GRE and other questions

onemoreyear
Tue, 28 Dec 2010 15:17:22 +0000

My son will be a 5th year senior next year (2011-12) with a major in civil engineering at KU. He has decided that he wants to go on to graduate school, and it seems that every week he wants to go somewhere else. So I am taking it upon myself to do some research for him. First, when should he take the GRE? Is it similar to taking the ACT–that is, can he take it multiple times if he is not satisfied with his first score and do schools just take the highest score? I am hoping that he will score at least as well as his ACT which was a 31.

At the moment, he has his heart set on Berkeley (I think because of the location more than the program). He is well aware that this would not be an easy school in which to be admitted. At the moment he has a GPA of 3.88 and has had some fair research opportunities. He has interned for the USGA for the past year compiling research data, had a short stint in Germany last summer and will intern at a water treatment plant this next summer in Germany. He is fluent in the language.

My question is, are there other things that he should be doing to make him more attractive to graduate schools? And should he be accepted, how hard is it to get financial aid (other than loans) at the graduate level? I have heard conflicting stories–that it is easy to get–that it is not…

Thanks in advance for any feedback.