Stanford PhD taking questions

[international student]

Cheers Stanfordian,

 

 

thanks a lot for your efforts here. :) This is by far the most helpful thread I have come across. Although I am not planning on doing anthing Econ/Engeneering related I was wondering whether you or anybody else here could help me with the following: I got admitted to several MA programs in International Relations, both in the US and UK and would like to go on for a Ph.D. afterwards (Political Science/International Relations). Could anybody by chance tell me whether LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science)

has a good reputation in Stanford and the rest of the US? I was admitted and lean pretty much towards enrolling! Other alternative would be Johns Hopkins or George Washington. Would be absolutely glad for any input or maybe reference to another discussion group. Thanks !

[stanfordian]

hi chickadee.

 

It's very easy to enroll in a masters degree at most departments if you're already a grad student at some other department (especially if you're a PhD student). You just need to get some signatures.

 

Enrolling in the PhD degree of another department may be much harder, and depends a lot on the department. Some departments will take you if you can pass their quals (I know this to be the case with Computational & Mathematics Engineer). Other departments will require a whole new application package (CS, Management Science & Engineering). So it really depends.

 

I have heard of cases where students with full fellowship (such as the prestigeous "Stanford Graduate Fellowship") to easily move to a different department.

[stanfordian]

TokaBoy: I'm really sorry to hear about the reject. I hope you don't let it bother you too much.

 

PhD admissions are known to be very volatile. Sometimes some very good students are not admitted. At Stanford, because they usually get more qualified applicants than they can support, so their split hairs in the end, picking based on very minor issues. Not being admitted oftentimes is a matter of luck, and may not mean that you're not qualified.

 

I hope you get better news from your other applications. Good luck!

[stanfordian]

WaitingMonster: There are many companies founded by Stanford affiliates. I can think of HP, Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Nike, Charles Schwab, Cisco, Sun Micro, Adobe, Electronic Arts, Symantec, nVidia, Sillicon Graphics, Netscape, Agilent etc. Some time ago they estimated about 40% of the revenues from the largest 150 companies in the Sillicon Valley are earned by companies founded by Stanford affiliates. Last year, the Forbest list of 10 richest men under age 40 had 7 from Stanford; most if not all of them are technology people.

 

Stanford is very industry-centric. There is a culture to startups, and many do success. (Everyone here knows a few people who have started a company.)

[stanfordian]

hi international student.

 

LSE is *very* highly regarded, at least by the academics, in the US. They are considered the best European institution in policy and economics. I think it will be a very good choice.

 

Johns Hopkins is up there with Harvard when it comes to medical sciences. They are top 3 in the whole nation in terms of total research grants. But I don't know much about their program in policy.

[ali555]

Hi,

 

I know JHU is pretty highly ranked in medicine. But what about its biological sciences programs (molecular biology etc) compared to Harvard and MIT?

[phpguru]

Hey Stanfordian,

I am currently ending sophomore year at UCSB with a GPA of 3.7 (2 grades basically brought it down; B in Art History and B- in Fourier Series/PDE). I was wondering if you could give my any advice of what to do over the next two years to be admitted into the Stanford/MIT/Berkeley Electrical Engineering PhD program.

 

Thanks,

phpguru

[WaitingMonster]

WaitingMonster: There are many companies founded by Stanford affiliates. I can think of HP, Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Nike, Charles Schwab, Cisco, Sun Micro, Adobe, Electronic Arts, Symantec, nVidia, Sillicon Graphics, Netscape, Agilent etc. Some time ago they estimated about 40% of the revenues from the largest 150 companies in the Sillicon Valley are earned by companies founded by Stanford affiliates. Last year, the Forbest list of 10 richest men under age 40 had 7 from Stanford; most if not all of them are technology people.

 

Stanford is very industry-centric. There is a culture to startups, and many do success. (Everyone here knows a few people who have started a company.)

 

Hi Stanfordian,

 

Stanford rocks! :tup: Indeed, one of the many reasons (e.g. prestigious, beautiful campus, weather...etc) that I like Stanford is that I think people there are more practical in the sense that they know how to do business, they know how to put technology into practice. Stanford rocks! [clap]

[stanfordian]

hi WaitingMoster. All I can say is that stanford's culture has very strong entreprenseurship ethos. Risk-taking is championed. You even find professors founding their own companies. It's more about the glory than the money. I find it cool, but others might not. In fact, I imagine some people may even really despise this culture as being academically disrespectable.

[stanfordian]

hi pgpguru.

 

Grad admissions depend on many factors. But in general

 

1. GPA of 3.7 is not bad at all for MS applications.

2. Overall GPA is not as important as dicipline specific GPA. A lot of grad schools like to see strong math grades in particular.

3. GPA trend is important. If you show improvement in the next two years, that'll be very favorable.

4. Don't get too obsessive with test scores. Having strong LOR (from respectable professors) and grades (in rigorous courses) is the priority. Even more beneficial is if you can pick up some form of research experience. Relevant internships are sometimes also helpful.

 

Hope this helps!

[phpguru]

Stanfordian,

 

Thanks so much for your quick reply. Hopefully I can raise that GPA into the 3.8 range to have a shot at a PhD program. I will begin doing research this next quarter which should also help out in admissions.

 

I appreciate the time you've dedicated to this thread. :)

 

phpguru

[stanfordian]

no problem. you're still at a very early stage of your academic career, so lots of chances to put together a stellar app. good luck!

[kr5002]

I received the MS admit for MS&E today--but no aid, as expected. It would be greatly appreciated if anyone can answer the following questions:

 

1) What are the job prospects after?

 

2) What percentage of MS students are accepted into the PhD program?

 

3) How many (full-time) students finish in 9 months?

 

4) Which is better, Cornell ORIE or Stanford MS&E?

 

5) How do most people fund the MS degree?

 

Any other information that might help me decide would be great.

 

 

Thanks for your help.

[simsim]

great, love stanford mba program, still waiting for the verdict. dont think i did well on the interview.

[kr5002]

BTW, read the earlier posts on Financial Math/Eng.

 

To clarify, I am more interested in OR--stochastics, optimization, modeling, etc. Either related to industrial engineering, but a possibility of network optimization (which I suppose is more telecom).

 

My UG is EE--a little experience with telecom LPs.

 

Stanford seems to offer the most interdisciplinary program in this respect. Any thoughts or help is appreciated.

[stanfordian]

hi kr5002.

 

1. The MS&E department (which used to be three separate departments: Industrial Engineering, Operations Resarch, and Engineering-Economic Systems) covers a very wide range of disciplines. They have groups that do stochastics, simulation, optimization etc. There are many course offerings both at the MS level (easy to ok) and the PhD level (can be very hard). There are also related course offerings at Statistics or the business school. So in terms of courses, you will no doubt find almost anything of your interest.

 

2. In terms of the academic strength of Cornell's ORIE vs Stanford's MS&E, I'd frankly say Stanford is stronger. Stanford's lead is not as big as it used to be, but it's still among the very best.

 

3. I don't think you should be too concerned with the academic strength though, since what you're interested in is the MS. I'd say job prospects are more important.

 

4. MS&E students place relatively well. Initial salaries usually not quite as high as EE/CS, but not too far away. (Some people who come with industry experience do get paid a lot.) I also find that in the long term MS&E grads do very well, as they don't get stuck doing purely technical work and many advance to managerial positions.

 

5. Many high tech firms hire MS&E or Statistics type people to do modeling. However, MS&E MS students tend to compete with MS&E undergrads a lot more than they compete with PhDs.

 

6. I don't know what the job market is like for Cornell ORIE people.

 

7. The majority of people are able to finish the MS&E masters degree in 3 quarters, although I don't know the actual percentage. In the worst case you can do it in 4. Some MS&E MS level courses are very, very easy (but useful). Like accounting, intro finance, etc.

 

8. MS students usually don't get funding. (My guess is most people either take a loan or are supported by family.) I don't think it's as easy for most of them to find research assistantship, but since you did EE you may have a greater chance for success.

 

Hope this helps.

[kr5002]

Stanfordian,

 

Thanks for quick reply.

 

While I feel very confident about the academic strength of the department, I still have concerns about paying $50k for an MS.

 

Ideally, I would like to teach and research--e.g. I'm interested in a PhD from Stanford as well. I haven't found any information on the acceptance rates of MS students to the MS&E PhD program.

 

The MS&E website has been revamped inbetween the time I applied and now. It indicates that PhD Fellowships are only awarded to students directly entering the PhD program. When I applied, it did not indicate this, and in fact said that students should have a MS before applying to the PhD. What ramifications does this have on potential PhD funding? Obviously very little if very few students are accepted into the PhD program after completing their MS.

 

I am debating between Ga Tech (admitted directly into the PhD program), Columbia (MS) and Cornell. What do you think of Ga Tech or Columbia?

 

Your advice is greatly appreciated.

[stanfordian]

I forgot to tell you: the MS&E MS students can petition to move to the PhD program, but the sucess rate is very, very low. I know someone who had 4.0 GPA from the MS and still wasn't admitted to the PhD. (He ended up going to the OR group of a first-tier business school.) So while moving is possible, it's not easy at all.

 

As to whether or not it's worthwhile to spend $50,000 for an MS, the answer certainly depends on your financial situation and future plans. If you're thinking about an industry career, than the PhD is really the long way to it. Oftentimes you're better off to head to industry as early as possible.

 

If on the other hand you're interested in an academic career, I'd probably take the Ga Tech offer (assumign that you will get full financial support). It's a very respected school, and not having to pay tuition is nice. If in a year or two you find you don't like the place, you can always take your coursework from Ga Tech and reapply to Stanford or other places. (Stanford allows trasfer of 12 semester or 15 quarter courses into the PhD program.) Often we get applicants who have finished one or two years at other good schools, and because these people have already been exposed to PhD level course work it's easier for the admissions committee to discern whether or not they are qualified. Many do get admitted. In fact, I'd say it's easier for someone from Ga Tech's PhD's program get admitted to our PhD program than for one of our MS students. The training at the PhD level is far more rigorous than at the MS level.

 

Hope this helps.

[WaitingMonster]

Stanford open house will be on next Tuesday. Any TMian going? :D Stanfordian, is it worthwhile to go? Should I prepare anything before going? Any suggestion? Thanks a lot! :tup:

[stanfordian]

I think it's worth going, especially that if you attend you will have to live there for a while. Cool places to check out are the Memorial Church, Cantor Museum, Hoover Tower, Shopping Center/Sand Hill Road etc. Do join the campus tour.

[mir_d]

Hi Stanfordian..

First of all I want to applaud you for being so helpful, and finding time to help ppl make it to grad school...keep it up.I am a PhD aspirant, currently pursuing my masters in CS at the George Washington University(gpa 3.9), I started last fall...I have done my undergrad from India and while applying for masters(I came over for the masters right after my undergrad), I wanted to get into a decent grad school in the US and perform very well there so I could make it for PhD to a real good school. I plan to apply for PhD for fall 2006.Can you tell me how I can improve my chances of getting accepted in a top school.Also do you think if I apply after completion of my Masters thesis, it would put me in a better situation? What kind of scores fot the GRE and the subject GRE should I aim for?

Thanks a whole whole lot for your help

[waseda]

hi everyone. I'm a 3rd year PhD student (engineering, but working with a business school professor on applied economics problems) at stanford. I came to this forum by accident but have found it very interesting. I understand that this is the time of the year when people are just hearing about their admissions. I'd be happy to answer questions that you might have.

 

Cheers!

 

Hi

I am also a third year PhD in Japan, interested in the MS&E Master. My problem is GRE. What should be the min. in V/Q to be accepted?

[waseda]

I received the MS admit for MS&E today--but no aid, as expected. It would be greatly appreciated if anyone can answer the following questions:

 

1) What are the job prospects after?

 

2) What percentage of MS students are accepted into the PhD program?

 

3) How many (full-time) students finish in 9 months?

 

4) Which is better, Cornell ORIE or Stanford MS&E?

 

5) How do most people fund the MS degree?

 

Any other information that might help me decide would be great.

 

 

Thanks for your help.

 

 

Hi

Can you tell me your GRE score, if you do not mind?

Thanks

[Regenstein]

Anybody will join the Stanford Graduate Diversity Admissions Weekend ?

 

Can anybody estimate the monthly expense at Stanford ? I want to live on campus but find that the family unit (I will stay with my wife) is much more expensive than the single student's. Can you give me some tips about searching for cheap (less than 800) accommodation in that area? Do you need a car ? I will stay there for 4 years (at least)

 

Hope I will be happy studying at 'The Farm'. :) .

[charanya]

i want to know what are the advantages of taking subject GRE test.I am an IT student.Does it mean that taking a subject GRE, adds less weightage to the General GRE score. what would be the best score?Generally,what score does the top grade schools expect?