Bilkent University for MS - Reviews needed

[Slvtmong00se]

Hello

I have been accepted into the Bilkent University graduate program in Physics and was wondering if anyone has much information about this university. Any former/current students who can review the department, so to speak. I am interested in theoretical condensed matter and high energy physics. There don't seem to be many faculty memebers with those interests.

 

[Slvtmong00se]

Anyone? Surely someone must know of the university's ranking/prestige/where a decent performing alumnus can hope to end up?

 

[SteamKing]

Never heard of it.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I haven't heard of it either - but why would you want to go to a place without potential advisors in your field?

 

[Slvtmong00se]

Well, the reasons I'd still consider going are:

1) Lack of other options - I have a sub 3.0 cGPA, the chances of US grad school seem pretty slim
2) Undergraduate preparation in Pakistan is pretty terrible - an MS from a decent university would allow me to improve to a competitive level internationally and study graduate level courses to demonstrate this improvement.
3) I'm looking at an MS as an opportunity to also study things unavailable to me here - General Relativity, nonlinear dynamics etc before committing to something as long-term like a Phd.

I would welcome critique/criticism/suggestions regarding these points.


As for Bilkent, It seems to be a rather odd sort of place - their alumni seem to do alright:
http://www.fen.bilkent.edu.tr/~physics/html/alumni.htm

And word of mouth says its a really good university - It's just really hard to get information about Non Us/UK/Canadian universities as most ratings seem to be heavily biased in their favor. Russian universities for example, routinely produce world-class physicists but do terribly in physics rankings worldwide. So at the moment I'm trying to determine if that holds true for Bilkent as well.

Like I said, I'm primarily interested in an MS for the coursework and the opportunity to counter my undergraduate record. For such a purpose, would research with an advisor not directly related to my future goals be acceptable?

As a further query - How important is the MS thesis area anyway? I'm under the impression that its not a "lock-in" decision - one can pursue a Phd in an entirely different area at a US university.