Chances for Engineering at Caltech, UCB, UCLA, UCSB

polarscribe
Sat, 19 Feb 2011 21:29:15 +0000

If there is any validity at all to so-called “chances” for undergraduate admissions (a proposition I strongly doubt), there is absolutely none whatsover for graduate admissions.

Graduate schools are at once much more selective (admit rates on the order of 5-10 percent are not uncommon) and much less quantitative. Grades and test scores might get your app past the first cull, but after that, your research interests, recommendation letters, professional experiences and “fit” with particular professors is far more important.

You could have a 4.0 and a perfect GRE score and get rejected if no professors are interested in your research proposal. Conversely, if a professor likes what he/she sees, they can get you through the committee even with a blemished academic record.

I have a barely-3.0 GPA from an unprestigious small-state flagship public and a 34th percentile math GRE score. I bet if I put my school list and stats up for “chances,” I’d get laughed at. “OMG REJECTED NO CHANCE GO 2 DEVRY LAWL.” Yet I have five admits and zero rejections, including three from Top 35 public research universities.

How? I put together a quality research proposal, contacted professors and convinced them I would be an asset to their program. They, in turn, pulled my apps out of the pile and said “We want this guy.”

So stop asking random people for “chances” and start cold-calling/e-mailing professors whose research direction you’re interested in. :)