Graduate school admissions Definition and 47 Threads

Hey all, hope you are doing well! I did my BSc in theoretical physics at a Russell Group uni and achieved a first class honours. I also did a MSc in theoretical physics from another Russell Group uni. I got an offer for a PhD to begin right after I finished my MSc but the funding fell through...

Hey y'all! I'm about to enter my second year of undergrad as a double major in Physics and Vocal Music. I am still exploring a lot of what physics has to offer, but I'm very intrigued by biophysics. I recently found a paper on the mechanics behind cell differentiation during embryonic...

Greetings, This is a slightly longer post but it's coming from someone who's humbly and sincerely passionate+motivated about pursuing Physics and hence I'd be immensely grateful to everyone who can help me clear my confusions and see a ray of light and hope! You'd be doing me a solid :) My...

Hello everyone! I have a visit day for a school coming up that they booked my hotel and flight for. I was initially interested in the program, but my partner recently received a dream job offer in Boston. I have been offered a spot at two PhD programs there, so I'll likely pick one of those in...

I am attending University of Waterloo and my school will allow me to graduate as a Mathematical Physics major without taking any labs/experiment courses (in my school lab is not integrated to physics courses, they are separate courses with separate credits). This could be great because : -...

I am about to start applying to different graduate schools in my country (India) for pursuing a Masters in Physics. Unfortunately, very few Indian universities actually want a resume, and offer admission based on competitive exams only. Nevertheless, I am updating my resume and keeping it ready...

Hi, this is my first time using the Physics Forums so please let me know if this question belongs somewhere else. I'm a senior undergraduate at a mid-size institution in the United States seeking to purse a PhD in High Energy Theoretical physics or Quantum Information/Computing. I'm aware these...

I've written a Statement of Purpose for Physics PhD applications, and I wanted opinions on it from as many people as I can, which is why I am asking here. Honest reviews and tips on how to improve it are really appreciated! When I joined <my uni> as an undergraduate student in Physics, I had...

Hello! I am planning on applying to physics PhD programs in the fall. My first two years of undergrad I averaged Bs in my lower division classes. Last two years I got a majority of As and A-s in my upper division courses. Those first two years I had some extremely personal extenuating...

Hi, I am a physics major in my second year . So far, i did not do any research and with the current Coronavirus situation, getting into a research program in my university is unlikely (since most of them are experimental). I had some questions about the research experience of graduate school...

With any luck I'll be completing my bachelor of science in physics this December. It will have been 6 years from start to finish, with several academic gaps, low research experience, and an abysmal GPA (from a combination of chronic illness, poor high school preparation, and overambitious course...

Hi All! A question that has been on my mind lately is how can a person be the best physicist that they can possibly be. Obviously 'best' is open to interpretation, so let's just say "How can a person make the largest impact on some field in physics that they are capable of". If we had to pick...

Hey everyone, I'm an American senior Physics major and I've been looking at New Zealand (and possibly Australia) for grad school. I wanted to ask if anyone could describe the system over there and answer a couple questions. First, is a bachelors good enough to start the PhD without doing a...

Hi Everyone! I am a senior student going at a liberal arts college currently majoring in Physics. I am applying to graduate schools in Astronomy this fall semester. I would like to ask what are the odds of getting into the best astronomy programs with the following background: Major GPA: 4.00...

General Tips on What to focus on, what to avoid? :woot: 3 Specific questions: Should I keep it in ONE page? I have been helping on a grant which has been approved by NIH, how much details of the project should I include in the resume: the detailed goal of the grant, grant number, etc? Should I...

In graduate school for physics, the competition in certain fields(for example High Energy Theory) is very intense. Does anyone know how the situation is in fields of mathematics. So, which areas of mathematics are the most difficult to get into for grad school ? I would be particularly...

I received acceptances from the University of Minnesota, Duluth (not Twin Cities) and the University of Waterloo for their physics M.Sc. programs. I am interested in string theory - not exactly sure about the subfield. At Duluth, there is only one professor working in string cosmology who I...

Let's say that I was given unacceptable conditions for returning from medical leave; basically I had to self-fund at least the following year of a physics PhD. Knowing that doing so would result in a financial disaster, I am definitely withdrawing from the program, with the understanding that...

I am an international student and I was admitted to UT Arlington with 100% tuition scholarship for fall 2016. The reasons why I couldn't make it to a better university are lack of guidance and lack of funds. But now, I will have all the guidance in the world since I'm going to an American...

What is the most important factors that determine if a candidate can be admitted into top theoretical physics PHD program? Since undergraduate students are most likely not able to produce significant research paper, will universities put more emphasis on GRE and GPA?

I obtained my M. Sc. in mathematics from a decent European university about a year ago (when I was 27 Due to various reasons of personal nature I didn't really commit to my studies, my marks were the equivalent of a 3.0 GPA, or something like that, and it took me quite a while to finish. I...

Hi, I'm an undergraduate physics student in Turin (Northern Italy), currently in the first year of my bachelor degree. Before enrolling here in Turin, I thought a lot about going to sudy abroad because I would like to get a job somewhere in Europe or even outside it. But then, for several...

I'm applying to graduate schools for biochemistry, biophysics, or microbiology. Last time I applied to seven schools and got rejected from all of them. I don't know for sure why I was rejected but I think it's partly because I applied to to many big name schools where they receive a lot of...

Dear Physics Forum advisers, I am a rising college junior (five-years tract) with a major in mathematics and an aspiring mathematician in the fields of theoretical computing and cryptography. I apologize for this sudden interruption but I wrote this email to seek your advice on the impact of...

Stanford's Physics profile on GradSchoolShopper.com lists their incoming class's GRE scores as: "The average GRE scores for admitted students in 2014–15 were: Verbal-171, Quantitative–176; Analytical–4.42; Physics Subject–928." How do we interpret these general GRE scores? Everywhere I look...

I am supposed to graduate next year but I just realized I have left Electricity and Magnetism off of my schedule. I'm afraid to add it because I feel like I am already taking enough and I am wondering if instead it is common or likely to just take the undergrad elective in graduate school. I...

Hi, I am an Electrical Engineer but I want to become a Physicist and do research to develop theoretical models of elementary partials. I have applied in several universities in US for MS and PhD programs but they have rejected me, I believe because of my non physics background. Can someone...

Hello, I've applied for our university's medical physics program before its first deadline, Feb 1st. Since I've finished the application, I have been relaxing and waiting for the results. Today I found that I was supposed to fill out a secondary "supplemental" application, which asked exactly...

Hello, I've recently applied for 2 Medical Physics graduate schools (MS). Shortly thereafter I realized a few minor problems with my application. I've noticed 2 one-letter typos in my essay, both were caused by changing the noun from singular to plural and not removing the -s after the verbs...

What are your thoughts on the fact that most math PhD program applications do not contain interviews? Consider the following link: https://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/are-math-departments-better-at-recruitment-than-elite-financial-firms/ One of the comments expresses concerns about...

Hello, I will be getting a bachelor's degree in Radiation Health Physics in near future, and my ultimate goal is to study PhD in medical physics. However, I think it would be unlikely that I will get admitted right after undergraduate graduation, due to my mediocre GPA and limited experiences...

Hello everyone, I am trying to write a personal statement for graduate school, and I am not sure what to say. I started off by saying that I would like to eventually become a professor in order to give students research opportunities that I wasn't given as an undergraduate student (because I...

Hi everyone. I recently finished a first draft for a statement of purpose for CalTech (I know, I know - I figured it would be the first one I draft - I have others I will be modelling off of this one soon enough), and I have a few (well, maybe more than a few) concerns about how I wrote it and...

I appeared in Physics GRE exam but did very poor: got only a 600. My other admission requirements are moderate. Should I send my poor Physics GRE score or not? Please give me advices. Thanks.

I'm a physics and likely math major, heading into the second half of the first semester of my sophomore year in college. I started college taking all sophomore classes having placed out of all freshmen courses. I did poorly my first year and this year, thus far I have started off similarly, only...

I'm applying to graduate school in ME, and I am just curious, if I am not accepted to a PhD program right away, will any (most, all, none?) admissions councils pass on my application to the masters program, after which I may work towards becoming a PhD candidate?

I will be starting a PhD (if all goes well) at the age of 26. I know this is not much older than the average, but how much do graduate admissions (particularly at top programs) see students that did not have the standard "4 year bachelors out of high school to PhD" route? For some reason I...

I was diagnosed with moderate/severe ADD when I was a child but due to health concerns my parents chose not to put me on medication. They also erroneously believed that ADD was something that could be overcome with willpower, something I learned is not true. I attended the University of...

To elaborate on said situation - I went to a top 50 US public university for a few years majoring in math and during this period of time I had no significant interest or motivation in school, much less any graduate school aspirations. I didn't do *horrible*, but my gpa was about a 3.1. I took...

Hi, I'm a concerned college student (aren't we all :0 ), who is intending to major in physics in one of the bigger universities in US. However, it seems that my inclination lately lies more towards engineering graduate school (if I go). So if I apply for an engineering grad school with physics...

I've seen a lot of helpful advice on this forum, and I'm at a soon-to-be crossroads as to what I do academically. For those who want the short version, skip to the end of the quote. Short story: senior undergrad EE, 3.1 GPA, should have good GRE and letters of recommendation. Want to get PHD...

I am hoping to apply to graduate schools in mathematics this fall, and I am in the process of deciding where I'm going to apply. I have a 3.95 GPA (overall and in math). I go to a top 30 math school. I've taken upper division in pretty much every topic (about 15 undergraduate) and have taken...

Hi everyone, I'm currently a 4th year applied math major who goes to a top 40 school and due to stupidity and poor class scheduling in my lower division years, has to stay an extra semester to fulfill graduation requirements. Here's the story: During my first two and a half years of college...

If I go to Arizona State University to major in Physics w/ an Astronomy minor, get good grades (GPA ~3.0 to 3.3), do some research, and get good letters of recommendations, do graduate schools look at what school you went to for the admissions process? In other words, do astronomy graduate...

Realistically speaking, what league of schools does a hardworking, smart but not brilliant math major have a shot at for a PhD in pure math? Let's say I might apply with 8 graduate courses at a "lower Ivy", coauthored 1-2 papers, solid recommendations. I am not getting my hopes up for Stanford...

Hi all. I'm a Physics/Math major at the University of Iowa and have a few questions about getting into graduate school. What does it take to get into schools like Harvard, MIT, University of Chicago, or UIUC? I've looked though the information on gradschoolshopper.com, and from that I can get...

I'm glad that I'm already in graduate school. Thousands of wall street employees are going to be laid off this year as all these companies go under. I bet most of them will be fairly recent college graduates from prestigious undergraduate institutions. Probably, many of them are going to be...