Questions about how to clarify my grad application

[creepypasta13]

So I'm about to apply to grad schools in physics and applied math, but had a few questions about what to say in my application. I got my undergrad degrees in them last December, but took some engineering classes (in mechanical/aerospace engineering) the following semester, and have done some internships/temp jobs since then, until my employment with one of them ended in Sept. Since then, I have spent most of my time just studying for the physics GRE.

1. In February, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life. As I had lots of trouble finding jobs, and I had some interest in AE, I decided to apply to just 1 graduate program, the AE grad program at my undergrad school. I did it as a backup plan. When I got offered a job in July, my company planned to pay me to get my MS, so I decided to accept the grad admission from my school. But since the employment ended unexpectedly, I have since decided I want to go back for a phD in physics.
My school mentioned that my grad admission acceptance will show up on my official transcript, but I can request to have it taken off. Should I? Will it look bad if they think I 'suddenly' switched interest from AE to physics? As for those engineering classes, I enrolled in them through my school's extension program, so my grades for them show up in a separate transcript. I did worse in them than my physics/math classes. Should I include them in my grad application? Or will it look even worse if they see 'gaps' in what I've done in my life since graduating?

2. My father got seriously ill towards the end of my undergrad. As a result, I felt pressured by my family to take fewer classes and graduate asap, before he passed. Thus, I finished the physics BA, not BS, and didn't get to take any physics electives, in particular solid-state physics. I did complete 2 research projects related to materials modeling, so that's why I'm mostly interested in doing condensed matter in grad school. Also, just after I graduated, I got accepted into the internship research program at Argonne National Lab, but I had to turn it down, as my father looked to be in his final days. Should I tell my LOR writers to mention these issues in their letters? I mentioned it to 2 of them before, when I had to tell them I rejected the Argonne offer, but they may not remember

I was thinking of mentioning these issues in my SOP or some other section. How should I word it so that it doesn't sound like I'm coming up with excuses for my less-than-great record? My GPA suffered some during this period. It was hit the hardest in my last semester, since I had to cram in everything to complete my units to graduate. My 3rd LOR may now be weaker because it will now have to come from a prof I took a class with as opposed to someone I could have done research with.

 

[creepypasta13]

Ok, to simplify, my questions are:
1. My school mentioned that my grad admission acceptance for AE will show up on my official transcript, but I can request to have it taken off. Should I? Will it look bad if physics grad admissions think I 'suddenly' switched interest from AE to physics?

2. I'm not sure how to describe my situation with my father's illness and how much of the essay I should use to describe it.
So far I have written "My father became seriously ill..I felt pressured by my family to graduate as quickly as possible.. Therefore I didn't get to take.. solid-state physics. My grades also suffered the most in my final quarter..However, I was able to persevere through my personal issues because I knew my father worked hard in life in order to give me the best opportunities and to see me succeed in my studies...". In one of my SOP essays, it has taken up 180 out of the 600 words. Is that too much?

3. I could use some help in how to explain how I regained interest in physics after working in industry for a year. I was thinking of just saying that "I had an interest in AE, and pursued jobs related to it as there's more job opportunities in it. After working a bit, I realized my real passion is in physics, so I want to go back for a phD in physics". Or something along those lines

 

[twofish-quant]

My school mentioned that my grad admission acceptance for AE will show up on my official transcript, but I can request to have it taken off. Should I? Will it look bad if physics grad admissions think I 'suddenly' switched interest from AE to physics?

I don't think anyone is going to care very much, if you didn't actually start in the program.

2. I'm not sure how to describe my situation with my father's illness and how much of the essay I should use to describe it.

Personally, I'd leave it out completely. If you have a decent application, then talking about what you weren't able to do and why just makes things sound negative. If they don't think that your background is strong enough to go graduate work, then talking about personal things won't help, and it's better if you spend that time talking what what you *did* do rather than what you didn't.

3. I could use some help in how to explain how I regained interest in physics after working in industry for a year. I was thinking of just saying that "I had an interest in AE, and pursued jobs related to it as there's more job opportunities in it. After working a bit, I realized my real passion is in physics, so I want to go back for a phD in physics". Or something along those lines

Don't talk about your interest in physics. That's the number one mistake that people make on their statement of purpose. Talk about your qualifications for graduate school. You worked at company X, and then you learned X, Y, and Z which you think will be useful for you in graduate school.

The biggest mistake that graduate school applicants make is to talk about their psychology and their passion. You are just not going to get admitted because you are more enthusiastic about physics, so don't talk about that.

Also you are making another big mistake. Talk less about yourself, and more about the school you are applying to. Why are you applying to *that school*.

 

[twofish-quant]

You need to remember that in going to physics graduate school, you will have a full time job either as a research assistant or a teaching assistant. If you make it look like you "got bored" of aerospace engineering, then this is going to look very bad to the committee since they are going to wonder why you won't "get bored" of grading papers or debugging code.

The two better ways of presenting your work experience is:

"I worked as an aerospace engineer, and this work experience makes me better than the other candidates because I learned how to ..."

or

"I worked as an aerospace engineer, and I found that I missing knowledge X, which your university provides because..."

or if you can't figure how to spin it positive, don't mention in in your SOP. It's going to be a mild negative to have a gap, but saying "I had an interest in AE, and pursued jobs related to it as there's more job opportunities in it. After working a bit, I realized my real passion is in physics, so I want to go back for a phD in physics" looks, really, really, really bad.

 

[creepypasta13]

Personally, I'd leave it out completely. If you have a decent application, then talking about what you weren't able to do and why just makes things sound negative. If they don't think that your background is strong enough to go graduate work, then talking about personal things won't help, and it's better if you spend that time talking what what you *did* do rather than what you didn't.

Thanks for the helpful advice. My application is fairly decent, but I thought the lack of taking any electives, especially solid-state since I plan to go into condensed matter, would look pretty bad. Other than that, I should probably focus on what I *did* do instead

The two better ways of presenting your work experience is:

"I worked as an aerospace engineer, and this work experience makes me better than the other candidates because I learned how to ..."

or

"I worked as an aerospace engineer, and I found that I missing knowledge X, which your university provides because..."

or if you can't figure how to spin it positive, don't mention in in your SOP. It's going to be a mild negative to have a gap, but saying "I had an interest in AE, and pursued jobs related to it as there's more job opportunities in it. After working a bit, I realized my real passion is in physics, so I want to go back for a phD in physics" looks, really, really, really bad.

These are good ideas. I now have a much better idea of what to write now

 

[creepypasta13]

Come to think about it, as my physics gpa isn't great (about 3.63, especially in comparison to my 3.9 applied math gpa), I think that may be a pretty weak point. It was hit the hardest in my last semester (fell from about 3.8 to 3.63), in which I took more courses than I could handle, which was because I needed to graduate asap so my father could see me graduate before he passed away. Does anyone have any other thoughts about whether this is worth mentioning in my SOP? Or should I just mention it to my profs instead, so they can mention it in their LORs?

 

[Phyisab****]

Don't talk about your interest in physics. That's the number one mistake that people make on their statement of purpose. Talk about your qualifications for graduate school. You worked at company X, and then you learned X, Y, and Z which you think will be useful for you in graduate school.

What are your reasons for thinking this? I'm applying to grad school right now. Most ask why you are pursuing a graduate degree. It seems to me that my interest in physics is a part of that.

Edit: To clarify, I don't mean getting all sentimental and saying things like "ever since I was 3 years and first looked up at the night sky I knew it was my destiny to study physics" or anything like that.

 

[fasterthanjoao]

Most ask why you are pursuing a graduate degree. It seems to me that my interest in physics is a part of that.

To an extent, the interest in physics is mostly assumed at that point. If you have a specific research area in mind, then you might want to show that you're interested in that: but you do so by highlighting that you're aware this is a good school for it, and you're aware of their reputation for X, which is something you want to build-in to yourself (rather than by saying you have read all of the wikipedia articles on the subject). They want to know the reason that you're choosing to apply to their school, and that you have the skills to handle it.

I still think it's reasonable to try to convey your interest in the subject - but if you do so in a way that's relevant to that particular school it will work a lot closer to your favour.

 

[twofish-quant]

I needed to graduate asap so my father could see me graduate before he passed away. Does anyone have any other thoughts about whether this is worth mentioning in my SOP? Or should I just mention it to my profs instead, so they can mention it in their LORs?

3.63 isn't outstanding but it isn't something that you need to apologize for. I don't see how mentioning family issues in your application is going to help you, and I do see some ways in which it could hurt. It makes the application sound negative rather than positive, and most importantly, it wastes space that you can use to talk about other things.

 

[twofish-quant]

I'm applying to grad school right now. Most ask why you are pursuing a graduate degree. It seems to me that my interest in physics is a part of that.

The problem is that this is true with everyone else that is applying, and you don't want your application to look like everyone else's. One thing to remember in applications, is that the person reading them is going through a stack of applications, and saying that you are interested in physics when everyone else is interested in physics isn't going to help you.

Now if you say that you are interested in a particular *type* of physics and you are choosing that school because it happens to be strong in that physics, then that will help.

Also you run into the sincerity problem. Suppose you have someone that is applying to graduate school and for whatever reason they really *aren't* that interested in physics. It takes no effort at all for them to say that physics is the most important thing in their life, even if it isn't. What you want to think about is *showing* that you are interested in physics.

Complete this sentence...

"I am interested in physics and I can prove that to you because ..."

Now once you've figured out how to complete that sentence, then delete the first part of the sentence and leave the rest.