Applying for grad school in the US with a masters degree

[olafurj]

I am thinking about applying for grad school in the US (Chicago to be exact) and I have some questions.

First of all, some background. In 10 months I will have a masters degree from University of Iceland. A masters degree here is one year of graduate level courses (60 ECTS) and one year of research/thesis work (60 ECTS). In total it's 120 ECTS units. Before the masters degree I did a three year bachelor (180 ECTS units).

Some of my friends applied to grad school directly after their bachelor. My question is, will I have to start on the same level as if I was applying directly after my bachelor, or will I get my graduate level courses transferred?

Examples of courses I've taken are:

Classical electrodynamics at the level of Jackson's book
Quantum field theory at the level of Peskin's and Schroeder's book
Quantum mechanics (third QM course in my studies) at the level of Sakurai's book.
Various solid state physics courses (electron transport, semiconductor devices)

Thanks in advance.

Edit: I should add that my GPA is 89.3/100 (or 3.6/4.0). My research experience consists of two summers and the next academic year(2011-2012). I have one published article and will have a couple more before making my application. I have been a teaching assistant. I'll take the physics GRE's next fall (I'm fairly good at those standardized tests so I expect to get 800-900). Will this get me into University of Chicago or Northwestern University?

 

[Vanadium 50]

You should expect to have to retake the classes. You might get them waived, but an entirely natural reaction to "But I already took this class" is "Yes, but not from us."

We can't tell if you will get in or not.