Finding a PhD program which is compatible with GPA 3.485

[AshanTharuka]

I am looking for instructions from you to find out a good university to enroll to a PhD program in Astrophysics and particle physics or a similar study.
I have completed my 4 year BSc(Hons) Special in Theoretical Physics with a grade of second class upper division in Sri lanka. My specialized GPA is 3.48 out of 4.00. I am looking for to do a PhD. I'm very interesting to further learn about the relativity concept with quantum mechanics wth their practical scenarios.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Let's try and get some more information:

(1) Where are you looking to go?
(2) Why do you think you are prepared?
(3) Why do you think your application will be competitive?

 

[AshanTharuka]

Let's try and get some more information:

(1) Where are you looking to go?
(2) Why do you think you are prepared?
(3) Why do you think your application will be competitive?

(1) Where are you looking to go?

If you meant about a country, it is actually not a big matter. But mostly I was finding in Europe region for a msc. But it was bit difficult to find a scholarship. My financial status is not stable to handle such an expense.
If you meant about the goal, it is actually a research scientist in computational astronomy.

(2) Why do you think you are prepared?

I'm not fully prepared person. I'm doing few research in my university while I working. I just needed to make a plan for such a goal as I mentioned

(3) Why do you think your application will be competitive?

My GPA is little bit low. I think my application going to be compared with other applicants. But in terms of GPA value, if I can see previous records I can take those into my bucket list. All of these efforts are going to be taken due to the financial issues and have effective results!

 

[Vanadium 50]

People will complain because I am being "discouraging", but I see this as being a very uphill battle.

Your problem only starts with GPA.

Admissions are competitive. The question will not be "do we give this person a chance" but rather "do we accept dis candidate or that one?" You have a relatively weak GPA, attended - even at Colombo - a relatively weak university, by your own admission you are unprepared. Oh, and someone else needs to pay for this.

How many people are in this boat? And how many of them do you think Europe is able to support? "Competitive" means the first number is smaller than the second. Why do you think this is so?

 

[bob012345]

Have you considered applied physics which is much more useful in terms of employment and getting financial help I believe. I mean something like semiconductor device physics. The world needs a better solar cell more than it needs another high energy computational physicist. You would probably end up in industry anyway. I am suggesting that a PhD in engineering or applied physics might be an easier path for you as opposed to pure physics. You can always learn some quantum and relativity on your own or as electives.

 

[Vanadium 50]

These are estimates, and the numbers are small, but it appears that the number of physics grad students from Sri Lanka admitted to the US is somewhere around 4 per year. So lets say Europe is 10.

These are small numbers and so fluctuate a lot, but it sets the scale.

Are you in the Top 10 in your country? 20? 50? 100?

 

[AshanTharuka]

People will complain because I am being "discouraging", but I see this as being a very uphill battle.

Your problem only starts with GPA.

Admissions are competitive. The question will not be "do we give this person a chance" but rather "do we accept dis candidate or that one?" You have a relatively weak GPA, attended - even at Colombo - a relatively weak university, by your own admission you are unprepared. Oh, and someone else needs to pay for this.

How many people are in this boat? And how many of them do you think Europe is able to support? "Competitive" means the first number is smaller than the second. Why do you think this is so?

These are estimates, and the numbers are small, but it appears that the number of physics grad students from Sri Lanka admitted to the US is somewhere around 4 per year. So lets say Europe is 10.

These are small numbers and so fluctuate a lot, but it sets the scale.

Are you in the Top 10 in your country? 20? 50? 100?

Normally in Sri Lanka , a very small amount of students eligible for special degrees. It is roughly less than 150 out of 3600 students. My super senior batch mates have already immigrated for higher studies. Most of they are in us and few of them are in Europe. Most of them are in Georgia,USA. North Dakota, Louisville, old Dominion, Ohio, Virginia,Florida , pensaelvinia and etc. they said it was easy to got a chance from USA with a assistantship. Few of them are in bologna in Italy,paduva, kulevin and Helsinki. The reason behind the choice of USA is easy of finding a position with an assistantship. Europe is not like that as they said. My super senior batch contains only 7 students. Now 3 of them are in north Dakota. I think your estimation is mostly wrong. We have around 12 public universities. In my batch there are 14 number of students. We had 1 first class student , 5 second upper class student, 6 second lower class students and one student failed.

These are estimates, and the numbers are small, but it appears that the number of physics grad students from Sri Lanka admitted to the US is somewhere around 4 per year. So lets say Europe is 10.

These are small numbers and so fluctuate a lot, but it sets the scale.

Are you in the Top 10 in your country? 20? 50? 100?

 

[AshanTharuka]

Have you considered applied physics which is much more useful in terms of employment and getting financial help I believe. I mean something like semiconductor device physics. The world needs a better solar cell more than it needs another high energy computational physicist. You would probably end up in industry anyway. I am suggesting that a PhD in engineering or applied physics might be an easier path for you as opposed to pure physics. You can always learn some quantum and relativity on your own or as electives.

I do not have a solid understanding. But I have heard the same thing you mentioned in above through an interview.

 

[Vanadium 50]

If that's right, go ahead and apply.

 

[gwnorth]

If you want to apply in Europe my understanding is that you need to apply to open positions and they're posted like job postings.

For the US, you most frequently apply centrally to programs. To determine which ones, you first need to identify potential research supervisors who are working in the field you want to pursue for your thesis. The programs they're associated with are the ones you would apply to. Also ideally any program that you apply to would have multiple faculty that you would be interested in working with.