Expand Your Mind. Change Your World.
Choosing the right Master’s degree program in Engineering out of so many available can be tough, mind-boggling and time-consuming. That’s why you really need to know and understand what your priorities are and what you ultimately want to get out of your college experience.
Divide your options into Aspirational, pragmatic and safety schools. - Your aspirational schools are your dream universities, schools that you’ve always dreamed of attending but may be a challenge to get into. It’s always better to have tried than to forever ask, “what if?”
Your pragmatic options include schools that are a best fit for you. You feel confident that you have a good chance of being accepted in this program course, it is what you are looking for.
Lastly, your Safe options will include schools that you are very confident of being accepted and if all else fail; this is a school that you would still want to attend. Be wary of application fees, however, so tailor a total number that is within your budget.
Identify your research area – Each engineering major, there are subsets of research that students can choose to focus on. For instance, within Biomedical Engineering, you can either focus on the more biological research or medical device research. So your dream may be to either have an undergraduate or graduate diploma in this field. However, make sure to take time and determine which specific area of research you would like to study. Some research fields require graduate degrees for career advancement, but many do not, so be aware of the different lengths of schooling for different career paths.
Get to know your competition. -Keep track of the data on the number of students going to the US. For instance, 48% of international students in the U.S. study Electrical Engineering alone, while only 9% of students are studying Chemical Engineering, which could an advantage if universities are recruiting more international students like you. Likewise, going to a university that has a large number of international students can mean more competition, but also a larger community of international friends for you. For example, attending University of Florida which has 1,635 international graduate students in engineering can mean comfort if you want to have friends from your home country but can also mean more competition as many international students are applying to this same school.