- #1
multivac42
- 4
- 1
I am the second year Master student and I'm planning to apply for PhD this fall. My goal are top schools in the USA and my chances l seem to be pretty good overall (6 published articles, 4 of which are in decent international physics journals like PRB/APL; excellent pGRE and GRE scores, four+ years of research experience; two scientific internships abroad; also, we've recently submitted two articles in Nature-group journals where I'm the third author, and I really hope that they will be accepted before my application is considered).
However, there is one drawback: I fail to meet all the requirements for grad school applicants, namely "an official undergraduate transcript from each institution attended".
I finished school in 2010 and got accepted into physics department in university in my country. At that moment I was not quite sure what I want to become in future. I enjoyed studying physics but I didn't have any acquaintances who had to do with real physics (in the history of my school almost no one went this path) and my first undergrad institution was fairly weak (although there is almost no better option for physics education in my country) -- only 1 person in 20 pursues career in science after the university in physics department. I was still unsure about what to do with my life in my sophomore year that I started my second degree in Fine Arts simultaneously to the first one. These were fun times.
However, during my third year of study I understood that I have a serious passion for physics and I would like to become a scientist and learn all the amazing stuff in theoretical physics, and do research. But in my university everything seemed to be very bleak and I was recommended to switch to a much much better university from the neighboring country. I had an opportunity to go there in summer, where I was told about the procedure of switching... which seemed to be almost impossible to do. I was given an option to pass the entrance exams to this university and get admitted to the first grade from the beginning, which I ended up doing. So, in 2013 I started my physics undergrad anew in another country. The next year I found a scientific adviser and started doing research, then I graduated and started my Master's studies and now I'm here, preparing to apply for PhD.
Returning to the issue: I am unable to provide official documents to cover these three years of my life between 2010 and 2013. I contacted both institutions and it turned out that they destroy all the documents concerning a non-degree holding student (one needs 4 years for Bachelor's diploma and I left after third year) after three years have passed. All I have left is a plastic student's card from my arts university which confirms that I used to be a student and a hand-written transcript from the physics department (yay! this is the level!) which, I think, has no official power today.
Thank everyone who got this far. I would be thankful for any advice, because I'm really worried that my gapped biography will look bad in my application.
However, there is one drawback: I fail to meet all the requirements for grad school applicants, namely "an official undergraduate transcript from each institution attended".
I finished school in 2010 and got accepted into physics department in university in my country. At that moment I was not quite sure what I want to become in future. I enjoyed studying physics but I didn't have any acquaintances who had to do with real physics (in the history of my school almost no one went this path) and my first undergrad institution was fairly weak (although there is almost no better option for physics education in my country) -- only 1 person in 20 pursues career in science after the university in physics department. I was still unsure about what to do with my life in my sophomore year that I started my second degree in Fine Arts simultaneously to the first one. These were fun times.
However, during my third year of study I understood that I have a serious passion for physics and I would like to become a scientist and learn all the amazing stuff in theoretical physics, and do research. But in my university everything seemed to be very bleak and I was recommended to switch to a much much better university from the neighboring country. I had an opportunity to go there in summer, where I was told about the procedure of switching... which seemed to be almost impossible to do. I was given an option to pass the entrance exams to this university and get admitted to the first grade from the beginning, which I ended up doing. So, in 2013 I started my physics undergrad anew in another country. The next year I found a scientific adviser and started doing research, then I graduated and started my Master's studies and now I'm here, preparing to apply for PhD.
Returning to the issue: I am unable to provide official documents to cover these three years of my life between 2010 and 2013. I contacted both institutions and it turned out that they destroy all the documents concerning a non-degree holding student (one needs 4 years for Bachelor's diploma and I left after third year) after three years have passed. All I have left is a plastic student's card from my arts university which confirms that I used to be a student and a hand-written transcript from the physics department (yay! this is the level!) which, I think, has no official power today.
Thank everyone who got this far. I would be thankful for any advice, because I'm really worried that my gapped biography will look bad in my application.