Hi!

I'm a Masters student (Design Engg-Mechanical) in BITS PILANI,GOA,INDIA.
I did my BTech in mechanical engg (from CUSAT,Cochin,INDIA) with 74.3% aggregate in 2008.
I worked for 2 years as a Design Engineer in an MNC, before joining ME.
Im in my first year of ME now, and till now, I have a GPA of 9.6 (in 10). I'll try hard to maintain an avg of above 9 in the next two semesters(1 yr).
As of now, I do not have any journal publications or patents or so..

Please tell me if I have any chance to get into any universities, where I can pursue PhD?
And If I do, what are the chances that I get some kind of funding?

Pls be open in your response...
comment whatever you feel like!!

This forum is mostly people in the UK, is it a UK university you would like to go to? I'm not sure how your grades transfer into ours but it sounds like you have good grades and so a good chance of PhD entry, few people have journal publications before they enter a PhD!

Good luck!

Thanks, Caro.

About the journal publications, that's a relief!
Yes. I am interested in UK universities.
Even I am not sure how the grades are translated b/w your and our systems.
But is the selection procedure entirely grade-based??
Utys must be definitely looking for something more,huh?

No not everything is grades based but you need a minimum of a 2:1 pass at Undergraduate level (again I'm not sure how this matches your grades but it is over 60% if that helps). And you have a masters too so you should be fine with entry requirements (although some universities are stricter than others). Each position advertised will tell you the exact requirments for that project and if they require something else, i.e. work experience or whatever. But I think the main thing you need is enthusiasm and drive to convince the supervisors that you are serious about wanting to work in research and make them want to work with you!

Another doubt!
For PhD admissions, GRE and TOEFL are must?!?
For a very good university, what will be the minimum GRE and TOEFL score to get an admission?!?
Since I am in my first year of ME and I have one more year to go,
if I get a target score, I think I can try preparing myself for an year to get myself through.... ;-)

It'll depend on the university/department. For my uni it's:

- the paper based TOEFL with a score of 550 (with 4.0 on the Test of Written English TWE), or

- the internet based TOEFL (iBT) with 83 overall (with not less than 18 in listening, 20 in reading, 20 in speaking and 21 in writing).

Thanks a lot, Claudia!!
That was a really helpful benchmark!

Anybody else with any comments???