Chances of getting into grad school

[proton]

will i stand any chance of getting into a top 10 grad school if my only research experience consists of 2 REUs (no research done at my big state university) and no publications?

 

[Vanadium 50]

will i stand any chance of getting into a top 10 grad school if my only research experience consists of 2 REUs (no research done at my big state university) and no publications?

Of course, we can't tell what your chances are. In general, however, accept students who are in some way exceptional. If your research experience is not exceptional, it would be best if some other factor was.

 

[proton]

Of course, we can't tell what your chances are. In general, however, accept students who are in some way exceptional. If your research experience is not exceptional, it would be best if some other factor was.

would i stand a chance at the top schools with 2 REUs (no research at my school), ~3.8gpa, average letters of rec, and ~80th percentile on the physics GRE?

 

[Vanadium 50]

We still can't tell, of course. We don't have all the information that the admissions committee does, and even then, we're not the admissions committee.

There are about 1000 PhDs awarded every year, which means there must be about 1500 people entering each year. I don't know how many students the top 10 programs accept, but I'd guess between 150 and 200. So you're talking about being in the top 10-15%.

You can ask yourself if any of the things you listed suggests your being in the top 10-15%. Certainly 80% percentile is not, and certainly average letters are not. (If they were, they wouldn't be average) Participating in an REU doesn't impress me - strong letters coming out of it do, but the odds are that I will not be on your committee, so you take take that any way you like. You can decide for yourself where you think a 3.8 lies, but even that doesn't tell the whole story: in-major classes are more important than other classes, and recent classes are more important than classes you took years ago.