What is Grad: Definition and 1000 Discussions

I'm browsing through some acceptances posted by prospective graduate students here: http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4274 and there are some guys with very close to 4.0 GPAs and great GRE scores along with pretty good research experiences and letters of recommendations that are...

I have been looking at graduate schools for biophysics and have found that some schools offer a PhD program for biophysics (often times in the biology or chemistry departments) and others offer a PhD in physics (physics department) with an emphasis in biophysics. I am wondering what the...

I'm going to be a first year grad student in the Fall. What is a typical course load in grad school? I will be leading recitation for 2 hours a week, plus 2-3 hours of "office" hours. I know most people take 12-15 or so hours during underdrad, but this seems like too many for grad school. I was...

Ok, so I am currently majoring in physics with he intention of going to grad school for a masters in engineering (not sure which division yet) and then possibly working as an engineer while continuing school and possibly earning a phd at some point. I'm currently a sophomore and have a 4.0...

on pages 14-15, in deriving the normal vector to a surface, they use a plane to cut the surface (the plane is parallel to the xz plane) then use the curve 'c' in the xz plane (this curve being where the plane intersects the surface), draw a tangent vector 'u' and want to use the components of...

Does anyone know of a good resource for getting scholarship (or any funding) for math grad students? I will begin a MS program in the fall, and I would like to get as much funding as possible (if I get any from the school, it won't be much.) If this makes a difference, I plan to pursue a Ph.D...

So I'm trying to finish up my BS in Mechanical Engineering technology, have decided within the last year I definitely want to go to grad school for a masters in actual engineering, just worried about my chances. My present GPA is around 3.23, I'm retaking a class that if I do good in should...

hey, i am a undergraduate student earning a degree in physics. I am a little unsure as to whether going immediately to grad school, or trying to get a job with a BS in physics will benefit me more when eventually attempting to pursue a career in physics. i understand that the physics careers are...

I'm sure everyone gets tired of this question, but it's important, so I'll ask anyway. Can anyone make suggestions for good grad schools for pure mathematics? Especially number theory or algebra. I already have a list of about ten of the top tier schools, but it would be especially helpful to...

This summer I am going to participate in a REU program at a top school for my field. I'm not a super spectacular student but get decent grades and do some quality research (but no publications yet). Honestly, I'm not quite sure why they picked me, as several of my peers with better grades (but...

I am currently a freshman in Biological Engineering and second guessing my major... I'm very interested in research and certain that I want to go to gradschool after my BS. I'm not 100% sure what I want to study but I'm leaning in the direction of molecular biophysics, computational bio...

Hi everybody. I'd like to go to graduate school in math or applied math. My question is how my grades in a gem chem course my factor into this. For scheduling reasons I'm in an honors sequence and looking at B's throughout since I'm not a chem major (taking the course fulfills requirements for...

I am in the process of deciding where to attend graduate school for CMT. I have essentially narrowed it down to two schools. Choice 1) pluses: top 10 overall, top in CM, lots of theorists minuses: midwest hell (I'm from the midwest, I desperately want to escape) Choice 2)...

I am a junior double major studying bioengineering and mathematics. I attend a top 15 school initially as only a engineering major but added math halfway through my sophomore year. The farther I get into the mathematics programs, the more I love it. I finished the major requirements, and...

Greetings. I am starting my first year of grad work and I’m looking for some advice regarding preparations for a graduate level Thermo/Stat Mech course. Other than about a three week overview of thermodynamics in my freshman modern physics course in the spring of 2006, I have no other academic...

I'm looking at getting a PhD in applied math (applied probability, stochastic processes, or PDEs are my main interests) and I feel like people going to grad school have so much more math than I do. Just wanted to know what is normal for someone currently in their sixth semester. I'm a math and...

Right now I'm working towards completing a BS in Materials Science and Engineering along with a BA in Physics in a couple of years. Although I'm not sure whether or not I want to pursue a Master's in Physics, I want to keep that option open for when the time comes. I've looked at a few grad...

When I was in high school I loved science, NASA and outer space stuff. For some reason even though I loved science, I never really applied or pushed myself academically. When I finished high school I started taking classes at my local community college. I only took a few classes at a time and...

I'm going to grad school in the spring of 2013 or maybe take a grad class in fall 2012 and I'm working on deciding on going for math or physics. Here is a quick version of my story so you know my background. 1. In my early 20's I got really excited about physics and wanted to be a...

Hello, I am a sophomore physics and mathematics double major, and I plan to attend graduate school for physics with a concentration in biophysics, or just biophysics. However, this is subject to change, as I find a lot of areas of physics interesting. I was recently accepted to two REU...

Hello everyone. I am an undergraduate senior anticipating degrees in both physics and astrophysics this spring. Until about a year ago I wasn't particularly sure what I wanted to do after graduation. However, after taking upper division QM and particle physics courses I've developed a great...

I am currently a CS undergrad. my university offers no courses in Abstract algebra or Number theory or Topology or Analysis. recently I have got interested in Number theory in Discrete math course. moreover I was and still am interested in algebra too. but the problem is, can I apply to CS grad...

Is there anyone here that can shed some light on the equivalence between Spanish/EU (ECTS) grades and American GPA? I have been researching this for a while but I haven't found anything official. So far I've come up with these 2 pages, showing similar grade equivalences...

Hey Physicists! This post may be relatively long, but thank you to anyone that will actually read it. I have always been interested in Physics and the way things work in general. During my Freshman year, I barely passed Freshman level Physics, but I did. It was during my second year...

I have decided to major my engineering degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, however I only start this year. I am interested in the field of robotics, specifically the side of the programming, developing intelligent machines and artificial intelligence etc. My question is, would...

Grad School Advice!Please help! Ok so is it an advantage for me to take graduate courses with my undergrad courses and graduate with 17 credits each semester or should I take it easy with 14 credits because taking graduate courses in my research area of interest (the area i will apply to for a...

I have a bachelor's in CS with a math focus (wound up 1 credit short of a math minor). I have been out of college for about six years now and working as a software developer during that time. Off and on since leaving college I have been self-teaching myself physics. Sometimes I daydream of going...

Ok, so this is about my fiancee but it concerns us both since our future is, well together and whatnot. So ETS (the organization that runs the GRE exams) majorly screwed up with her official GRE scores. They misspelled her name and reversed the digits of her date of birth on the official GRE...

I'm double majoring in Physics and Mathematics at a small liberal arts college, with a minor in Philosophy. I'm on track to graduate with honors next Spring. (Currently a junior) I'm starting to seriously consider what I should do when I graduate in a little over a year. I was initially...

Hi, I am wondering if 3 Ws on a transcript would impact my changes of getting into grad school. THe classes I withdrew from did not apply to my major. On College Confidential I was reading that any Ws increase the difficulty of getting into grad school. On another site I read that if it...

So let's keep it hypothetical here. Let's say a freshmen is taking intro level E@M and Junior level Griffths E@M at the same time. The student is doing this because in high school he took calc based E@M and believes he can relearn any gaps. The student is getting As in his intro level class but...

Hi, fellow inquisitors of cosmos. I'm an undergrad senior in physics. I have declared my major after my sophomore year, so I had to force myself to complete the undergrad study in 2 years. I took all the important courses(EM I, II, Thermal physics, QM1, etc.) in 1.5 year. As a result, I...

Can you go to grad school and just study nuclear physics or nuclear stuff?

I graduated with a math degree in 2010, and been working for my dad ever since. My intention is to get into a graduate program in international relation this year, with the long term plan of being a professor in IR. I need to convince graduate school to take me, because I have no research...

I have a BS in Economics and Physics, I've been out of school for a year now and I really want to get a PhD in physics but I'm having trouble narrowing it down to a particular area (i.e. particle, material, astro, experimental, theoretical, etc. ), which in turn is slowing me down in my search...

Hello, I have 2 questions: First, where can I find the best graduate schools for PDE & Probability? I'm thinking MIT and NYU are really good, although I could be wrong. Second, I was wondering if my expected math background is good enough to get into the 90th percentile on the GRE...

Hi, I have my BS in Physics and Math from the University of MN, 3 years of experimental physics research experience but no publications, about 3.85 technical GPA (but very close to 4 in Physics classes), and a good GRE Physics score. I want to go to grad school for theoretical physics, though...

Hi all, I am a recently graduated student with a bachelors in a non-quantitative degree (finance) at a reputable school with a ~3.6 GPA. I'd always been interested in mathematics but had opted for finance because I was lured by the prospects of making big bucks. Over the last year, I've...

I am under the impression that if you are accepted to a graduate school (PhD) with funding, you receive a stipend. I am planning on applying for as many fellowships as I can that are similar to these: http://scgf.orau.gov/benefits.html http://www.krellinst.org/csgf/ http://www.nsfgrfp.org/...

This whole research building is like a ghost town. I thought grad students had a lot of work to do? I'm in my first week of rotation and it has been very little like industry. Students here seem to get in a 9-10 am, take an hour coffee break before reading a journal article for the next two...

This is the second year of grad applications for me and although I've done what I could afford to improve my application (paying for and A-minus-ing a semester of grad level QM), I'm feeling pretty pessimistic about my odds of acceptance again. Frankly, I'm almost 26 and I'm not sure if I can...

Hi. Im a undergrad senior currently and am going to apply for grad school right after i take my GRE. I am wonder what my chances are of getting in. Im applying for the same university where I am going to be graduating from ( stony brook ). [[ for a Masters, M.A., not a Ph.D ]] My major is MAT...

Homework Statement If \phi= xy^{2} A=xzi-z^{2}j+xy^{2}k B=zi+xj+yk Verify that \nabla.(\phiA)=A.\nabla\phi+\phi.\nablaA Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution I have worked out the first two parts of the question: \phiA = (x^{2}y^{2}z, -xy^{2}z^{2},x^{2}y^{4}) div(\phiA) =...

Hello, I am currently in my third year of Mathematical Physics. I was in biology in my first year and in Engineering physics in my second year. I knew my interest was in physics but tried the former just to please my parents. Upon getting into a depression in my second year due to lack of...

Either because they had a bad GPA, little research experience, bad GRE, or a combination of the three? I imagine only a fraction of physics grads end up making it to graduate school, and aside from those who were planning to be high school physics teachers, where do the rest end up? Do most of...

Hello, I'm making this post because I'm concerned about my chances of being accepted to graduate school. I just finished my B.S. in Physics this semester and I was planning on applying to some Electrical Engineering programs. Before this semester my GPA was 3.4, but now it currently sits at...

I'm a physics undergrad and have a GPA of about 3.824/4.3 in an Ivy league university. I have pretty good research experience with 2 publications so far. I was wondering what my chances are of getting into the best grad schools (MIT,Stanford, Caltech etc..) with this GPA, assuming I do fairly...

I am a senior who is applying to PhD programs in math. I am almost done with the applications, but should I apply to more schools? Undergraduate Institution: One the top state schools (ranked top 10 in math) Overall GPA: 3.88 Math GPA: 3.95 Courses: I have taken graduate level algebra...

if you took the top math or physics class at your school (think Math 55 at Harvard) but weren't that good in it, would you get a rec from that prof? that's my dilemma ... well-known prof has agreed to write me a rec if i want, but says it would not be that great since i was not a top student in...

Hey there, In my university, General Relativity is listed among elective courses (along with an advanced quantum mechanics course). I'm curious to know whether general relativity is really an undergrad course or not. And what are the pros and cons if GR is taken in grad school? Thanks for...