My main question is whether schools will consider it disadvantageous that my undergraduate degree is a B.A. in Philosophy (seems natural to go for the Doctor of Philosophy, right?) for Materials Science Engineering programs.
Earned a B.A. in Philosophy in 2012 from USC (southern california). Prior to switching to philosophy, I took 4 semesters of Mechanical Engineering courses with decent grades (highest math was differential equations for engineering). Graduated in 4 years.
Undergraduate GPA: 3.56
Since then, I worked as a website and graphic designer for a while, and then started taking pre-med classes in a post-bac program thinking I wanted to go to med school. Concurrently I started volunteering in a lab at a top US medical school and then got hired there after 6 months as a full time researcher. I realized from the lab experience (and from working closely with a bunch of doctors) that I want to go to graduate school rather than medical school. I’ve been working there for 8 months now, have a 4th author paper published on a subject that falls under MSE (tissue permeability), and have at least 1 more paper on the way. I haven’t taken the GRE yet, but am good at that sort of test. I have been taking the full pre-med ensemble of chemistry courses (currently on organic chemistry I) and expect to take through organic chemistry II (maybe also biochemistry) before applying. I am interested in combining my mechanical engineering skills (primarily 3D printing and 3D design) with chemistry (specifically polymers) and experience with molecular biological and genetic analyses (RT-qPCR, immunoassays, etc) in order to develop new medical devices or investigate mechanical/chemical interactions of organic or synthetic polymers in the body. Both of these aims sound like MSE to me: do you agree? What do you think my chances are, given my research experience, despite lack of an undergraduate degree in chemistry or engineering? Most likely applying for Spring 2017 or Fall 2017 and taking the April or September GRE.
“My main question is whether schools will consider it disadvantageous that my undergraduate degree is a B.A. in Philosophy (seems natural to go for the Doctor of Philosophy, right?) for Materials Science Engineering programs.”
short answer- Yes.
And Masters programs usually start in the Fall .
I suggest you contact USC and talk to someone in their graduate MSE program.
You’ll get a better handle on what it is they want to see before applying anywhere.
I suspect you’ll need some more engineering classes to have a strong application
“I’m interested in PhD programs, and some of which I’m looking at do have spring application deadlines.”
PhD programs begin in the Fall, and always have Spring application deadlines.
And as to why? PhD students are expected to have an certain level of knowledge in the area of study they wish to specialize in, and that is usually accomplished by getting an UG degree in that area. All Grad students are expected to be able to understand and pass the graduate level classes that are required to be taken to pass your quals, which generally have UG prerequisites. The professors who review graduate school applications, and decide who to accept, dont want students who need to “catch up” in order to succeed in grad school.
The 3 most important parts of a graduate school application are the LOR’s, your GRE scores and your UG GPA/ transcript in the classes that were required / expected to have been taken in order to earn an UG degree in the field you wish to now specialize in. The fact that you did not get an engineering degree at all will not strengthen your application.
Being published, but not as a first author, will be a small positive.
The fact that I already have an undergraduate degree makes it difficult to take the upper division classes that you mention could be prerequisites. Have you heard of any continuing education programs that actually offer upper division undergraduate courses?
As you are a USC grad, I really do suggest you contact their Engineering graduate school admissions office, explain your interest in becoming a grad student there [ they are actively trying to “climb the ranks” by increasing the size and quality of their grad programs], and ask for advise.
They may offer you some lee-way.
It cant hurt to ask…
You will probably have to get LOR’s from one of your Engineering profs.
what was your GPA in your Engineering/ science classes?
Engineering is a field in which it is usually especially important to have an undergrad major or the equivalent before pursuing graduate study.
You can take some classes as a non-degree student to try to get the prerequisites.
Some schools out there do have formal or informal programs for post-baccalaureate students looking to take engineering classes to prepare for graduate school. Portland State is one example. Tufts is another. You may want to do an Internet search to see if you can narrow it down to schools that offer that for materials science.
Thanks for the advice, both of you. I have a meeting with my current post-bac advisor next week to see if she has any leads on where to take the classes.
My GPA was okay: I think 3.3-3.4 before I started taking philosophy classes. I had a mix of A- and Bs, mostly. I remember I got an A in thermodynamics I, and that was my only A in engineering UG. So far have gotten all As in the post-bac, bringing my UG GPA up to around 3.6.
All this talk about engineering courses is actually helping me narrow down the idea a bit. I suppose a chemistry PhD would also be applicable for what I want to do, and would likely have me working on the same projects from a different perspective. Honestly, when I think of MSE I think of “MS” and the “E” seems more like it’s just tagging along on the end. I think I want my emphasis to be more on the materials chemistry than on the engineering. I enjoy engineering and prototyping my ideas primarily as a research tool, and I think my relegating it to “tool status” means I don’t really want to be an engineer deep down. I think I’m going to keep taking more and more advanced chemistry courses and see where that takes me.
^You could probably go to a lot of different kinds of programs and do what you want to do. Chemistry definitely as one; biomedical sciences, probably; maybe immunology or some other program. Maybe even biological sciences. The prerequisites for those are probably fewer than for an engineering program.
You could also still go to medical school and become a physician scientist - although it’s certainly a whole lot cheaper to go to a PhD program if you know you only want research.