Grad Definition and 1000 Threads

I just finished my freshmen year with a 3.5 gpa which isn't anything amazing. My gpa in the sciences, however, is a 3.75. If I continue along this path maintaining a fairly high gpa in the sciences, will prospective grad schools overlook the not-so-good overall gpa and just focus on my science...

Hello, I'll be graduating in one year with a BS in Physics and a BS in Applied Mathematics. I've done research in Astrophysics and Photovoltaics, and I'm considering pursuing a graduate degree (either MS or PhD) in Material Science Engineering. I've looked at various school websites and it...

For example there is geophysics, space physics, biophysics, medical physics. Are there any other physics grad programs besides pure physics? Just trying to look at all the options.

I am a first year student (canadian citizen) at the University of Toronto in Canada- It's a pretty big university so hopefully someone will know their policies and what not. I'll get straight to the point- I totally flunked first year. I failed 2 courses and received a very low gpa. I'm...

Hi! I've been searching the web trying to find out the average GPA's of undergraduates in physics who were accepted to Princeton, Caltech, Chicago, MIT, Cornell, etc... with no luck. Could someone enlighten me as to the approximate tiers of difficulty and the corresponding ~GPA's? On...

So here's the story. I am a 20 years old student about to finish his B.Sc in Physics in Leipzig (I will get my degree this very semester), and the situation which I am facing right now is a bit troublesome for my future. Even though I am getting my bachelor in physics, I want to do my master...

Hi everyone. I am a EU national that did a large part of his education in the US. Upon graduating from a US high school, I got into a big IT school of my choice and had a good future ahead of of me. However, due number of reasons including a lack of emotional maturity, wrong choice of major, bad...

Hey, So I was hoping to get anyones opinion on a situation I'm in. I'm currently planning on graduating in 4 years with a honors in mathematics and physics (it would entail a thesis in math and some research credit in physics). I'm on track to complete that, however, I'm currently thinking of...

I understand the importance of letters of recommendation for grad school applications. My question is: ideally, how much should my recommender know about me? I ask this because I study in a top, big research school in which the interaction between the undergrad researcher and the PI is very...

How important is your GPA for grad school admissions? I study in a very competitive college (top 3 in physics) and, for most classes, even though grade inflation exists, getting an A+ can be extremely hard (top 5%) and require substantially more work than getting an A (which isn't that hard). Do...

Homework Statement r=xi+yj+zk and r =\sqrt{x^2 + y^2 + z^2} Let f(r) be a C2 scalar function Prove that \nablaf = \frac{1}{2}\frac{df}{dr}r Homework Equations Vector identities? The Attempt at a Solution \nablaf = (\frac{df}{dx} , \frac{df}{dy} , \frac{df}{dz})...

So I'm finished with all my core requirements, and I want to major in math or physics. I was wondering if grad schools would have a problem with perhaps the following Analysis II (Rudin) Modern Algebra Elementary Topology Differential Geometry (Spivak) My question is, would a grad...

Hello. I am a Junior in high school. I have a 4.0 GPA, got an 1820 on the SAT, and a 31 on the ACT. I have participated in the honors all-state band, and been in many extra-curriculur activities throughout high school. I am, however, upset with myself. My first two years of high school...

Hey Guys. I was wondering if having a minor would be important for applying to graduate school in pure math. I realized about 2 months ago that if I want to keep a minor in my degree either: 1. I have to take six courses in the winter semester (2 upper math, 2upper physics, 1 2nd year stats...

So, I'll be going to grad school in condensed matter physics in a couple years, and since my current laptop is on it's last legs I'll need a new computer. However, I do still have a nice monitor which still works. As I see it, I have two options: 1. Get a new laptop, and hook it up to the...

Hi. I've been lurking the forums for quite some time now, but I haven't found an answer to what I wanted to know. I'm currently an undergrad double majoring in Applied Physics and "Computer Systems" (a.k.a., Computer Engineering, they just changed the name) from a "not-that-bad"...

I will be entering my third year of undergrad this fall in the process of earning my Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. My current stats for school such as GPA is 3.74 (no research experience, already taking upper-level undergrad mathematics courses, maybe a few grad courses). However, I am...

I'm a first-year grad student studying physics. I've always heard that grades in grad school don't matter too much; just maintain at least a 3.0 GPA, or whatever the minimum is to maintain funding, and everything's fine. Since "grades don't matter," I haven't put too much focus on...

I'm browsing through some acceptances posted by prospective graduate students here: http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4274 and there are some guys with very close to 4.0 GPAs and great GRE scores along with pretty good research experiences and letters of recommendations that are...

I have been looking at graduate schools for biophysics and have found that some schools offer a PhD program for biophysics (often times in the biology or chemistry departments) and others offer a PhD in physics (physics department) with an emphasis in biophysics. I am wondering what the...

I'm going to be a first year grad student in the Fall. What is a typical course load in grad school? I will be leading recitation for 2 hours a week, plus 2-3 hours of "office" hours. I know most people take 12-15 or so hours during underdrad, but this seems like too many for grad school. I was...

Ok, so I am currently majoring in physics with he intention of going to grad school for a masters in engineering (not sure which division yet) and then possibly working as an engineer while continuing school and possibly earning a phd at some point. I'm currently a sophomore and have a 4.0...

on pages 14-15, in deriving the normal vector to a surface, they use a plane to cut the surface (the plane is parallel to the xz plane) then use the curve 'c' in the xz plane (this curve being where the plane intersects the surface), draw a tangent vector 'u' and want to use the components of...

Does anyone know of a good resource for getting scholarship (or any funding) for math grad students? I will begin a MS program in the fall, and I would like to get as much funding as possible (if I get any from the school, it won't be much.) If this makes a difference, I plan to pursue a Ph.D...

hey, i am a undergraduate student earning a degree in physics. I am a little unsure as to whether going immediately to grad school, or trying to get a job with a BS in physics will benefit me more when eventually attempting to pursue a career in physics. i understand that the physics careers are...

I'm sure everyone gets tired of this question, but it's important, so I'll ask anyway. Can anyone make suggestions for good grad schools for pure mathematics? Especially number theory or algebra. I already have a list of about ten of the top tier schools, but it would be especially helpful to...

This summer I am going to participate in a REU program at a top school for my field. I'm not a super spectacular student but get decent grades and do some quality research (but no publications yet). Honestly, I'm not quite sure why they picked me, as several of my peers with better grades (but...

Hi everybody. I'd like to go to graduate school in math or applied math. My question is how my grades in a gem chem course my factor into this. For scheduling reasons I'm in an honors sequence and looking at B's throughout since I'm not a chem major (taking the course fulfills requirements for...

I am in the process of deciding where to attend graduate school for CMT. I have essentially narrowed it down to two schools. Choice 1) pluses: top 10 overall, top in CM, lots of theorists minuses: midwest hell (I'm from the midwest, I desperately want to escape) Choice 2)...

I am a junior double major studying bioengineering and mathematics. I attend a top 15 school initially as only a engineering major but added math halfway through my sophomore year. The farther I get into the mathematics programs, the more I love it. I finished the major requirements, and...

Greetings. I am starting my first year of grad work and I’m looking for some advice regarding preparations for a graduate level Thermo/Stat Mech course. Other than about a three week overview of thermodynamics in my freshman modern physics course in the spring of 2006, I have no other academic...

I'm looking at getting a PhD in applied math (applied probability, stochastic processes, or PDEs are my main interests) and I feel like people going to grad school have so much more math than I do. Just wanted to know what is normal for someone currently in their sixth semester. I'm a math and...

Right now I'm working towards completing a BS in Materials Science and Engineering along with a BA in Physics in a couple of years. Although I'm not sure whether or not I want to pursue a Master's in Physics, I want to keep that option open for when the time comes. I've looked at a few grad...

When I was in high school I loved science, NASA and outer space stuff. For some reason even though I loved science, I never really applied or pushed myself academically. When I finished high school I started taking classes at my local community college. I only took a few classes at a time and...

I'm going to grad school in the spring of 2013 or maybe take a grad class in fall 2012 and I'm working on deciding on going for math or physics. Here is a quick version of my story so you know my background. 1. In my early 20's I got really excited about physics and wanted to be a...

Hello, I am a sophomore physics and mathematics double major, and I plan to attend graduate school for physics with a concentration in biophysics, or just biophysics. However, this is subject to change, as I find a lot of areas of physics interesting. I was recently accepted to two REU...

Hello everyone. I am an undergraduate senior anticipating degrees in both physics and astrophysics this spring. Until about a year ago I wasn't particularly sure what I wanted to do after graduation. However, after taking upper division QM and particle physics courses I've developed a great...

I am currently a CS undergrad. my university offers no courses in Abstract algebra or Number theory or Topology or Analysis. recently I have got interested in Number theory in Discrete math course. moreover I was and still am interested in algebra too. but the problem is, can I apply to CS grad...

Is there anyone here that can shed some light on the equivalence between Spanish/EU (ECTS) grades and American GPA? I have been researching this for a while but I haven't found anything official. So far I've come up with these 2 pages, showing similar grade equivalences...

Hey Physicists! This post may be relatively long, but thank you to anyone that will actually read it. I have always been interested in Physics and the way things work in general. During my Freshman year, I barely passed Freshman level Physics, but I did. It was during my second year...

I have decided to major my engineering degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, however I only start this year. I am interested in the field of robotics, specifically the side of the programming, developing intelligent machines and artificial intelligence etc. My question is, would...

Grad School Advice!Please help! Ok so is it an advantage for me to take graduate courses with my undergrad courses and graduate with 17 credits each semester or should I take it easy with 14 credits because taking graduate courses in my research area of interest (the area i will apply to for a...

I have a bachelor's in CS with a math focus (wound up 1 credit short of a math minor). I have been out of college for about six years now and working as a software developer during that time. Off and on since leaving college I have been self-teaching myself physics. Sometimes I daydream of going...

Ok, so this is about my fiancee but it concerns us both since our future is, well together and whatnot. So ETS (the organization that runs the GRE exams) majorly screwed up with her official GRE scores. They misspelled her name and reversed the digits of her date of birth on the official GRE...

I'm double majoring in Physics and Mathematics at a small liberal arts college, with a minor in Philosophy. I'm on track to graduate with honors next Spring. (Currently a junior) I'm starting to seriously consider what I should do when I graduate in a little over a year. I was initially...

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...

So let's keep it hypothetical here. Let's say a freshmen is taking intro level E@M and Junior level Griffths E@M at the same time. The student is doing this because in high school he took calc based E@M and believes he can relearn any gaps. The student is getting As in his intro level class but...

Can you go to grad school and just study nuclear physics or nuclear stuff?

I graduated with a math degree in 2010, and been working for my dad ever since. My intention is to get into a graduate program in international relation this year, with the long term plan of being a professor in IR. I need to convince graduate school to take me, because I have no research...