Autumn deadlines for US grad schools?

[johnkay]

Hi I'm graduating for a european physics/applied maths M.Sc. around September. I thought about applying for US grad school already during last autumn but I couldn't be sure I would be done in time, and my application would really have lacked the final beefing up of good results in the really advanced subjects anyway.

So my question is regarding autumn application processes. Is there anyone taking in grads to physics programs in the autumn? I have not been able to find the right question to ask google.

For my background:
I took the quantitative GRE unprepared for garbages and laughs and ended up at 760 (pretty sure I could improve it).I also did the TOEFL, 116/120, I have almost a year's equivalent of full time research experience at some good labs and a bunch of references, perhaps even a first author publication to throw in there by autumn. As grades don't seem to be quite as important here as in the states I don't have a perfect 4.0 equivalent, but my more advanced graduate level courses are well above average.

So I assume MIT is out of the question, but are there any decent uni's doing application rounds in the summer/early autumn that I could have a shot at?

I'd really love not having to spend months studying for a PGRE.

 

[Someone1987]

I am afraid that the fall 2011 application deadlines for most (if not all) programs have passed. However, since I am of course not familiar with the deadlines for every department in the US you can take a look at this site: http://www.gradschoolshopper.com/ to see if you can find any schools that have later deadlines.

If you can't find any schools, then you will have to wait and apply for spring 2012 or fall 2012 (probably fall 2012 since most departments do not admit students in the spring.) Also, don't worry too much about your quantitative GRE score. It is perfectly fine and I wouldn't worry about retaking it. However, many US graduate physics programs do require you to take the Physics GRE so I am afraid you will have to take this exam. If you do very well on the PGRE, then based off what you have said I would say you would be a fairly strong candidate.

Best of luck.

 

[johnkay]

I'm sorry, let me rephrase. I meant deadlines for programs starting in spring 2012.

(then presumably the deadline would be during autumn 2011)

 

[johnkay]

And yes i tried gradschoolshopper but i did not find a place that would just list physics programs starting spring 2012.

 

[Someone1987]

I apologize for my misunderstanding. As I said earlier, many departments do not admit graduate students in the spring but there are some who do. The best thing you could do is to check the department websites at the universities you would like to apply to. If they don't have any information about spring admission, you can send an e-mail to the department secretary or graduate chair asking for what their policy is on spring admissions. If a department does allow spring admissions, then the deadline would probably be sometime from early-mid October.

 

[johnkay]

Thanks man. Too bad there clearly is no coherent list of places who can consider spring admission.

Although i guess starting of with checking places not requiring pgre (which seem to be very few) is a good start :)

 

[Someone1987]

Sorry this didn't occur to me earlier but I do remember that SUNY Stony Brook states that the PGRE is recommended but not required for admission. They also said right on grad school shopper to contact the director of the graduate program to inquire about spring admission and they list a deadline of October 1st. Depending on whether or not Stony Brook has research you are interested in pursuing...this doesn't seem like a bad place to start.

 

[deluks917]

There is often not funding available for students admitted in the spring. You seem like a fairly strong student but applying in the Spring and without the PGRE are both serious problems. I think you could get into a much better school if you waited a year and took the PGRE.

 

[johnkay]

Okay thanks for the tips guys. Waiting for the next application round is probably a bit risky though because judging from what I've seen from friends around europe and north america the picks can be a bit arbitrary. I've seen guys who outsmart me by a mile not get anything while similar loons seem to get into top schools too... not saying it is directly unfair, but there is no guarrantees. And the application process seems to be really weary tedious and expensive.

But I guess that comes with you guys having the best universities in the world on that side of the big pond :)

Either way I've got plenty of time to think about it since there is quite little to be done right now about anything except some suggested googling around :)