andrew1007

I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what universities are a good fit to try and apply for an MS in ChemE- I can't seem to find any statistics to work off of for MS acceptances.. only PhD programs!

If anyone has a comprehensive set of statistics to work with for MS ChemE acceptances, that would be great, but individual recommendations would be cool too. If the latter is what you can help with, here is the basic rundown of my stats:
- no undergrad research
- overall GPA: 3.12
- major GPA: 3.28
- major GPA if only chemistry, physics, math: 3.62 (which will be explained in my essay)
- GRE: 153 verbal, 165 quant, 4.5 AW

My letters of rec are from professors where I have done well in their classes, but do not know on a personal level- they will be solid letters of rec, but not stellar.

Where do you think I could apply with a reasonable chance to get in just based on my undergrad experience?

spectastic

that's a problem. you would need to be very clear why you want to go to grad school

these sound like generic letters

In general, MS has a higher acceptance rate because the student typically provides the money, as oppose to the professor or department. GPA is also less of a factor in MS. Usually, it's a cut off at 3.5 or above is good enough. Anything higher than that is mostly good for getting fellowships/grants, which saves the school money. 3.1 cum 3.3 core sounds like a question for your adviser.

Keep in mind that there are schools that almost never take MS applicants. For instance, U of M only accepted 1 MS (3% acceptance rate) last year. Terminal masters is not very beneficial to the school. It's the PhD's who make the huge contributions and really get work done for the university.

andrew1007

What do you mean by that exactly? Do you think a thesis masters would be a bad fit for me based on this information?

I guess I'm understating them a little bit. One of them will be generic- doesn't know me, but I placed 4th in the class... no other recourse unfortunately, as I don't know anyone else better for the 3rd LOR. The other two I know reasonably well- one of them I wrote my senior thesis with and thought I did a good job.

Thanks for the heads up. I know that for a few schools, like UC Davis. I'll be sure to inquire further with my potential schools

spectastic

What I mean is that without research experience, you have no evidence that you can do good research. But now that I think about it, you're applying for a masters, which is different.