Schools Definition and 444 Threads

There are huge resources to rank and rate the different universities for physics in US but i am blind as to what universities i can apply outside US preferably Europe. with the profile i have i don't think i have any shot in top schools and can aim only for 2nd tier schools My profile as of...

Hi guys, First of all I know that many threads has been posted in regards to a physics major deciding between UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley. I've been reading all the threads yet still can't make a strong decision or preference over one school. I am a recent undergrad physics transfer...

Hello Everyone, I just want to get an idea about which schools offer the best programs for antenna engineering. I'm an electrical engineering undergrad wanting to get a masters in electrical engineering with an emphasis in antenna design and/or rf/microwave engineering (circuits and...

I'm starting to do some research into what grad schools I should apply to this fall for a pure math PhD. I'll be finishing my undergrad in May 2015 with a major in math and minor in physics. I'm not 100% sure what area I want to go in to, but I'm leaning more towards the topology and geometry...

Hello, all, I am quite interested in pursuing a PhD in physics (preferably theoretical), but I've run into the slight problem that my undergraduate major is not physics. From what I've gathered, I pretty much have my choice of a graduate program in mechanical engineering from my...

Basically part-time graduate students are paying their own way through grad school. At the least they probably aren't receiving much if any assistance from the university. Because of this, are university departments less strict on the criteria for admitting a part-time student? If i put...

Hello! I am a junior level physics major at a state university (first semester here, 1.5 years to go). I am the first in my family to attend college beyond a two year degree and I myself have recently transferred from a community college. With that said I suppose it is no surprise that I...

Much to my delight and surprise, I have recently been offered admission grad school. I currently have one offer but am going to wait to hear back from a few more schools before possibly visiting and committing to one. I've kept in contact with the school and let them know of this intention. The...

Hi there, my fine-feathered physics friends, Caleb here. I'm researching undergraduate Engineering Physics programs in the States and wonder if y'all would lend me your opinions. I've done a good bit of invaluable searching here already but would like to add a small bit of specificity to the...

Stay or switch high schools?! Math and science are my favorite subjects. I like to challenge myself and take the hardest classes. However, my school doesn't have AP Calculus BC or AP Physics C. I'm currently a soft-more. Should I switch schools, or just take those classes in college? Thanks

How do graduate schools look at "non-core" physics courses? If a graduate committee sees the transcript of a student who did well in all the core physics courses (≥B+) but in then see a C or C+ in a non-core physics course, say electronics? Could that essentially break an application or is...

Hello, I am new to these forums, though I have found myself here for homework help on more than one occasion :-p. I was at a small liberal arts college for three years as a biology major with the intention of going to medical school. During my second year I decided I wanted to pursue science...

I had a friend convince me to take the physics gre with no preparation, just because i wanted to see how I would do. I do want to go to grad school, anywhere would be good based on my abysmal gre score. I'm a senior, next semester is my last then I'll have my BS in physics. I'm a B student...

So we (students) were informed recently of a merging of two schools in north Georgia, SPSU and KSU. SPSU is a science/tech/engineering school, while KSU is... not so much. Everyone is panicking thinking that a STEM degree from what is normally known as a liberal arts college would look bad. Is...

Hello, I am a physics major who is going to graduate soon, and am taking the general and physics GREs. I am looking at both physics and engineering graduate schools. I believe that the physics GRE is pretty much irrelevant to engineering schools, but I have had difficulty with the...

Hello My friend is studying computer science/engineering and wants to apply to Canada and US for MS. Of course he is looking for schools with low tuition fees. Can you suggest some ? One of the schools (www.sfu.ca) he found in Canada has same fees for domestic and international students...

Hello all, I'm looking for advice from people in any physics/astronomy/astrophysics graduate program. If you're short on time, please feel free to skip to the last paragraph; I would really appreciate any help. I did my undergraduate degrees in physics and math, and if you don't mind me...

Hi all, I am an aspriing Fulbrighter looking into universities in Russia and Europe. My intended field in graduate school is in plasma physics and I have already had some research experience in plasma. I was wondering if there are any universities in Russia that have decent plasma physics...

I haven't take the PGRE yet, but would it be beneficial to me to visit institutions I would be interested in now to get my name out there? Or is this unheard of / faculty has no time? Thanks.

I've been working hard academically to meet the requirements to go to Caltech for a while now, though I was recently thinking, other than the benefit, albeit a major one, of having a big name school on your résumé, are there any benefits to going to universities like Caltech, Stanford, Harvard...

Hi everyone. I think for grad school I want to do work on neutrinos. Anyone know of any good and up and coming schools with good faculty working on these experiments? My application should be good, but not great with great grades/research but very average GRE and PGRE scores.

Stats after the fall semester (the time I will be applying for graduate school for Physics) Best case scenario I will have a 3.4 cumulative GPA, 3.85 Physics GPA, and a 3.0 Math GPA Dual Mathematics and Physics major, took 5 years to complete. 1st - 3rd year grade were par or less...

I'll be applying for graduate studies(M.S) in Physics in a couple of years, so I would like to know the best universities in Europe but NOT UK as I cannot afford it. The reason I'm asking this now is because I will be learning the language of the country I decide to go to - even if they have...

"Religious" Schools Frowned Upon In Physics Community? The University of Notre Dame is a very well know school located in northern Indiana. I live approximately 20 minutes away from the Notre Dame campus and I would absolutely love to be able to get into their Physics Ph.D. program after...

Hi folks. I am currently pursuing my B.S. in Physics at Indiana University South Bend. The physics department is pretty small but the quality of the program is, in my opinion, pretty good. Will the fact that I'm attending a small, relatively unknown school for physics negatively impact grad...

So this summer, I believe I'll be taking my second senior lab class and I am pretty sure I can work out completing all the necessary labs in about half the semester [I did the labs traditionally assigned for the second semester in my first since I was the odd one out for lab partners]. I'll be...

I'll be applying to graduate school this fall which is my second to last semester. Do they make the decision without seeing these grades?

I'm a junior electrical engineer at a NY state school I'm looking to get my masters in EE with a specialization in signal processing. What are the best graduate schools for this? Thanks

As a high school senior, I have just heard back from all of my schools and now must make my decision. I plan on majoring in physics tracking myself towards graduate school, and eventually a research position, so naturally I want to be involved with undergrad research as soon as possible...

I'm in quite a predicament, I'm in my second year as a physics undergrad and I have far less than stellar grades to show off for my intro physics classes. The problem is that my physics classes are a "scale-up" environment. For those of you that don't know what scale up means; instead of...

So I applied to four grad schools, my PGRE score was 830 and my GPA is a 3.92, but I've already been rejected from two of the schools and haven't heard back from the other two, which leads me to believe I'm going to be rejected from all four of the schools I applied to, leaving me with no...

I graduated in 2010 with a degree in math. Now I wish to go to graduate school, but I have no one I can think of that I would help me write a academic recommendation. I never build any relationships with professors when I was in college. From reading what I can online, I am told that I should...

I'm just curious what everyone thinks. I've got an overall GPA of 3.2, but in physics it's more like 3.5. 750 PGRE score and I'll bet my letters of recommendation were strong, although I didn't see them. I had some undergrad research in the math department, and also some in the physics...

When applying to grad school, a rule of thumb is to apply to "safety schools". I am wondering does that mean these schools we apply to may not have our desired programs? I live in Canada and I am interested in mainly differential geometry for grad studies, but there aren't many grad programs...

Hi I have already applied to the schools I want to get into and two others which i know I have a shot at. However I am looking for some physics graduate programs (in the US) which are easy to get into for safety. I'd appreciate your help.

I just finished up applying to physics PhD programs for fall 2013. I was trying to think whether there was anything else I could do to increase my chances of admission. Would visiting the schools prior to acceptance increase my chances of getting in, or would it be perceived as annoying? I...

When applying as a transfer to a 4-year college from community college, is there anything detrimental about this? I don't want to be insulting and ask him to get someone to proof read his letter of recommendation, but he's not exactly a Nobel laureate or NAS member so I'm afraid if his letter is...

Hi, I'm currently enrolled in Brooklyn College with the intention of getting a BS in physics. However I am beginning to notice two things. 1- that the level of academia here is not exactly fantastic (for example, the most common question I hear in most classes is "do we HAVE TO know this for the...

I thought I'd make a topic about this here and see what everybody else thinks about it. Just so you know before reading the entire post, I am fourteen years old and I know math topics up to and including complex analysis. I wrote some of what I have been going through as well, so I thought I...

Hi everyone I'm a high school senior in Chandigarh, India and I'm applying for undergraduate studies in the United states. I applied to Princeton early action, but I got deferred to regular decision. Can you suggest me some good schools that have good physics/astronomy programs other than the...

First: I am US Citizen, inquiring about US study though open to study abroad. I'm in my last year of my Physics degree, and like many people would like to go to do my Ph.D in Physics. However, my GRE and GPA are only mediocre and I'm concerned that I would have difficulty getting into a...

Good Evening (depending on where you are) people of PF, I shall rant again about my life and you will have no choice but to read it and have an opinion. Anyway here's the deal: Following complications associated with an illness, I had to spend about 2 weeks in the hospital. Consequentially, I...

Apparently a few schools in Louisiana, which are private but have state funding, are teaching Creationism vs Evolution as competing theories. http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/here-is-what-louisiana-schoolchildren-learn-about The article has a link to another one that explains that the...

Do you know Good undergrad schools for Pure math and/or physics theory? Please Help. Hunting for colleges, I'm a definite pure math or theoretical physics major. To give you an idea of my academic standing: MIT would be a stretch, U Penn is a mid reach, Brown is a low reach, Northeastern is a...

Hey all, I'm in the final stages of making a decision on where I will apply for grad school in aerospace engineering. I was looking pretty strongly at the University of Alabama Huntsville. They seem to do some pretty good research in the area I'm interested in, and I'm sure they have some...

Greetings, This should be a quick one, and I would bet that similar threads have been posted several times before. I decided recently to go for a PhD in physics, so I took the physics and regular GRE, etc. I've been visiting a few school websites, and there's really no consistent format...

Hello friends, I am graduating in a few months with a bachelor of physics and willing to apply for graduate schools. I am very doubted about which grad school I should apply. I just know what I don't like,but how can I know what I actually like? My main questions are the following: What is...

I'm applying to grad school this season. I've been preparing for the October PGRE for a few weeks non-stop and my scores are basically hitting a brick wall in the 50th percentile. I basically spend all my free time studying and I'm getting tired. Know I've got a good shot at the top schools...

Hi everyone! I have a question: Is it bad to jump around in college a lot? Even if your records are good? My background: I originally wanted to go into science. I was about to declare an engineering major at my community college (because it was the closest to physics as I could get), but...

Hello, I am a sophomore in high school and am looking to go into physics and ideally astrophysics. I am in honors precalc/trig right now and will be taking AP Calc next year, and probably multivariable calc my senior year. I'm in chemistry this year and physics next year. I will probably...