Grad school Definition and 1000 Threads

Hey all, I'm at a crossroads and feeling really stressed out. Below are my options: a) Complete a BSc in Physics, 4 - year Honours: It will take me two more years of intense work. I am already on my fourth year of the degree but messed everything up by taking only one course my second...

Hi, I am a Junior in ChE and I currently plan to go straight to work after graduating. I do however hope to one day earn at least a masters degrees, (perhaps a PhD if I am up for it) My question is, does spending a few years working in industry give you any credentials for getting into a...

Well, I'm only a First Year Undergrad now but I know I want to go to grad school one day I have two subjects I'm very interested in, math and physics and I'm struggling with picking one, so I was wondering which am I worse off in with grad school prospects so far as that may help me decide...

For those of you who are currently in, or have finished, grad school, how important would you say it is to attend a school that is MUCH different than your undergrad? I ask this because I've always heard one should attend a school different from your undergrad. But I got into a school that is...

Hi. I'm in condensed matter experiment, and I was wondering whether employers (in academia or industry) would look less favorably on hiring people whose BA institution and PhD institution are the same. I've heard different answers from different people about this question. Some say that...

Okay, so I originally planned a B.S. but because I wanted to pursue a computer science minor and still graduate in 4 years, I thought about doing a BA in physics. Basically, I'm substituting the difference in BS and BA physics units with computer science courses. Does this look bad for PhD...

Hi all. I am a Math and Philosophy double major at a top 20 university. I have recently been putting a lot of thought into what I want to do after graduation but am basically pretty lost. I was the best physics student in my high school during my junior and senior years and really enjoyed...

I'm an international student who has been in the US for a long time. I go to a state college that excels in engineering, but it's mainly focused on industry. My major is chem e, and I'm still trying to decide between industry and grad school. My gut tells me I'm a better fit for grad school, but...

I'm about to graduate with a BS in Physics and am currently trying to decide which graduate school to attend. I'm trying to decide between four right now (UIUC, U of Michigan, Northwestern, and Indiana U). I'm not completely set on an area of research yet, and I'm trying to consider the various...

Hello, I'm currently a 3rd year physics student (will be finishing next year) with some questions about recommended courses which would facilitate my ability to tackle graduate courses. First, due to financial issues I cannot take more than a fixed number of hours in the coming year so I have to...

Is it normal for my interest in pursuing a MS and PhD to keep waning and for me to keep holding on thinking it will increase? Am I just being lazy, or should I truly shift gears and leave academia?

I'm pretty sure there was a grad school FAQ sticky, but I can't find it (am I just blind?). Search didn't bring it up. I've heard a lot of different things about grad school applications. Grades are everything, all that matters is if you've done research; being published is a huge boost...

Good evening! I'm currently a junior at a top 10 US university. I'll walk away next year with a BS in physics and probably with some type of honor due to GPA/honors thesis. I'm sure like half the posters on here, I have deluded dreams of attending certain grad schools. I don't prescribe to...

So I've been discussing on here a lot of my issues right now with majors. I want to go into grad school for physics, without a doubt.. but the thing is this...it will take me an extra year to finish a physics major, as opposed to a mathematics major. I've been told, however, that I...

I am thinking about applying for grad school in the US (Chicago to be exact) and I have some questions. First of all, some background. In 10 months I will have a masters degree from University of Iceland. A masters degree here is one year of graduate level courses (60 ECTS) and one year of...

And if so, what other routes have you tried? Does calling them usually work? I've emailed a lot of grad school admission offices, but I generally get horrible reply rates (as in, I usually only get around 1 reply for every 5 emails). I do try to keep my questions short and simple. Here's...

so a few of the grad programs I got admitted to don't have their open houses until April. However, if I wish, I could visit the program before then, but I of course won't be able to meet the incoming class of grad students. Since I already graduated over a year ago, I've had a couple...

Hello, I will be attending an Open House this week and was wondering what things I should be looking for when I visit the department as well as what I could ask them to get the best general idea of what life as a grad student there will be like. I know this is a very broad question, but I was...

Hey I've been in grad school around Worcester for a year already, and I'm planning to move out for various reasons. The problem that bothers me is probably the opposite of what you'd expect - I am keen of moving further away from campus, maybe purely for the sake of city life. 1) I grew up...

I'm a sophomore so I'm not going to be looking into gradschool for a while, but I'm just curious how it works. When you apply, do you apply specifically to work with a certain professor or team (maybe you are interested in their work), or do you just apply similar to how you would for an...

I want to end up in theoretical physics but would rather do a maths major. I'm just starting second year undergrad at the moment. If I did a maths major, the courses I'd have under my belt would include: ODEs/PDEs differential geometry general relativity a lot of linear algebra and...

Hi, I am currently a Mechanical Engineering major (freshman) looking to eventually go into Nuclear Engineering, specifically fission or fusion power production. My school only offers a Nuclear Engineering minor so only a few classes. So is this necesarily a bad thing? If I want to head into...

I'm trying to figure out how hard it would be for me to get into grad school. I graduated with a 2.79 and a BA in physics, two and a half years ago. I did publish 3 papers in apj, won 4 research awards, one campus-wide calculus competition, 4 grants (not including the ones I won more than...

This is essentially a poll question. Here's the deal. I love math, physics, computers... essentially, if it's quantitative and involves puzzling over problems, I love it. However, I'm pretty concerned about getting a well-paying job--or even a mediocre job that involves using what I know...

Hello, I'm currently a junior undergraduate majoring in Physics/Math at a well ranked university. I've recently decided that I'm way more excited by the new commercial space industry than I am by pretty much anything in frontier physics (although I find many topics in frontier physics really...

I am currently a third year student in Scotland, originally from America. I will most likely graduate in 2012 with a joint honours degree in mathematics and physics. I am strongly considering returning to the US for grad school. If I graduate in 2012, I'll have a BSc. As I understand, most...

I'm trying to decide between the undergrad physics and EE route. My main interests are obviously mathematics and physics. By the way I'm from Quebec and we have a required 2 year of "Cegep" we must take before applying to a university, I think it's the equivalent of colleges everywhere else...

Hi all, The first few paragraphs are background about me. If you don’t want to read this, please skip it and answer my questions at the bottom. I’m a nanotechnology engineering student at the University of Waterloo. Over the past two years of my studies (I’ve finished 2B,) I’ve found that...

If you aren't sure what a co-op program is, it's a program where you go to a university to take classes and to work for a company while you complete your undergraduate work. I am thinking of going to Kettering University which, (according to their website) is one of the more premier...

So, I'm currently a third year undergrad physics major. I've always had health anxiety issues, since I was a child. However, very recently they've begun to worsen, and I've been going through a lot of depression/paranoia states. I've seen a psychologist and therapist. My therapist said I had...

Physics Grad School with "Historical Method" Pedagogy? Are there graduate schools in physics that teach physics with a history and philosophy (HPS) emphasis? http://sites.huji.ac.il/science/stc/staff_h/galili_h.htm" and optics that adopted this approach remain to be valuable and interesting...

Hello everybody, I applied to eight graduate schools in mathematics and so far I have received two acceptances. Out of those eight, there are really only four that I'm truly interested in, with the other four being safety schools. Of the two acceptances that I've received so far, one of them...

Because I'm transferring programs (Engineering -> CompSci), I may have three withdrawls this term. If I explain that the withdrawls are because of this program transfer, the admissions committee will most-likely understand right? I don't enjoy these courses and the courses will not be program...

I'm trying to figure a way to get into a physics program, from a less-than-ideal position. I've seen a lot of advice on this forum aimed at college students, which is perfectly reasonable, but unfortunately I don't have a blank slate. Anyway, here's a brief summary of my rotten little CV: I went...

Can one apply to the US grad school and skip masters level courses to start working on PhD in the first year? Because in Europe, masters degree is usually obtained instantly after undergrad, whereas PhD level studies are separated. One really wouldn't want after obtaining masters and getting...

I'm currently double majoring in ChemE and physics with the intent of going to grad school. This semester I'm taking 6 courses this semester totaling 19 hours, with about 10-15 hours per week spent in a research lab. I was considering dropping one course and taking it another semester, but I...

Last semester really killed my GPA (went from a 3.7 to a 3.35). I'm deathly afraid that this screwed me over for graduate school, so I'm trying to find ideas for something I can fall back on if this doesn't work out. I'm a math major with a very heavy concentration in physics (in fact, I would...

So it's often said that the prestige of the grad school does matter when it comes to getting a postdoc at a prestigious institution (and that the prestige of the postdoc matters the most when it comes to getting an assistant professorship). One thing I've noticed though - a lot of foreign...

Info to consider I will be taking more than enough physics courses to satisfy a physics major at the Univeristy of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma State University. SWOSU does not offer a physics major, but offers an engineering physics major. Thus, I will only be able to satisfy a physics minor. I...

Usually my professors emphasize to students that they should be concerned more about understanding the material, and then good grades will follow. But for some reason that doesn't seem to be happening to me, and I'm concerned because grad schools will only see the letter grade. For instance, I...

I'm in my 3rd year and I just switched my major over to computer science from physics, as this allows me to keep my career options much more open. This means I've already taken the required lower division math/physics classes for a physics major. Now, I know it'd be hard to get accepted to a...

A little background: I'm finally going back to school to finish my degree. I'm a sophomore and need to decide which path will be the most valuable. I'm a practical person with a Physics/Math envy. I understand the material most when I get to the experiment. Endless book learning will make me...

What do people know about this? I want to leave the US for various reasons as soon as a finish my undergrad degree, what opportunities are there for a funded Ph.D. program abroad? I plan on applying to most non-US schools, I'm mostly interested in the other Anglo-phone countries but have...

I'm planning to study physics for grad school, but my parents didn't let me take a BSc in Physics. I'm currently on my second year in mechanical engineering (5 yrs). As of now, I have no interest in engineering--no plans on working in that field. I'm thinking whether I should switch majors to...

I did my undergrad in math and physics (in the US) and would like to go on to graduate school. However, I am having a little trouble deciding on a program and was wondering if anyone could recommend any schools. My motivation for going to grad school is really just that I want to thoroughly...

So, I asked for recommendations from 1) a professor with whom I do research, 2) a professor whose algebra class I took, and 3) a professor with whom I do research and whose topology class I took. I notified them all before Thanksgiving, and finished my applications in early December. But one...

First of all, I apologize you guys for posting another thread like this; I know there are millions of threads that ask something like this already, but it would be great if you can read and respond to another one. I am applying to 11 graduate schools in mathematics. I have enjoyed studying...

"Normal" Grad School Grades I'm just finished my first semester of graduate school and I had a question about grades. I did ok this semester, not as good as I'd like but above 3.0. However, I'm a little confused about grades in grad school. As a an undergraduate I had around 3.8, but didn't...

Hey Guys. I'm coming up on my senior year and I am looking to apply to grad school, to receive a Ph.D. in physics. I've been doing a bit of online research, comparing schools and getting an idea of the ranges of gpas/scores for admitted students. After reviewing places that have struck my...

Hello There! I am currently an undergraduate student at a state university in Pennsylvania. I went originally to study secondary education mathematics, however after meeting other education majors, and everything that encompassed the 'education major' I learned I was far more intelligent...