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...
I've narrowed down a short list of a dozen or so graduate programs it looks like I'd like to apply to. I've heard that it helps to email professors involved in the work I'm interested in, but I'm doing the socially-awkward-penguin and am kinda at a loss for what to say or how to go about saying...
I got a bachelors in physics in '08 at an upper liberal arts college. Intended to take a year off but fell into a depressed rut (father died, girlfriend left, etc etc) and just worked a low-skill job / volunteered / played wow for two years.
Cleaned my act up a year ago. I'd surfed through...