Stanford Transfer

Hey y'all,

Normally this is the type of advise i'd go to my parents with but if it goes through I want it to be a surprise. My dream growing up was to get an Aerospace degree from Stanford. I was wondering if there are any current students or alumni who could give me some advise. My goal is to work for Lockheed Martin out of college, ideally designing jets.

I'm currently a sophomore at Texas Tech. I love the school, the atmosphere, and the people. However, I feel as if the education i'm getting could be better. I don't mean to sound conceded when I say this, i'm just trying to be objective. I was wondering if anyone could give me advise to transferring to the school, if I could at all.

I currently have a 3.45 GPA at Texas Tech, i'm a dual major in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics with a minor in math. Last semester (second semester of freshman year) I got two Ds in both Calculus II and Economics due to the death of a very close family member as I spent most of the semester at home not going to class. This, obviously, is hopefully going to be a once-off occurrence and shouldn't be an issue academically going forward. Those classes have both been replaced with an A (Cal II) and a B (Engr Economics). I have one other C, and the rest are As and Bs, including As in Honors Cal II and Physics I.

If I went to Stanford i'd most likely go into Aerospace, maybe Mechanical Engineering with only a minor in Physics or Math. I did not apply in high school, but I believe I have a shot now. Do you think its worth applying? I'd have to pay for application fees out of pocket and I don't have a lot of money left, and i'm trying to stack internships to resume boost, so not a lot of time for an outside job (I have had long term pay jobs before, such as a manager at a 1k cars per month Toyota dealer). Th reason I bring this up now is because this is the only semester where transferring would be a smart move. They only accept 45 transfer credit hours, and at the end of this semester i'll be adding (hopefully) 19 more hours on top of a previous 34. Next semester i'll be taking Thermo (Chemistry is my worst subject), Statics, Honors Physics III and Cal II, and Pols II, so I expect my GPA to drop a bit..

Attending Stanford has been a dream of mine as long as I can remember and I think an Aerospace degree would be the most beneficial thing for my career moving forward. However, applying costs money, and the cost to live near San Francisco is probably beyond even my scope from Austin. This is, all of course, assuming I can even get in... Anyone have any advise?

 

I have never gone to Stanford but my advice is that getting your dream job has more to do with your connections than with what school you go to. Take me, I started at Virginia Tech in ME, transferred to university of Hawaii (not a world renowned engineering department). Because of the projects I worked on at UH (Boeing sponsored) I developed connections with managers at Boeing and was able to land a job. Now going to Stanford could be great and if that is your dream, then thats your dream, but in the real world from what I have seen, the ability to get a good job is not primarily a function of what school you graduated from.

 

I agree with this 100%, and its the main reason why Stanford is my dream school.

Texas Tech makes great efforts with some great results on things like job fairs. However, its in Lubbock. The only aerospace i've seen going to three of these job fairs is Boeing. I'd love the opportunity to work for Boeing, but it just shows how unavailable making those connects are in Lubbock.

Going to Stanford, however, with a top tier aerospace program in the heart of California would, in theory, present more opportunities to meet people I would need to know to advance where I want to be, you know? The more practical thing to do would be transfer to the University of Texas, but I do enjoy Texas Tech and I wouldn't want regrets about transferring, and I feel going anywhere else but Stanford would yield more regrets than other options.

 

Or look at other schools in California. Cost of living in the san fran area is horrible. Aerospace is hot in California, so transferring to the state would be a good prospect, but specifically to Stanford, ehhh you pay a lot for the same ME/Aerospace degree, but get the same job.

 

Stanford alumni here. I am a J.D./M.B.A. All of my family are Engineers and Physicians. I am the dumbest and the blackest of the sheep. If you have a dream to attend Stanford, like I did, you should pursue your dream at all costs. I would say at a place like Stanford, the educational rigor is higher, but what you really get is the networking after you graduate. The connections I made there, much less the grades, got me where I am today. I have some connections over at Lockheed/GE/Raytheon if you need help with internship once you transfer.

My cousin is CS Major at UT Austin, just finished second year and is applying to transfer to Stanford, Berkeley, Cal Tech.

Good luck.

 

Have you consider University of Maryland? They have one of the few pure Aerospace programs. Also, Lockheed has a lot of connections with UMD since their headquarters is right around the corner from campus.

 

Thanks so much for the advise y'all! Really does help.

Yeah that's the worry... With Stanford being such a highly regarded school, though, I feel like it would be worth it. The desire to attend another school in California just isn't there, though, for me personally. However, I suppose anywhere in California i'd be close to the Rubicon, eh?

I understand the black sheep scenario completely. My dad has four degrees, two in philosophy, and two related to business. My mom has an accounting and a business degree if i'm not mistaken. My only other engineer is the family is my grandfather, who worked for IBM but spent his entire life in Houston at NASA, being a lead systems engineer for test simulations. And these are the only family members with degrees in a large extended family. Going into engineering and physics (damn I love physics) in today's age has been something my parents have loved watching and I love doing.

How we're the professors when you attended? I don't mean to sound racist but i'm just going to be blunt in saying i'm tired of having Indians on student visas I can't understand giving me lecturers. They are incredibly smart and if you can find time to attend office hours (and they're not swamped with others) they can be beyond helpful. However, in a traditional classroom setting, it just doesn't cut it. Most of the professors i've had, regardless of ethnicity, have been horrible at the basics, such as grading papers, responding to emails, and poorly structured syllabus (I don't know how to spell the plural of syllabus... but i'm an engineer so its ok right??) leading to feel like i'm being herded. This coupled with the lack of aerospace companies who attend things such as job fairs is honestly starting to worry me.

As for the possibility of an internship, that would mean the absolute world. I'm about to go pick my brother up from school, if I have to sit in a line (or when I get home) i'll PM you as i'd love to be in touch.

I have. When applying for colleges, my big three were Stanford, Rice and Maryland. Out of the bunch, I ended up only getting accepted to Rice (high school was rough for me, suffering two hospitalizing concussions and being in a severe car accident), and they offered me no scholarships. Wanting to be as self sufficient as I could, despite having parents who are living more than comfortably, Texas Tech seemed to be the best option in the financial field. I have yet to pay tuition at Texas Tech. However, financial limitations are probably the biggest sway toward attending Rice (which my dad wants me to do) or Maryland over Stanford. However, they both cost more than what i'm doing right now, so I figured might as well go "balls to the walls", you know?

After I graduate i'd like to get an entry level job as I work toward a PhD in Aerospace at either Stanford or Maryland.

 

I applied to Stanford, Rice, Columbia. Rice was my #1 pick and I didn't get in.

Other CA school I attended as UC Berkeley, where I also had a very good experience.

The professors were good, they were top notch. However, there were LOTS of GSA I had to deal with. That is the realm of a good higher education. For example, Robert Reich is at UCBerkeley now. You think he grades papers? He doesn't. If you want to talk to your teachers daily, and have interaction in small classes, you have to go to a small school.

The field I am in, there were no Indians on Visas you are talking about. In CS/Engineering, there are tons of Indians in all institutions from MIT to Stanford to Berkeley to University of Michigan.

If you don't want to deal with Indians, PLEASE DO NOT MOVE TO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

I had no issues with office hours, understanding professors or email. My undergrad, J.D., and M.B.A. were fantastic experiences

I clerked with a very Prestigious Judge, but I decided private practice was for me. I was in Toyota Corporate Legal division for many years, before I made the switch to "Hollywood."

Good luck. Looking forward to staying in touch and well wishes in your studies.

 

That's good to know, thanks for the replies. The professor issues can be summarized by one experience that happened this semester. A professor didn't use Blackboard (where most professors centralize their material if y'all didn't use it) so their material wasn't well laid out. I missed the last class before the final exam due to an illness. It took three emails over the course of a week and a half until he replied the night before a final giving me the exact location on where to take it the day before. The girl I had been going out with had no idea where the exam was either, apparently it wasn't on the board at all during the last class. Maybe someone asked and she missed it, oh well.

This type of thing is common with the professors i've been encountering. Between that and the simple inability to understand them in a large lecture setting, its just becoming frustrating. Indians are fine, large classrooms are fine (I haven't been spoiled with all honors classes), and even not being able to go to office hours is fine, since the majority of the time I rely on YouTube university and the Symbolab gods. This is seemingly acceptable where i've gone to school, as it seems its pretty much widely accepted students learn the majority of the material on their own anyway now a days. I suppose it comes down to a belief that Stanford will provide the best networking opportunities and a top notch education. Post-PhD (or post a simple BS degree if I don't go the PhD route) i'll probably end up somewhere in California or Germany anyway, so i'm just now coming over this internal obligation to study in Texas.

This is why I posted the thread, however, to get input if people who have been through it before believe Stanford would be the most beneficial scenario, assuming I can even get in.

As for staying in touch, for sure. Let me PM you my email and if the transfer becomes a reality i'll be pestering you for sure.