Phd program Definition and 78 Threads

Hello everyone, I plan to apply for PhD program on 2025Fall. I am an international student from China, and I want to apply in the field of Experimental AMO physics and Photonics in ECE department. My Major GPA is 3.74/4.0(which in American GPA calculation system is 3.91/4.0), ranking 3/19 in my...

Hello all. I am currently in a PhD program in the Earth Sciences. I joined the forum to ask some questions I am stuck on but got sucked in to the interesting discussions in many of these threads. I hope to contribute what I can.

I will apply for a Ph.D. in Astronomy in the fall of 2023. I want to have a realistic evaluation of my profile to see if I am over-ambitious or not. I think I am out of reach for the "big four" universities. I will donate money to two of them only and will be targeting other top schools...

Hi, I don't want to be too specific here, but specific enough for relevant advice. I'm finishing a Masters in Physics and am lucky to have been made offers by 2 excellent institutes: a Max Planck Graduate Centre (MP), and at Oxford UK. Both are in experimental condensed matter; Weyl...

Hello everyone, I am currently working on finding a PhD in Europe. I have nothing against America or Canada, but due to some personal life choices I also have to make along with this PhD, I prefer to move into a country close to my own(Serbia), which means anywhere in Europe. I have recently...

In many british universities, like the University of Cambridge, the UK bachelor (1st class), with a duration of 3 years, is the minimum accepted requirement to apply for a PhD. This is, some PhD students only hold a UK bachelor, without a Master's degree. I was wondering if a british bachelor...

Hello , So let me explain my situation and why I want to do this, I'm currently in a physics' master at CINVESTAV, Mexico , my bachelor's degree is in electronics engineering and I obtained it at URBE in Venezuela, I'm Venezuelan and when I decided to leave Venezuela I did it with the intention...

Hello everyone I've recently started a PhD program at a pretty respected university even though I wouldn't want to disclose the exact field. My background is in physics and electrical/electronic engineering (BSc in both, MSc in Electronic Engineering). After I graduated with my MSc I got hired...

Are there any universities that offers a online PhD degree program in Physics? -thanks!

If you were to establish a curriculum for a Probability PhD program, what courses would you include as a prerequisite to doing research? So far, I have: analysis, complex analysis, functional analysis, stochastic analysis, measure theory, and partial differential equations. This presupposes...

I am currently a double major pursuing a double major in BS mechanical engineering and a BS in applied physics, also two certificates in coding and lab instrumentation. I work as an engineering intern while going to school full time and have had research experience with a professor working on a...

Grad school is *not* what I was hoping it would be. I wanted to study GR and was fortunate enough to get accepted in a program with an advisor who is a gravity theorist. I have the best fellowship awarded to grad students at my school. I passed all my prelims on my first try. My grades...

What I want: to get into an okay-average Environmental Engineering, Materials Science, or Physics PhD program. My resume: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Major 8 months experience with an extremely reputable food and beverage company as a process engineer sort of role. I'm leaving by...

Hi all, I got accepted to 2 Astrophysics phd programs ( University of Connecticut and the University of Cincinnati). To be honest, I am not thrilled by the prospect of attending either school but my only other option is to retake the GREs again and wait another year to attend graduate...

I have a ton of things I want to do in my life before I'm young. The problem is that I won't be so young for long! Ideally, if I get my PhD in about 2 years I will be on track with the things I want to do. Has this been done before? Why exactly is the average time needed 4 years? Why that number?

I am not sure if I can write the ps in the form of a story-telling of how I became interested in the graduate field of study, which naturally talks about my research/other experience in the chronological order, or directly jump straight into chunks of paragraphs (of course with transitioning...

Hello everyone, I have a request. Can someone please provide me with a metallurgy research design template? I'm starting my 5th year in a MSE PhD program and for the last 3 years my advisor has instructed me to perform experiments on my alloy without reason. And while I thought this was...

Hello, I'm new so I couldn't find a spot to put this in. I was wondering what's the minimum GPA for a plasma physics grad program especially fusion, I don't want good schools, I just want something that is enough to take me further. The thing is I dropped the ball hard my first year of college...

Hi everyone. This scenario does not apply to me, but I've seen a number of threads on Reddit as well as here on PF about those who have "failed out of" a PhD program (be it in physics, math, or some other field), due to not passing the comprehensive exam or not passing their PhD courses. What I...

I have a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from a good university in India. I studied physics in Senior Secondary(10+1,10+2). But I have no individual research experience in physics at bachelors level because in the engineering college we had no choice of major/minor subjects like they...

Hi. I am a perspective PhD student interested. It seems Pitt is the best offer I can get.Does anyone know about the PhD program at University of Pittsburgh? Is Pitt a good choice for my future academic career?

I got accepted into a PhD program this Friday! I am both very excited and nervous for this opportunity. I received a RA (19 grand for 9 months and an additional 6 grand for over the summer, totally 25 grand/yr), which states that I will be working on stochastic stability and control of...

I'm thinking of giving gre test i don't know if i need only to give the subject test or general is must. i'm thinking of getting into physics Ph.D program so Physics GRE test. Please someone explain how am i supposed to give the test to be considered for a phd thanks

Generally is it as difficult to get into a PhD program in physics during the spring then it is during the fall? I'm asking because many of the schools I'm applying to say that most students are admitted during the fall but they give you the option to apply for the spring as well.

SPOILER: This will be a somewhat depressing rant. I like math (or, I THOUGHT I did), but have been feeling incredibly lazy and powerless recently. I'm currently a freshman undergrad, and I just failed Calc III. I've been barely scraping by recently, having gotten a 40 on the first midterm and a...

Hi everyone, Long time lurker here coming out to make my first post. I just finished my B.Sc. in Physics and I am getting ready to apply to graduate schools in the Fall of 2015. I did some undergraduate research in experimental biophysics (understanding the statistics of the transport of...

Hi everyone, Could you please tell me how would you rank these PhD for someone looking for a future career in the financial quant industry? (assuming I have math background and decent programming skills). Thank you in advanced! Between parenthesis are the specific research groups found in each...

Because there are only so many characters I can put in the title I will future explain down here. I want to do design/work on many things... I don't know how likely it is for me to do these things, but I want to work on electric motors, generators, nuclear reactors, Combustion engines, steam...

Hi everyone. I'm about to finish my integrated masters in physics, and I've tried to my course choices more general. There are certain fields which interest me, but there is no single field which stands out head and shoulders above the rest in my mind. Therefore as I've already said, I've...

Does anyone have advice or tips for American students wishing to pursue a PhD abroad? Background: I graduated with my BS in 2012 in aeronautical engineering. My major GPA was a 3.7(5?) but my cumulative was a 3.44. I briefly attended graduate school from 2012 to 2013, but left due to funding...

Hi, anybody knows any Physics PhD program concentrated in Bioinformatics or any Bioinformatics program which admits Physics students? Thank you in advance!

Are there any other places that offer engineering physics other than Cornell for masters or PhD? I couldn't find any except applied physics.

What is the process?

Could someone advise me on starting a PhD program and leaving after 2 years with a Masters? Do people do this and what are the problems associated with such a course of action? For example is getting recommendation letters a problem and so on... The reason I need to know about this is that it...

Hello, I am in my third year of a 4 year integrated MPhys at the University of Liverpool, and I'm starting to think about applying to PhD places. Me and my girlfriend are intending to move to London when we graduate, so I'm planning on getting a job as a graduate software developer or some...

I am looking to transfer from community college, and my school options are limited due to finances and my poor academic background. My only options so far are some unknown schools that are not even ranked 100 in the state, and they don't have any money to perform research. So I will probably not...

I am a rising junior in a US college and I plan to apply to a top physics PhD program. I am both a physics and a math major, and I am more interested in theoretic physics rather than experimental. So should I also take the GRE Math Subject Test?

I am an Undergraduate in Electrical Engineering. I have been in an internal struggle about a PhD; I am particularly interested in Applied physics programs since traditional physics programs bore me, and my interests include medicine. I have taken upperlevel physics in mechanics, E&M 1,intro...

I'm looking to apply for a PhD program in Medical Physics. I am currently majoring in Medical Physics, but my GPA is only a 3.33. I have been doing research and see people who are applying with much higher GPAs than mine. My question is: if I don't get accepted anywhere, what should I do?

The most diversified PhD program-? Hello everybody, I'm an Instrument Engineer working in Oil&Gas sector(field work in automation with transmitters,sensors,valves,PLCs,etc.) who wants to follow the PhD program in one of the US universities.The thing is I have a varied set of interests which...

I realize that there are many more than adequate schools where I can go to obtain a PhD, but my current goal is to get into one of the top 30. I truly have no idea of the competition, hence the question. I am going to the university of connecticut and came in with 38 AP credits and will graduate...

I'm beginning my second year in my PhD program. I had to fight very hard to make it to the second year, as my program condenses the normal two year masters sequence that would make up the beginning of other programs into one year. They were also very eager to cut students using prelims, so the...

I want to get my undergraduate in Pure math (I've taken and will take some additional CS courses). My question is, would I still be a competitive candidate for a PhD program in computational biology? (mathematical modelling of biological/behavioral/social systems) or should I really get my...

I'm curious if anyone has any experience working for two advisers, particularly in two different fields. In my case, I'd focus on synthesizing materials in a chem lab (that focuses on synthesis) and then working in a EE/physics lab that would focus on characterizing said material, in particular...

I was wondering if anyone could give me any advice/past experiences about applying to the MIT phD nuclear engineering program. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Hi everyone, I'm currently in the midst of applying to graduate schools and I am looking for advice any where I can seem to find it. Could anyone suggest schools that I should be applying to on the basis of my interests and the strength of my application? Undergraduate School: Top 10...

Hello, I am two semesters away from my BS in Math and I very much want to pursue a PhD in mathematics. I started off very rough in college and it has taken me all the way until now to get my GPA up to 2.8 (terrible I know). My first two years were awful. last year I really turned things...

Suppose that I would like a master's in physics, but not a PhD, and consider a university that offers a funded master's program. I understand that universities prefer to take PhD students rather that MS students (since one may squeeze more cheap research labor out of a 3+ year grad student...

I have already completed all my core courses, and more than minimum requirements (bunch of courses in Operations Research and Transportation Systems). However, it always seems to me that there is just more stuff I want to keep learning (mostly in Applied Math). I usually don't take more than one...

I'm currently in my first semester of a physics PhD program, straight out of undergrad. At the end of my senior year of undergrad, I was already feeling burnt out and tired of course work, but my profs pushed grad school as the smart and best choice. So I went. Since I moved here (14 hours...