Chances Definition and 208 Threads

First of all, let me specify that I am not currently in this situation, however my significant other is. He was recently rejected from 13/14 grad schools he applied to and is trying to figure out why. Right out of high school, he went to Purdue for applied physics. He wasn't prepared for...

So I was thinking what would be the chances of two players on separate pool tables playing the exact same game of pool? So player 1 breaks and the balls are scattered. What are the chances that player 2 breaks and the balls just so happen to scatter and come to rest in the same position as...

Hello everyone, and Happy New Year! :wink: As you have probably already guessed, this New Year is especially important for me since it is the time when I fill the applications for US graduate schools on Physics. I am more than a little bit worried about my chances since, in case I won't enter...

Homework Statement This is actually from a game that I play online so sorry for the crude question. I have a gun with 3 bullets and 3 targets. The gun randomly shoots the targets. What is the probability that I'll hit target A at least once? Homework Equations The Attempt at a...

I am a college student who is thinking of getting my Masters and PhD in Math. I was considering becoming a Professor one day (I just started college so I'm going to spending 5 years Undergrad, 2 years Masters and 4-6 PhD), so I was wondering what you think the probability is of becoming a Math...

As always, you should be careful of what you post online. This is a good article about how an increasing number of colleges as well as employers are searching social media of students and prospective employees...

There are only a finite number of combinations of DNA that one can have while still being human so my question is what are the chances of two people having the same DNA?

so i currently live in egypt , physics job positions here are actually a lot worse than in america anyway , i asked my grandpa's friend about if i should do physics or not , he was a professor of nuclear physics in alexandria university anyway he said that " 70% of physics graduates in...

I was discussing with some friends, in the hypotetical case that we could travel really large distances through space at superluminal speed (or that we did not care about the trip lasting millions or billions of years), whether the risk of hitting some object during the trip might be a...

I'm a junior doing a physics major. I've almost finished the physics major and I've taken more than the required electives, and as I'm not 100% sure whether I want to go to graduate school, I'm considering double majoring in economics. I know that a double major in economics will open more...

Hey everybody, I am an electrical engineering and physics double major with a math minor coming out of a small liberal arts college. I take the GRE/PGRE in November and was curious about where I could realistically be accepted (I am aiming for physics graduate programs). I've heard extremely...

Hi, I got a C+ in my EM theory (3rd year with Griffiths book) course. I have A+'s in everything else this semester, though (including quantum mechanics II). Is this something that would hurt my grad school chances severely? My GPA is 3.48 and my physics major GPA is 3.6, for reference...

Not sure if this is the right category but... Protons, electrons and neutrons, the perfect building blocks for matter. How does physics explain that of all the things that could explode out of the Big Bang, we got the perfect Lego blocks for creation? Is there a point of view on this? Is it...

Im coming into my last year of physics courses, (5th year) and I only need to take thermal and advanced lab now. Hurray! But, I have a GPA of 3.2 with a major GPA of about 3.1ish. I am pretty sure i do not want to go into physics for a Phd but i do want to go into BioPhysics or Medical physics...

I'm a senior undergrad at the University of Michigan- Dearborn. I am a math major with a minor in applied statistics. Now that I'm near graduation (Fall 2013), I am considering my grad school options. I really want to get into the University Of Michigan's (Ann Arbor) Applied Statistics program...

I'm just curious what everyone thinks. I've got an overall GPA of 3.2, but in physics it's more like 3.5. 750 PGRE score and I'll bet my letters of recommendation were strong, although I didn't see them. I had some undergrad research in the math department, and also some in the physics...

I am a female sophomore physics major at San Francisco State, and I have applied as a transfer to four schools: UCLA, UCSD, UCB and CalPoly. I currently have a 3.97 GPA and plan to keep it that way. I think I have little chance of getting into UCB, but I have a slight hope for the others. I am...

I will be graduated soon from Marshall University with a B.S. in physics with an area of emphasis on medical physics (This program drops some of the upper level physics classes that aren't necessary for medical physics and replaces them with upper level chemistry and biology). I am planning on...

Hey, I was just wondering what my chances were of getting into one of these highly selective schools. I currently live in the UK and have got 6A's and 5A*'s at GCSE and in A-levels 2A* and an A. I do lots of extracurricular activities mainly in sport and community service and I have...

Hi all, thank you in advance for reading this and potential advice :) I am an undergraduate at a tier 2 research university in the US. I am going for a combined chemistry (biochemistry emphasis) and applied mathematics degree (I am a year away from getting both degrees). For the chemistry I...

I'm a sixteen-year-old sophomore in an IB school in Florida. This past semester I have had many terrible family occurrences that have contributed to a less than stellar performance for my first semester of sophomore year. I had received an A in my AP statistics, Calculus AB, Computer Science A...

Hey all, I am just about a senior at a northern California university. I am going for a BS in the Advanced Physics area. I have a 3.2 right now and I am not too proud of it. I have been involved in one project/paper with my professor for an AAPT national meeting in Philly. But I feel like I'm...

Hi all, I think this is probably the only decent question I've come up with about how to handle my future. I really, really want to study cosmology. I am a recent graduate (graduated in May) with a BA in physics. My GPA is mediocre - 3.5 in the major and overall. I'm sort of...

I've been searching for this kind of discussions in the forum and I've found some interesting answers and point of views from many users. But I still have some questions that I'd like to ask. From my understanding, being hired as an engineer (Mech. Eng, Electr. Eng. and so on) or as a...

Hopefully not so hot topic, what changes would you like in Republicans other than them turning into non-conservatives? Few things I would like, ordered in terms of importance: 1) Have a more clear job creation and economic growth plan 2) Kick out people who think there are different kinds...

My goal is to be able to get a Phd in physics and do research, particularly in theoretical physics. Most of the posts I've seen so far have been very depressing on this subject. I am in my sophomore year of high school, straight A's all honors core classes (or ap if available). I've talked...

There are 5 players and me. If I throw numerous balls in the air and the chances of each individual player catching a ball is as follows: player 1: 13% player 2: 16% player 3: 14% player 4: 15% player 5: 18% Please show working: 1) What is the chance that at least one player catches a...

Hi, here are my credentials. 2008-2010: First two years of BSc physics at Imperial College London - 89% in my first year and 69% in the second year. 2010-2012: took gap years due to financial difficulty 2012-2013: Final year of BSc Physics at Imperial College London - expected to obtain...

Hello, I go to a College with a small physics department and as a result I do not have a very helpful adviser (I don't blame him we have only a handful of professors and after one left, this new one got charged with being an adviser all of a sudden). Because of this I am a bit in the dark...

Hello. I'm an international student and I've just completed my A Levels, my SAT Subject Tests and I expect to take the SAT Reasoning Test in Oct/Nov. My freshman year should start in Sept 2013. Here are my results: A levels (CIE) Maths: A* Physics: A* Chemistry: A* Further Maths: Expecting A*...

Hi! I am a freshman in Physics here in Portugal. I have a career in front of me and I don’t want to waste it. I wanted to do my master’s degree in Astrophysics if possible and a PhD in a very good university out of Portugal. With all the respect, could I ask what are the requirements for a...

I'm looking at universities to go to next September. I'm still quite torn between theoretical physics and particle physics. In an absolutely ideal world, my plan is to do my masters, then a PhD and my dream job would be a university professor, or at least working in physics research. I know...

I am an senior ready to start applying to grad school. Hopefully, you guys can look at my following circumstances: In my freshmen year, I did not study hard or provide myself with the proper motivation to do well. I poorly in my science classes (which composed of two biology class, general...

Hello all, I live in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Here we are still under the British system of Education and so I took the London A Levels Exams some years back. My compiled result is : Math A - Chem A - Phy A - Bio B. Because of financial constrains and not being a citizen, I couldn't afford...

I'm told that as a PhD candidate, you have about a 60% chance of getting your PhD, which would almost seem like close to half the candidates don't get their PhDs at all and go home with nothing. Is this generally true at every graduate school in the U.S.? Strictly speaking of any given field in...

Another "what are my chances" thread (astro grad). Some details about me and my undergrad institution: Senior physics undergrad at a Spanish institution recognized in the EU as the home of the most important observatories in the region, big collaborations with U of FL. Rigorous program that...

hi everyone, I have the following situation: Years ago I got a BCom with pretty high grades (correspond to ~3.5 GPA), several years later did Masters in Stats with pretty low results (B- average) at a good school and somehow squeezed into a PhD in CS at an average school. After three...

Hello, I am two semesters away from my BS in Math and I very much want to pursue a PhD in mathematics. I started off very rough in college and it has taken me all the way until now to get my GPA up to 2.8 (terrible I know). My first two years were awful. last year I really turned things...

I recently got back my final marks for the first half of my courses (3rd year physics in Spain) and am getting a little frustrated at the fact that my marks don't reflect the work I've put into them. Grades in my country's system work as follows: "Aprobado" (5.0-6.9/10) "Notable"...

I am curious about the transparency of some materials to visible light. My physics is patchy and self taught, so I am hoping you can fill in a gap for me, or correct a misconception. So, transparency comes about when the light in question passes through a material with electrons that cannot...

Hi folks I know I'm becoming a bit of a frequenter on this board asking for academic advice, so here I go again. I've just finished a turbulent second semester at my university taking 5 courses at first before dropping Biology as I no longer was into it. I've recently been re-evaluating what I...

If you choose an answer to this question at random, what's the chance you will be correct? a) 25% b) 50% c) 60% d) 25% This problem has a solution?

Homework Statement Question is pretty straight forward. What is the probability of a person meeting another person 11 years after they have last seen each other. There are of course factors such as relationship, age, location and all that but we are assuming all of the people this person has...

I graduated high school one year late because I cut class like a fool. I went to a small public university in NYC thinking I was going to major in business or finance but as it turns out I was bored out of my mind. I took pre-calculus and was fascinated. I got hooked and never looked back. I...

Hi, i am an international student from Peru and i want to get a second bachelors degree in united states. My first bachelor is industrial engieering (i hate it), i am applying for computer science. I have a 4.0 gpa equivalent and in the top 5% in my college, and some good recommendation...

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...

Its something I've been asking myself. I am studying physics, but I haven't studied anything related to probability since before high school I mean, for example, the chance of getting tails after one throw is 50%, after two throws 75%, after three throws 87,5% and so on... (right?) Say...

So I'm a junior in mathematics and I've reached a point to decide about graduate school. I love pure math and am considering getting a PhD in it. But I do not want to go into academia because I don't think I will enjoy teaching. So I want to go into the industry after a PhD. But one of my...

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...

What can I do to increase my chances of getting accepted? I'm currently a freshmen at Wichita State University studying Electrical Engineering. My hopes down the road are to get a PhD in Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. As it stands currently, I'm pretty unimpressive on paper. My GPA is...