University of Florida Gainesville (UFL) has a popular Mechanical Engineering (ME) Program in the United States. We had the chance to talk to Ms. Bhavana Rajput, a Mechanical Engineering graduate student in UFL. Bhavana shares her thoughts with kaalEDGE.com about the Mechanical Engineering program, the composition of student population and research interest along with her insights about the application process at UFL.

1. Where did you do your undergraduate degree in India?

Bhavna: I did my undergraduate degree in Government College of Engineering, Pune which is affiliated to Pune University

2. What is your research area of interest?

Bhavna: My areas of research interest are Propulsion and Alternate Energy.

3. Can you give us some pointers to the general profile/background of majority of Indian students who get admitted to ME at UFL?

Bhavna: 1. Academics – In terms of GPA it is 3.0 above or First class and Distinction as applicable
2. GRE score range – Generally, I see majority of students between 1100 to 1400 range

4. Do you see more students with some particular research backgrounds or interest getting more admissions in your program?

Bhavna: I see a lot of students coming with backgrounds in Solid mechanics and Dynamics getting admitted.

5. Do you see more students from some particular undergraduate universities or colleges in India getting more admissions?

Bhavna: It’s hard to generalize. But, I see a lot of students coming from universities in Southern India.

6. Can you give us some insight in the funding scenario in your program?

Bhavna: Studying at UFL is cheaper than most of the good universities in the US. Moreover, if your GRE score is above 1200 then you get a 40 % tuition waiver straightaway. Other than this, it’s hard to get funding for master students unless you enroll for a PhD program

7. Please enlist some of the research projects that are currently being undertaken in your department?

Bhavna: Micro Air Vehicles, Combustion, Biomechanics, MEMS, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Nano manufacturing, Robotics, Alternate Energy, Laser Based Diagnostics and Heat Transfer among others.

8. Which other universities in US have good ME programs?

Bhavna: Ohh. I can name many.. Stanford, Caltech, Cornell, UCSD, Penn State, University of Texas Austin, Virginia tech, George Washington University, UIUC, Michigan Ann Arbor, University of Missouri Rolla, University of Tennessee Knoxville, University of Florida. USC University of Colorado Boulder, Georgia Tech, TAMU, RIT, Carnegie Mellon

9. What job opportunities are available to ME graduates after their degree completion?

Bhavna: In terms of Job profile - you see students getting jobs as Consultant Engineer, Design Engineer, Project Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer, Analysis Engineer. In terms of industry, students get jobs in all sorts of industry ranging from Automobile (Aviation restriction), HVAC, manufacturing firms, Piping, Oil and gas industry etc. Computer hardware industry like IBM , Intel and AMD etc.

kaalEDGE: Thank you Bhavana for speaking to kaalEDGE.com