Master's Degree Admissions (Electrical Engineering)

Anikulapo
Wed, 13 Jun 2012 21:24:11 +0000

@Burgsoccer09

Admission committees look at the whole picture. In no particular order:

1) GPA
2) GRE
3) Research/Work/Internship experience
4) Your personal statement/WHY do you want to go to graduate school?
5) Your letters of recommendation

I actually had a 3.2 overall/3.4 on the major GPA from UCF as well as a 750 in my Quant GRE and got into the MS for Electrical Engineering program at UF without a hitch. I actually managed to get a 12k scholarship for newly admitted graduate students.

I love UCF with all my heart, the city and school is filled with so many good memories of my life. However, the Graduate program at UCF excels at semiconductor device modeling, telecommunications and solar energy. I am not really interested in any of those 3 subjects (at least not for anything else than a course or two). The 2 faculty members that teach analog design courses are semi-retired and not interested in taking on new MS/PhD students so i had to make a really tough personal choice and apply to UF. It offers classes exactly in the topics I want to learn (Bipolar IC Design, VLSI, Linear system noise, Digital filter design, etc) plus I would only be 2 hours away from home.

What I am trying to say is don’t kill yourself over your GPA. All of the other factors matter more than that number. I am deeply passionate about analog electronics/ filter design and it shows in the way I talk about it, in my work experience and in my hobbies. My advice to you is to find that little niche in EE that you see yourself working on for the rest of your life and to apply to a program that excels at it. Forget about school rankings. In graduate school what matters is the program and the faculty of your specific area. Spend a LOT of time in your personal goal statement and answering the question of WHY do you want to go to graduate school. Mention specific faculty that you want to work with. Use the exact name of the research projects that they are working on when you apply and I am sure that your application will shine.