General Questions about Grad School Sciences

[rmunoz]

I am a junior at Gonzaga University, I have a 3.25 gpa as a Mechanical Engineer. I switched majors from business to mechanical engineering 2nd semester freshman year without having taken any calculus courses in HS or really any idea what I was getting into. I am still on track to graduate in 4 years. I feel like those facts alone are impressive and relatively attractive to a decent grad program... (and just to be clear, gpa here is distributed as 1.0=d 2.0=c 3.0=b 4.0=a). I took on a difficult course of study whole-heartedly, and though I may not have excelled in the traditional sense academically (don't have a perfect GPA), I have become a much more critical thinker, and really fallen in love with the theoretical aspects of thermal sciences.

My questions are for anybody with or pursuing a grad degree (masters or phd) for any science:
1) What kind of a chance do i have of getting into a decent grad program?
2) What can I do to improve my chances?
3) If you were me, what would you do?

 

[eri]

Most science grad schools require a major or something very close to it in that particular science. A major in engineering doesn't really prepare you for any graduate science degree. You need to pick one and start taking at least the basic courses.

 

[rmunoz]

I guess I wasn't specific enough... I'm looking to do research in thermal sciences. From what I understand, mechanical engineering is about as close as you can get to that study at the undergraduate level. So let me rephrase my question... assuming that I have the prerequisite courses necessary to pursue such a degree, how would I line up with other applicants for similar grad programs?

Is it a long shot?

One of my big advantages is that my highest grades are my major classes so if they ask for that GPA it would be very close, if not equal to a 4.0

 

[rmunoz]

Also if it helps at all, I have had a couple internships?

 

[twofish-quant]

My questions are for anybody with or pursuing a grad degree (masters or phd) for any science:
1) What kind of a chance do i have of getting into a decent grad program?

Your chances of getting into a decent grad program in science and engineering are pretty good. The big strength of the US research university system is that there are a huge number and variety of schools, and your chances of getting in *somewhere* studying *something* are pretty good.

2) What can I do to improve my chances?

Do more thinking about

1) what you want to do
2) what programs are out there
3) don't focus so much on the "top" programs

Most people when they think about graduate school do shockingly little research about the programs that they are applying to. 3) is important because if your strategy is "Harvard or nothing" then you'll end likely up with nothing. If you have about eight or nine schools that you are interested in applying to, then this increases the odds that someone will take you.

Something to remember is that it doesn't matter how many people say no, as long as one person says yes.

3) If you were me, what would you do?

Start reading papers describing the research you are interested in. Familarize yourself with the people and journals that are involved in what you want to do.

 

[rmunoz]

thanks for the input. What I would really like to do is study computational fluid dynamics... but honestly i don't know enough about the field to say that with confidence.