Chances at getting into MIT MSEE program?
Hello people from r/MITAdmissions. I'm 26M. I'm currently a mechatronics engineer from Mexico and I've been working in industry for about a year. I resort to this sub to solve some issues I'm having in my career.
(Not so) brief story. As I stated I'm a mechatronics engineer (I earned a BE in Mechatronics in Mexico). Mechatronics is a very wide field, so there's a natural lack of specialization in the field as I'm three engineers (mechanical + electrical + computer engineer) rolled into one, but with about one third of the knowledge that each engineer has on their own, so you end up being a jack of all trades, master of none.
Without a masters, in my country I'm mostly relegated to manufacturing positions, as they don't require it. I've got to admit that I don't enjoy my job. I dread going to work every morning. My job is dull and repetitive, as it is "programming" in ladder logic and fixing machines in the factory.
In my studies I didn't consider to study a masters until my last year when I felt attracted by research, especially in the areas of electrical/electronics engineering. Out of all the courses I took, the thing that interested me the most was electronics.
By the time I graduated, I was not good achiever in my career. I failed many times, and I almost flunked out, because I felt lost. A major in mechatronics is not like electronics, as not only electronics-subjects are a requirement, but also things that are not related to electronics at all. For example, at 8 I had "classical control theory", at 9 "machine element design", and at 10 "fluid power". So in the whole day, your skills had to switch from one major to another.
I didn't have a mentor and I didn't network good enough, which is something I deeply regret. Unfortunately, the university culture in my country isn't consider as serious as in the US, as there are lots of distractions and studies are not considered a serious matter in general. Even worse, our school rarely encouraged students to give their full potential or to engage in research or interesting projects other than passing their courses. Professors were often lousy at times (sometimes they were absent, and sometimes they knew nothing about the subject), and the final projects were often a joke in comparison to what I've seen MIT/Caltech/whatever university students do.
I managed to work with some basic projects though, such as building a LabVIEW-controlled Arduino-based mobile robot, a switched-mode DC power supply, an automatic egg-incubator (using analog electronics only, no digital controller), and an automobile dashboard.
Regarding my grades, in Mexico we don't use the grade point average (GPA) system as in the US. Instead, we use a scale from 0 to 100. My grade average with only pass is 86, and considering fails as well is 72. I know that my grades are not even remotely MIT material, and I would like to know what are the things I can do to fix it.
I seriously want to get into MSEE. I love doing research, and working with complex maths and physics, and experimenting, and designing. I don't want to spend my career doing a job I don't have a passion for. I know I can do something else.
I'm wondering what are my chances of getting into this program? And if my chances are slim (or even worse, none), what can I do to rectify my situation?
Posted Sep 13, 2023, 6:16 AM UTC