?

Hey all, I am applying for MS CS Fall 2024 and I am yet to send my GRE reports for several universities with deadlines from 13-15 Dec (ik I fucked up by delaying :') )

I've been trying to send since the last 2-3 days but the ETS website for GRE seems to be down as it crashes post the login page. I tried from different devices and networks but to no avail.

The following is the list of unis that I am applying to in December - CMU, UMass Amherst, NCSU, USC (Thankfully I sent the free score reports to UCLA and UCSD)

I'm not sure when the site will be up and running, but it says that it'll take 5 days for the scores to reach. Am I in trouble if the scores do not reach by the deadlines? CMU has specifically mentioned that they require the scores by the deadline (13th), not sure about the rest.

Also if anyone else is facing the same issue with the website please let me know.

Extremely stressed about this, any advice would be highly appreciated, thank you!

Like the Title suggests, How long do you think a "Statement of Purpose" should be for a Graduate Admit into Data Science at NJIT ? Mine is currently 1100 words and 2 pages long.

I (41m) am wanting to go back to school to finish my bachelors. Was very close 10 years ago to a BA in political science when I imploded due to loss of interest, detesting the political system, and the bias of my professors as well as dealing with my own depression with severe and untreated ADHD. Now I work as a CNA and want to advance.

Anyway, my cumulative gpa from 4 different schools is just below 2.0 despite having a lot of credits. I’m now deciding if I should pay a lot of extra money to go back to the university I failed out of and study online (I live across country now), or take local community college classes to boost my GPA and get accepted to ultimately finish at the much cheaper local university. I’d like to do either general liberal arts, psychology, or social work…in order of how much extra coursework I’d need.

Should I go back to the school I failed out of, even if I don’t re-take the classes I failed?

Would that give me any statistical advantage in increasing my GPA enough to be considered for something like an MSW or clinical psychology masters program?

Or am I just screwed and will never get into any graduate school and should not bother finishing my bachelors at all and keep wiping ass forever?

Just received an email today saying that I got rejected for their PhD program after the interview.

I am so mad and confused because I prepared a great presentation during the interview and it went insanely smooth. It was on time and I answered any questions they had. I am not sure why

This is just frustrating

Hi Reddit,

I’m usually not one to post on here but I’m interested in hearing some perspectives…

I’m currently deciding if I should pursue a DIY Post-Bacc at a University for a semester while I apply this cycle, apply to the Caribbean (I was offered MERP at Ross), or pursue an MS in Biotechnology to bolster my Stats at a not so prestigious institution.

Honestly, I am not sure if an MS in Biotechnology in a remote setting will provide me with enough edge on an application or if I’m just putting myself into debt for no reason. The program has some scholarships but not enough to fund even half of it.

Doing a DIY Post-Bacc is also fairly expensive but could be useful. I was admitted into a non-degree seeking program at a University to do in-person undergraduate courses. Honestly, taking a course more than once seems strange and I’m not sure if it would provide me any benefit.

I’m a reapplicant after getting no bites in the MD nor PhD fields last year. It was challenging to get through but I let myself graduate college and take a needed hiatus and am looking at what I should pursue in the spring.

My stats are low for my prereqs but my ECs and Research experiences even contain a Nature Publication. So, GPA and MCAT scores are my weakness.

Any advice?

Hey all,

Hope you all are doing good. I am planning to apply for CS Phd program at Khoury College of Computer Sciences at NEU where I majorly want to focus on 3d vision. I graduated this year (June 2023) with a 3.69 in BSCS. I am kind of insecure about it ngl. I have one publication and it was in an image processing conference (SPIE) in Amsterdam. It is majorly about analyzing and processing remote sensing data. Other than that I have 2.5 years of research experience during my degree as I worked in 2 different labs for almost 2.5 years. I also have almost 1.5 years of industry experience as I was working at a start up as an ML engineer and I am currently working remote in 3d vision as AI engineer at startup in Hongkong. I have won 3 hackathons (2 international and 1 national) and I also won the 2nd prize for my final year project.

Now i have seen people who are studying at NEU have stellar GPAs like 3.9s and 3.8s. The only reason mine fell cause I had to support my degree and that's why I was basically working part-time at the start up as an ML engineer. Publishing was my dream and I did in the end but its not in some shiny conference like CVPR or Neurips but ya I mean I am thankful that I do have one. It wasn't easy. So idk if I stand a chance here at NEU and so here I am asking you guys to help me through this process. I am obviously planning to apply next year, cause I have to like save up for apps and IELTS.

So i just finished applying to ncsu for ms in cs fall 2024. All my lor’s have been submitted by my recommenders.

I reported my ielts score today and they are saying it takes 7-10 days to report the scores.

My question is, i have already reported the scores while filling the application so will my application be considered if the ielts scores are reported after the deadline, i.e, 15 December.

Please help really stressing out here 🥲

Hey guys, I am applying for MS CS/SE for fall 2024. I will share my profile along with the Universities I have shortlisted. Kindly help me determine my admit chances into these Universities. I am unable determine if I have a shot at these universities. Suggestions on some other universities I can apply to based on my profile would also be really helpful.

CGPA : 8.01 (B.E ECE - from a Tier 1 university in India)
TOEFL : 110
GRE : 313 (155Q, 158V) - Not planning on submitting my scores (Aiming for universities that have GRE as optional/ not required)
Work Experience: 1.5 years (1 year 4 months (including 4 months of internship)) at an AI/ML firm as a Full Stack Software Developer.
LORs - 3 strong LORs (2 from university and 1 from work)
SOP - I feel like it's a pretty good SOP.
Publication - 1 publication at an IEEE Conference.

Universities:
1.)UMass
2.)Virgnia Tech
3.)CU Boulder
4.)NYU Tandon
5.)Stony Brook
6.)University of Arizona
7.)University of Pittsburgh
8.)University at Buffalo SUNY
9.)Indiana University Bloomington
10.)University of Rochester
11.)Rochester Institute of Technology
12.)University of Illinois Chicago

Also considering:
13.)UC - Riverside [Apprehensive due to the high GPA requirements of UCs]
14.)Michigan State University
15.)SJSU

​

Anyone who has gone through this process, please help out. I am having a hard time evaluating my profile and would really appreciate your feedback.

​

I just wanted to share my recent experience and see if anyone else can relate. I spent what felt like an eternity working on my application's SOP to one of the schools i am really excited to join. i legit kept this application for last so i can give it all my focus and time. With a mix of both focus and procrastination, finally, I threw caution to the wind yesterday, made a few last-minute revisions, and hit that submit button.

Initially, I felt this overwhelming sense of relief - the kind that washes over you when a weight has been lifted. However, as I look back now (next day), I can't shake the feeling that I could have done so much better. It's like the SOP went from a masterpiece in my mind to a generic dogpile on the screen.

This is my first round of applications and omg this feeling sucks. any similar experiences or how to cope with this and avoid in future?

I'm applying for MS CS (non thesis) programs in USA and one third of the universities I'm applying on applying to have a requirement of a scholarly paper in order to complete your credits.

As to what I've understood , scholarly paper is very similar to a research paper.

Background: International student (Canada). I applied to the MCB Program for a PhD in Immunology

Context: I was asked to set up a time to meet with the adcom (2 ppl were CC’ed to the email) to discuss my research experience and interest in the program. They emphasized that I don’t need to prepare and that it would only be 15 mins

I was so stoked to see this email bcs UCB was one of my top choices! Does anyone have any advice on how to approach this or what they typically ask during these chats? I’m also not sure why they would want to just meet for 15 mins, is this common procedure?

Thank you!!

UIUC's priority deadline for MSECE is Dec 15th but the final deadline is a month later on Jan 15th. I understand that it's better to apply by the priority deadlines for funding considerations. However, does applying a few days past this deadline but weeks before the final deadline still eliminate my chances of being considered for funding? Thanks!

Hey Everyone! Long-time lurker, first-time poster here! I've just finished applying to PhD programs (over 10, so Lord help my wallet) in Political Science (Political Theory), and was curious as to what my profile appears like to others in a similar boat to myself. I would really appreciate any insights you all might provide!

Profile:

• BA from a top-tier British University (dual major) in International Relations and Philosophy (specialization in theory), 3.8 Final GPA (British "1st Class" Degree, converted to US Scale).
• Undergraduate Honours Dissertation of 12.5K works, Received a "1st Class Distinction".
• Master's in Progress from an Elite University in Japan, current GPA 3.8 equivalent.
• Master's thesis in-progress (on same rough theoretical field as my undergraduate dissertation, but at a higher level of complexity and 3x as long).
• I TA for two different professors rn during Grad School, one of whom is writing one of LoRs.
• No published papers, but several (over 10) articles submitted for student publications.
• Summer research project and presentation given during Undergrad studies.
• LoRs from Undergard Dissertation Supervisor, Graduate Thesis Supervisor, and one of the Profs I TA for.
• Writing Sample is Undergrad Thesis.
• SoP fairly strong (very detailed research interests, faculty listed with exact same research interest overlap)
• GRE 163V, 156Q, 6.0W

Hello guys! I'm applying to engineering management degree for fall '24. I was thinking of creating a WhatsApp group for any discussions, queries regarding essays, video interviews etc. if anyone is interested, dm me and we could start the small community.

Everyone I see here is applying to the US. And a few to Europe and the UK.

Is anyone applying for PhD in Singapore?

I wonder where these people are, and why not apply, because NTU and NUS are so highly ranked.