Grad school Definition and 1000 Threads

Anxiety about ME grad school from a BS in Physics. Help greatly appreciated! Hey all, so it is that time of the year to apply to grad schools and I am having some serious anxiety about it. I am applying to Phd programs in ME from a BS in physics and am very unsure about where to apply. I have...

Is it possible to get into a physics grad program without a bachelor's?

Hey everyone! I am finishing my very first semester of grad school in physics and I'm just trying to get a feel if my emotions and thoughts are normal for a beginning grad student in physics. I'm taking beginning grad courses in classical, quantum, and EM. After this semester, I know I find...

Hello everyone, I'm currently a senior in high school. Due to financial circumstances and other reasons, there is a good chance that I might be headed to a community college next fall. I'm planning to go there for the usual 2 years, and transfer to a state school and major in math, hopefully...

Unusual Background-->math grad school? Hey guys, I have a bit of a weird background but wanted to get your take on what I should be doing to give myself a chance at grad school (if I decide to go back). I'm working next year at a well-known investment bank (think Citi, JPMorgan, etc) but...

I have been back and forth between math and physics for grad school, they are both such beautiful subjects and I know I would love research in either one for the rest of my life. However, I was doing some thinking, if I like both of them, why just do one of them? So I started thinking about the...

The book we're using for mechanics is "Theoretical Mechanics of Particles and Continua" by Fetter and Walecka. I've never had as much trouble understanding physics as I am now. I am absolutely confounded when it comes to Lagrange multipliers, Euler angles (and other rigid body stuff) and...

Since I got credit in calc I and II before going to college (along with getting many of my geneds out of the way), I'm going to have a lot of room for extra math courses. What's required by my college's physics program is Calc I, II, III Diff eq Applied Linear Algebra After, that I'm...

So I'm applying to mostly tier 1 grad schools for bioorganic chemistry (UCLA, Princeton, Texas A&M, University of Texas, Purdue, UNC, and University of Arizona) and I'm worried about my GRE scores. I got a 470 verbal 670 quantitative and 4.0 in analytical writing. I'm retaking them but I'm a...

Hey all, I basically am at a crossroads. I recently received my undergraduate degree in physics, and now I'm looking at either attending graduate school or some other unknown. To me graduate school is the preference, but my GPA is quite low at 2.759. I will apply to two different medical...

Hi Physics Forum, lurked around a bit and need some advice. I've never particularly liked any branch of my academics, however I excelled in my English classes and I thought the most natural thing to do was declare it my major. I absolutely hate academic reading though, as I see it mostly as a...

What are some decent grad schools for mechanical engineers without a perfect GPA? I would like to start researching my options but I really have no idea where to start

I have a decent GPA (3.6) but have taken no classes in Chemistry and advanced Computer Science (can only code python!). The Physics GRE is incredibly intimidating to me and many topics that it covers are not offered at the liberal arts college I attended. I predict a receiving a poor score and...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/business/04research.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print It looks fairly likely that cuts will happen. Now, the stimulus did manage to shield universities from the recession (although some physics grad students did tell me that the recession still managed...

Hello all, I would like some advice on a issue. I'm a senior undergrad determined to go to grad school for physics. Now my GPA is ok, and hopefully I won't completely bomb the GRE's - that's not what I'm worried about. My problem is this: I'm an international student from a country that...

I am (hopefully!) going to be entering grad school in the fall. I will be going for a PhD in applied mathematics. Many grad schools recommend that you take a course in probability before entering (it is strongly hinted that doing so will improve your odds of admission). Here's where the...

I am a junior at Gonzaga University, I have a 3.25 gpa as a Mechanical Engineer. I switched majors from business to mechanical engineering 2nd semester freshman year without having taken any calculus courses in HS or really any idea what I was getting into. I am still on track to graduate in 4...

I am going into physics next year, and I am incredibly excited! I love astronomy, and I love math and physics, and i do very well in both, so astrophysics seems like the perfect fit. However, I wanted to get a broader degree than an undergrad in astrophysics to start off with. My final goal is...

I graduated from a top undergraduate program in applied mathematics with a general GPA of 2.91, subject GPA of 3.13 from a T1, or T2 applied math program in the nation. I found that my GPA don `t reflect my true capacity, and that i chosen the wrong subject to get a degree in. My low GPA might...

Basically I have most of my classes required to graduate, but due to the lack of availability of some classes it will still take me about 3 more semesters after the current semester. So I was considering double majoring with math, so it would be physics + math major. Since I was already a...

Hello everyone, i have a couple of questions: 1-What are the General basic admission requirements for top Grad schools in Mathematics? 2-As an undergraduate how do i prepare for Math grad school? (I am not allowed to take grad courses at my school, There are no high-level summer math...

I just had a quick hypothetical question. If you're a math and physics major, does the fact that you're a physics major help at all when applying to math grad school? In other words, say you've taken several math graduate classes and several physics graduate classes as well. Would the physics...

I want to hopefully go into graduate program in astronomy or experimental physics and am doing a dual Physics/EE major. I am going to try to get a job in a lab associated with the campus however it will probably be more geared towards applied physics and/or EE stuff than to fundamental physics...

early "planning" for grad school I'm currently a freshman at JHU, and I know that it is very early to think about grad school, but there are a few things that I've been wondering about. I definitely am majoring in physics, and I'm taking the second year physics sequence (special relativity...

From what I've read, these things seem important for any student considering graduate school: - GPA, with particular emphasis on higher level classes within a student's major - Good GRE scores, especially on the quantitative section - Some undergraduate research experience, an REU through the...

Hello, I'm a freshman physics and ME major(which will be switched to nucEng when i transfer to purdue, right now it is strictly for thermodynamics and other courses that overlap between ME and nucEng) looking at joining the navy through a program called NUPOC. NUPOC is a program that aims to...

Is it possible to transfer after one year of physics grad school?? Here is my dilemma. I was accepted to a physics phD program with full funding (TA + tuition). Almost a semester has passed and I am not entirely happy with my decision. I am becoming very interested in physics education and...

I am going to be majoring in Engineering Physics at the School of Mines in Colorado. I also want to major in CS, seeing as I am a female and already considered worth less than my male counterparts [salary-wise]. I might be thinking ahead, I am taking the required science still to get into a...

Hey I'm a junior thinking about going into the mathematical biology field (bio/math double major) for grad school. I have the option of either taking 4 classes (wrong title) to get a biochem engineering minor, the main one which focuses on body regulation, tissue/organ engineering, pathways, and...

Hi all. I'm considering being a tutor for my dept and later on taking up a TA position. I do enjoy teaching, but it's a time commitment. Would such teaching experiences help me in applying to grad schools? Thanks!

Hi all! I graduated last year with my BS in physics and math. I am kind of confused about my choice to do physics in grad school, even though if I get my phD I probably wouldn't want to go into academia. I would like to do research in a government lab. I am comfortable with those theoretical and...

Alright so I just graduated in May 2010 with a B.S. in Math, and a minor in Spanish. I am currently deciding what to do with my life, and while I'd love to go to grad school to continue studying math (and continue learning/using it throughout my life), I'm not sure if I'll even be able to get...

I have an interesting question. I know it's unspoken that a rejection of financial aid is considered a "polite rejection" to your entire application, but what if I don't apply for financial aid? Will that effect me either way? I'm under the impression that schools actually WANT students to...

I need a few safety schools, and most importantly a few target schools. I'll have no trouble coming up with reach schools. The problem is that I have no idea what to look for. I know I want to do Physics, but that's the extent of it. I have no idea what part of physics I'd like to do, but...

Looking at some of the older threads, I've gotten the message that with my major gpa of 2.8 (in electrical engineering) and overall gpa of 3.12 I don't have a good shot at getting into grad school. However, a few professors that I have taken classes from and done research for are encouraging me...

Ok, I was somewhat interested in finance when I was in high school, and I went to a community college and found the business classes very boring, so I started taking math and science classes, which I liked. I took up to Calculus 2, and some programming classes, and engineering physics I, and...

Do you have to apply for them separately or are you automatically considered for them when you apply to a grad school? How do they decide who to give them to? Do they just give them to exceptionally good applicants?

Hey guys! I'm an undergrad senior and I'm trying to figure out what to do. When I'm done, I'll have double majored in Physics and Math, with a minor in Computer Science. This gives me a bunch of options, but none of them really appeal to me. Grad school would probably be fun, but the idea...

I'm debating on whether to take the October or November Physics GRE. If I take the November test, I have more time to study, but I was wondering if it would affect my chances of getting admitted to a physics grad program if all the schools got my scores a month later than they otherwise would if...

So, nearly every math professor I've ever happened to know who is an American got his or her PhD from one of about a dozen places, all of which are great, hallowed names in mathematics. I am currently in a math PhD program which, while it is certainly not bad, is not one these great names...

To introduce, I'm a third-year physics student at the University of Texas (Austin). As with most undergraduate physics students I've started to stress about applying to graduate school as I see friends of mine start to prepare for it. I'm actually not applying this year, but next year - I could...

I'm heading into my junior year of a physics degree, which means I have about one more year to decide on what graduate programs to apply to. The thing that scares me, though, is that the more I learn, the harder it is for me to narrow down what I want to do. So far, I'm more interested...

How feasible would this be? I'll be an Environmental Engineering sophomore this coming semester and was wondering how a path to Nuclear Engineering for graduate school would look like, if the path exists at all. I suppose that I could switch to Mechanical Engineering (having done most of the...

I'm going into my last year of my BS in Chemistry and I love physical chemistry (Quantum Mechanics, Thermo, Kinetics). I'm currently doing spectroscopy research at my university. I'm now realizing that I should have been a Physics major from the beginning. Don't get my wrong, I love Chemistry...

Hi everyone, I am a rising junior in college. I was in Engineering program before I switched to Maths this semester. My main reason was that I was not intellectually involved in the program that much. So basically I am behind the average Maths major in my school. Right now I am planning my...

Hello, I'm in the process of applying to grad school in Astrophysics. I graduated last December from a top-tier Physics program and am wondering what exactly I should stick in my personal statement/statement of purpose/whatever the heck a given university calls it. My undergraduate...

It's a big goal, I know. I'm going to a top-20 in its field undergrad school (for chemical engineering). It's a state school in my state, but a solid school nonetheless. I wasn't the best student in high school. I say that after graduating 3rd in my class, but in all honesty, I didn't...

Hello everyone! My school has a rather odd math major - it just so happens to perfectly suit me. I studied engineering for the first 2 years of school, as well as a little bit of CS, and all my classes fit perfectly in this major "Mathematics - Engineering/physics track." I should be able to...

I've got a bachelors in Ephys and I'm REALLY interested in quantum gravity (LQG and semi-classical approaches), but my GR experience is limited to running a few simulations in Mathematica, and I've just had the first semester of QM. I know it's not realistic to start doing QG right away with...

Hi all I've got one more year left in my undergraduate degree at a Canadian university in physics. I'll be taking a year off after graduating before (hopefully) going to the US for grad school in synthetic biology. My question is, should I write the GRE and apply to grad school now and then...