Graduate school applications: am I shooting too high?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on a recent graduate's concerns about their graduate school applications in physics. With an overall GPA of 3.90 and a general GRE score of Q:160, V:159, and Writing:4.5, the applicant has applied to 14 universities, including SUNY at Buffalo and Carnegie Mellon. Despite strong academic performance, the applicant is worried about their physics GRE score of 640, which is significantly lower than expected. Forum members agree that the applicant's school selection is reasonable but suggest applying to additional lower-ranked schools to increase acceptance chances.

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Prospective physics graduate students, academic advisors, and anyone involved in the graduate school application process seeking insights on program selection and application strategies.

  • #31
After emailing with some students, I get the idea that some professors can't support every student with an RA every semester so they have some TA, while the student still does research with their remaining free time (the TAing is ~20 hrs per week as usual) but the students also say that they have no delays in their progress and it really isn't a big deal. That doesn't seem like a perfect world scenario, but my profile is not one that deserves a perfect world scenario, so I really feel fine with that unless everyone tells me that it's a huge red flag...and I don't think it is, and the students don't think so either. So I feel pretty good. Also, I am confident that the stipend will be enough after a few more questions and a little more research.
 

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