swavo

Hi,

I used to be a member here when I was looking at colleges. Never really posted but would always find useful information on this site. I'm not usually a fan of the "What are my chances?" threads but I've found it really hard to find information on what are reasonable stats for top tier Civil Engineering programs.

I'm going to be entering my junior year of college next year at a good engineering school. I'm currently in the honors program at that college. My GPA as of right now is just at a 3.7. I had a below average first semester this past year due to a bunch of things going on, however I brought it up with a 3.9 last semester. Either way, I'm not going to complain about where I'm at right now.

I haven't even thought about GRE's yet. I honestly have no idea if my score when I took the SAT's should match up with my GRE scores. If they do then I'd expect high 700's to 800 on the Quantitative and low to mid 600's on the Verbal.

In terms of work experience it's what I am lacking at the moment (at least in my field). In high school I worked an internship for a faculty member at MIT, although it was in Mechanical Engineering. I have still kept in touch with him. I have worked 40 hours/week over the past couple summers for a real estate company. I was going to work in my field this summer but my mother got sick so I had to stay home for the summer. However, I am going to do research for a faculty member over the school year next year and I'm pretty sure I'll be doing research next summer unless something happened. I was a varsity athlete until I had surgery recently so now I have the time to do research during the year.

I was also wondering 2 other things. I was planning on studying abroad second semester. However, I was thinking maybe I wouldn't be able to get as close to a faculty member as a result. Could studying abroad hurt in terms of grad school? And secondly, I know race seems to be a factor in undergrad, would that still even apply in grad school, since I am African-American.

Any information would help. I remember going on this site in high school and reading threads where someone would ask for their chances and get a perfect SAT score, high GPA, and 5 pages of extracurriculars and awards. I hope that this did not come across anywhere close to that. Finding information I have found to be very difficult.

Blah2009

It comes down to if you need funding. Assuming you get a decent GRE score (high 1300s to 1400) and good letters of recommendation, you are likely in at some of the top civil engineering schools in the country (Cornell,Stanford,Illinois, MIT,Berkeley..etc.) if you are have the means to pay for your masters. If you need money to attend these places, then its probably out of the question. Get started on the research ASAP as it will help also.

lkf725

Is there ever any money for top engineering students entering a Masters program? Or only for PhD students?

Blah2009

The general answer is no. If you want to get a master's paid for, you either apply for a phD and leave or have an employer pay for it.

swavo

i appreciate the feedback. Good to know I'm on the right track. I was wondering if maybe Blah or someone else had any information on my 2 questions about studying abroad and minorities in the previous post. Also I've heard MS and M Eng thrown around and was trying to figure out the difference, or if it's the same thing. My mother got her MS at Michigan so I figured she'd know but when I asked her she had no idea haha.

cpyclocks

Swavo,

Welcome! My first question to you is: what type of civil engineering are you looking to do? I'm just going assume structural for the purposes of this response.

I applied this past season to masters civil engineering and envir. engineering schools (I want to go into water treatment) and was able to get into 4/8 schools with MUCH lower statistics than you. I will be attending a top 10 university. The one thing I had going for me was my extensive research experience. If i can stress anything enough, that is it! If you can participate in an REU, you can up your chances of getting in tremendously:

nsf.gov - Funding - Research Experiences for Undergraduates - US National Science Foundation (NSF)

As far as racial factors, I don't think they are as significant for grad school, if at all. While it depends on the school, for the most part, the teachers want to know you can do they work, as they are less concerned with meeting a quota.

I think study abroad is a great thing to do because it really opens your eyes to the world and lets you get a different perspective. Maybe you can make some connections while you're there as well.

SO here is my overall advice list to all CE students hoping to get into grad school (things i wish someone had told me!):

1. YOU CAN get in with a lower GPA (I had a 3.1). That being said, I had decent GRE (590V/750M) and excellent research experience and recommendations. While GPA is very important to some schools (Stanford, UCBerkeley) it is less important to other schools who value the type of person you are and how well you'll fit in with their research group.

2. Most schools will let you decide if you want to do research and if you do, will TRY to find some type of funding, EVEN for masters. (again, this excludes schools like Stanford that have very high rates of students coming in and out). The school I am attending is working out the funding situation with me and trying to design me a project as i go through my masters.

3. If you apply to masters, you still can switch to PhD when you get to your school. In fact, in most of the college visits i went on, they ENCOURAGE switching to PhD. My rationalization: They know your smart since you were accepted to the school, and some projects have restrictions on who funding can be given to - it can be restricted to PhDs candidates only.

4. GO on college visits if you're invited. It makes a world of difference to meet the professors and see if you connect with them.

5. Don't neglect the high end schools,even if you think your GPA isn't good enough and you won't get in. I didn't expect to get into 4 out of 8 schools that I applied with my GPA and I am so happy I put the extra effort and money to apply to the reach schools. If you have an inkling to apply somewhere but you're worried - DO IT. Whats the worse that could happen? you get rejected, oh well. It's not too bad.

6. Graduate school is much less regulated and restricted as far as classes and research. You may not get funding when you initially apply, but the next semester, funding might open up and if you got a 4.0 your first semester in grad school, your adviser may be able to support you.

7. Last, but almost the most important is - MAKE CONNECTIONS. Call or email the professor you want to work for and try express how much you want to go there so that not only you know them better, but they know you're interested. If they see your name when they're reviewing admissions, it might make them take a second look. Think if you were in their position - you want someone whose PUMPED to go to your school.

I did this with my top schools and generally the professors were very gracious and liked that I was forward about wanting to attend their school. As long as you're not obnoxious, I think they appreciate a polite email.

Hopefully I've not missed anything, if you have any questions, feel free to message me or reply to the thread.

Sincerely,
cpyclocks