Recent content by Geezer

From what I understand, your verbal and writing scores only matters if you're an international student (I guess it serves as further verification that you can read and write English well enough). The general Math score should be high, but still isn't nearly as important as your Physics GRE score.

I'm a second year grad student, and I'm 35 years old. I'm acutely aware that I'm more than a decade older than every one else in my program. That awareness comes from myself, though, and isn't the result of any perceived bias towards me. I'm not on the job market, though, so I can't comment...

Yeah, I don't think a biology degree will prepare you for a graduate program in astronomy. Our astronomy PhD program, for example, requires every student to take mechanics, quantum mechanics, electrodynamics, and statistical mechanics, along with several astronomy-specific courses. The only...

About half my graduate-level courses have been graded on a curve, including my graduate classical mechanics class. There were about 40 students enrolled in the course. As I recall, there was 1 A given, 3 A- (including mine :biggrin: ), 3 B+, many B, 5 B-, and even a couple C+. Since this is...

Do profs steal ("scoop") ideas from their students? I'm currently a second-year grad student in physics looking for a PhD advisor. This is my second time shopping around for an advisor. I thought I had had a group at the beginning of the year, but within a few months it became clear that that...

I agree. I know many people who've transferred to UC schools directly from local community college.

Professor Larkin at UCLA got his undergrad degree from CSU-Hayward. It didn't stop him from getting into Caltech for grad school.

I don't know what's happening elsewhere, but at my grad school, far more students are aiming for PhDs in condensed matter than in HEP or string theory.

For the state school I attended, you only needed something ridiculously low like a 27 on the ACT, plus graduate in the top 10% of your high school class, to get a full ride. It was way too easy...at least for the state I went to high school in. Things may have changed since then, though. As...

Samir, I'd like more info on Physics PhD programs in the UK, too. My current stipend at an American university is roughly equivalent to £20,000, which I would hate to give up if I started a PhD program in the UK.

Personally, I'd love info on stat mech programs in the UK. There's a chance that we're moving there next year.

You're wrong about that. There are plenty of geniuses (as measured by IQ) in physics who make very few contributions to their fields. There are also plenty of smart---maybe not genius-level smart, but still smart enough---physicists who make great contributions to physics because they're...

True. Good communication is ESSENTIAL to science. If you can't write well, you're not going to have a good career in physics.

Not at my school. In fact, grad students are expected to tutor undergrads each week and/or lead a lab or discussion section.

I'm currently in grad school doing physics. In my program (a top 20 program here in the US) we have a couple students who did the community college -> transfer to university thing as undergrads, and they're just as successful as other students. At least at our school, community college isn't a...