Grad school Definition and 1000 Threads

Hi, I need some feedback. Our professor in Algebriac Structures just administered our 1st exam last week. We have covered 7 sections in the book and the amount of material is just daunting. All of the proofs, plus the notes, plus the homework. Before the exam, he listed off the things...

One of the most difficult topics several years ago was weak acid and weak base equilibria and associated mathematical determinations about them in quantitative chemistry. Our class spent a month and a half just studying equilibria of weak acids and weak bases and their buffers, pH's, titration...

Hey, so I know there are a few seniors here (I think AKG and quasar at least). Who's going to grad school next year? Where have you gotten accepted, and where do you plan on going? What are you going to study? I'm going to Caltech to study theoretical physics (it's strange that I haven't...

ETS is going to http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.c988ba0e5dd572bada20bc47c3921509/?vgnextoid=6793cb8a55e76010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD&vgnextchannel=53e65da22af66010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD" with a revised version this September. Their claim is that the new test will better evaluate a...

Hello! I am about to finish my undergraduate degree majoring in physics and minoring in math. I have a strong interest in all the natural sciences, and almost straight A:s which should enable me to get into pretty much anything I want, should it be med school or a grad school in physics. The...

I was wondering if anyone knew of a website that listed the average GPA of students accepted into specific grad schools and for specific majors? I ask because I am a Materials Science & Engineering major and I have a lot of lab experience and a couple publications, but GPA isn't anything...

My girlfriend and I were talking about this yesterday. I am really wondering what the social life is like for a grad student. How much free time does one have, say, on the weekend? I understand that for the first two years I will be taking courses, and then after this when I pass the qualifying...

Hey I'm currently a junior and I'm a mathematics major. I was wondering if you guys could critique my grad school admissions plan: 1) I want to apply to 2-3 local schools (i live in NY), 3 schools in California, and 3-4 Schools that are an extreme reach or a unique place that I would like...

but I don't have any research experience, my GPA is decent but I'm sure it'd be over a 3.5 at least by the time I'm actually done next semester, and a couple of professors seem interested in letting me do research and stuff for them the next semester or so would it be worth it to hold off the...

I'm about to graduate next Fall and I'm stuck on deciding whatever to apply to grad school or not. I'm a physics major ATM and would like to go to grad school for physics but that doesn't seem to likely. I only have about a half a year of research experience (probably about 1.5 years by the time...

I'm finishing up my BSc this year and am applying to PhD programs in math for next fall. All the applications want me to write some sort of personal statement. For example, Princeton gives the following instructions: Please write a statement of your academic and future career plans as they...

Hi all I have some questions, and I know I am probably repeating previous questions asked in this forum. I am taking a rigorous applied physics degree (engineering certified with all of the loverly physics major courses) and I am coming towards the middle of my third year. I have...

I'm still not completely sure what I want to go into which makes it hard to decide where to apply. I'm in a solid state physics class right now that's pretty interesting and I've been to some colloqiums on nanotechnology that were neat, so maybe condensed matter physics? Seems like I'd get to...

I'm currently a senior, and I'm starting to apply to grad schools (I know it's late). Right now I'm picking what schools to apply to. But there's too many. I was hoping I could get some suggestions on what schools would be best for me. So my situation is: I'm interested in theoretical...

Hi, I'm confused about what grad school I'd like to go to.. I'm taking physics first year university and was wondering if this would give an advantage what-so ever into entering grad schools,.. or do they not lookat it at all?

I got a federal subsidized loan and had to take out extra via Sallie Mae. Ummm... how does that work with grad school? I admit I was dumb enough not to ask when I was applying, but they said you have 10 years to repay, so I thought you wouldn't start repaying until you were completely out of...

My undergraduate GPA is not stellar...about 3.4. I graduated in June 2005 and I have been working in a computer science laboratory for over a year. I scored well on the Physics GRE (87th percentile), and while I was in college I did undergraduate research for three different professors. I'm...

Is it pretty common for companies that hire Electrical and Computer engineers to pay for their employees to go to grad school. It seems like many companies would pay for EE's with bachelors degrees to go to grad school as long as the employee signs something saying they will work for that...

I am a senior physics major and am looking at grad school. I was wondering if some of you could share your experience in getting into different 'tier' grad schools. In my understanding, there are 4 things that grad schools could look at, given here in no particular order: 1. GRE scores 2...

I just transferred over to a university (UW) and my advisor said that if I am planning on going into applied physics after my B.S., my grad school will probably just be an intership or something like that. Is that right? That would be pretty awesome. I have a short attention span, so going...

is there even a chance to get into a grad school without an undergrad degree?

This year I’m going to be a senior and I’m going to start applying to graduate programs soon. I’m a pure math major with a philosophy minor. I really would like to do my grad work in set theory, or become a logician. But the career prospects look grim in these fields. Is this the case or am...

Hey guys, I have a few questions about graduate school: 1) I'm trying to decide if I should work full time and be a part-time student or if I should just be a full-time student with an internship at certain times. I am lucky in the fact that I am not strapped for cash. However, I would...

I'm sure some of this has already been answered, but I'm going to go ahead and ask. I'm a physics undergrad but I might want to go into engineering for my masters. My math teacher kind of talked me into double majoring, because math comes so easy to me, but I'm still not sure, because it'd mean...

The school taht you go to get your graduate matters more than the school you go to get your undergrad. I'm going to start my undergraduate at Texas A&M this Fall. It's not a very prestigious college, but it's close to home and I like the campus (I didn't want to go to UT and the campus was one...

O.K. This question shows just how ignorant I am about things academic, but what do people working on a PhD do? And how long does it take to get your PhD? I'm mainly interested in knowing about a PhD in mathematics. Here are my questions: 1)Do you take only classes that relate to math...

grad school admissions & "minimum GPA" The question is: will this school likely reject my application, based on too-low GPA. The problem is that I haven't found a good way to determine this. Most schools put their "minimum GPA" on a website, but it seems this is misleading. For example, take...

Hi, I over heard my friends say that grad schools prefer at least 2 years language studies when looking to accept grad students. is this true? should I worry about taking language courses?

I am applying to get into the masters program at my school. The process includes a statement of purpose which I need to write. I've asked around the department and found out that these grad school essays differ a lot from undergraduate application essays. One of the advisor told me not to write...

It's 5 am and I can't seem to fall asleep. This random thought just hit me: Say each of the top 100 undergraduate programs generate on average 20 graduates with physics degree (To me it seems like this is an overestimation, but let's say it's the upper limit) every year. If you assume that 15...

To get into Masters or Phd in phsysics or maths do they look at your combined undergrad GPA or only the average of your third year subjects and honours (4th year) level subjects? Would it matter if they see a couple of fails for some second year nonscience subjects? Which would mean a lowish...

So I'm finishing up my 3rd year in a Nanoengineering undergrad, and I'm doing rather badly - only a B average... that's 75%. Naturally, I had a dream long ago of Stanford Master/PhD and what not, but since that's something in the 90%s, any top tier grad school is out of my reach. Now I'm...

I'll be applying to grad school for theoretical physics (string theory, etc.) this fall, and I was wondering what will be expected of me. It's hard to find research to do in this field as an undergrad. Is taking advanced physics and math classes and having a good gpa enough? I've also graded...

I was reading on a website dedicated to mathematics grad school that the first year is usually free, and they waive the tuition in addition to a TA/RA position. can anyone refute that? one of my big concerns is being in heavy debt after grad school. i know for law school, medical school, you...

I'm a Junior in WVU Mechanical Engineering right now. My GPA isn't bad (3.95), but I don't really have any research/experience in the field. Last semester I worked with a grad student on a nano-structures research, but I really didn't do much. This summer will probably be my last chance to do...

I would appericate it if someone here could look over my essay and post some comments. The things to look for are: Varied wording Grammer and spelling Good sentence structure Good paragraphs Verb tense Anything else that you find wrong with the paper. It's suppose to be...

Hi I have a serious problem and I need some serious advice. Right now my gpa stands at about a 2.73. This semester I anticipate it will drop further because I don't think I will pass complex variables. I still think that if I can buckle down I can raise it up to above a 3.0. It has been...

I'm hoping some of you have some good advice for me here. I’m currently working on year 4 of 5 towards a degree in nuclear engineering, and I am starting to think about grad school, GREs, etc. Do you feel that grad school would provide me with a good return on investment? Before any of you say...

I was orginally going to finish classes this summer and apply for graduate school for next Fall, but due to dissapointing gre scores I am considering delaying my application for another year. This will let me prepare for the general gre and I will be able to take QM II and CM II before taking...

I'm having trouble deciding which area of graduate school will be better for my interests. Maybe someone who knows more about the differences can help me out. The problem is, I enjoy learning how nature works, but I am also interested in creating new technology from the physics (and learning...

It is just now really dawning on me that it's time for me to register for all the GREs and get ready to start applying to grad school, and I'm starting to get really nervous. This is probably my irrational insecurities taking over again, but I'm concerned about every step of the process: (1) My...

Say an imaginary person named Smith wanted to go to MIT (or some renowned university) for grad school in Theoretical Physics. He finishes college in 5 years earning him a MA/BS ECE degree (electrical and computer engineering) as well as a Physics BA and a minor in Mathematics. He begins to work...

so I have 3 choices in my area for graduate school(mathematics). Currently, my gpa is not the higest, so the letters of reccommendations are very important to me. I want to apply to all 3, and and depending on which one I get accepted into, I can choose. How do I handle my letters of...

Burning out...? I am a 4th year at a university and I have been doing well in my upper divsion classes, but this quarter I just feel so burned out. I am not motivated to study for any of my classes, they seem pointless or too general. I guess I just wanted to hear from people who have been...

WARNING: Long spiel ahead full of boring personal details. Skip to (***) for the question I have. With the beginning of the Fall term, I'll be in the fourth year of a five year undergraduate program in Engineering Physics in the Engineering school and Philosophy and Mathematics in liberal...

Hi I graduated 2 years ago with a BSc in Neural Computation /w minor Astrophysics. The past 2 years I've tried to learn game programming but I realized my passion is simulating the sciences in 3D environments(particularly Astrophysics and ALife/Cogsci). I was a B+ student with avg...

Now that the April 15th deadline has passed, I thought it would be a good idea to find out where all the new graduate students have decided to study. That way, you might be able to find other students going to the same school as you. I chose UC - Santa Barbara. If anybody else is going...

What has more weight when a grad school looks at your application? Recommendations Research GPA Time you took to graduate classes you took Specifically for like, Berkeley or Caltech or Stanford

I was thinking about joining the Navy Reserve for help with school money and some extra cash for myself. Going one weekend a month and 2 weeks during the summer is no biggy as an undergrad, right? I could handle it now at least... But it would cut into my Grad school time. Now, if Grad...

I'm in the United States. When I went through the undergraduate applications process, I really wished that I had known, years ago, what I should have been doing to get into the college of my choice (developing a list of novel yet easily understood extracurriculars that demonstrate "leadership"...