What graduate schools should I be looking at?

[B-80]

I posted this on Reddit and someone recommend I ask here:

Hey, I am a student at Penn State at the moment and I am going into my 5th year and planning to take the GRE in the fall. I know that physics graduate programs can be very competitive, so I was wondering if those of you who have gone/work at a university may be able to help point me to what kind of school I have a shot getting in to. So here is my deal:
I did poorly my first year at a satellite campus(about a 2.6 GPA and I did poorly in my for major classes a couple B's a couple C's and a D which I had to retake because you must have a C). The next year I came to the main campus here and only did worse ( around a 1.5 GPA with several C's several D's and a B in my in major courses, again I had to retake the Ds and two of them were classes I already had a D in, so I had to retake them a third time. This left me at a cumulative 2.08 GPA)
After that summer, I really evaluated my life and turned it around, the next year I came back and fairly well(a 3.7 GPA the first semester and a 3.0 the second). I got an A and B in the classes I had to retake and in all finally got a taste of how to become a good student.
This year I was in almost exclusively 400 level math and physics courses and my GPA was about a 3.9. So over the first two years I had a 2.08 and over the past 2 I have had about a 3.6, which would be much higher save that one semester where I got a 3.0.
I have been doing research with a pretty solid name in particle astro for the past year, and am currently coding for a brand new project (lots of responsibility, I am actually contributing a lot of code that will be used in the final project, I only got this job because the previous professor I worked for spoke very highly of me). So I should have two very strong letters and will have some actual work done, but no publications.
I haven't taken my GRE yet, so I don't know how that will turn out, but I do think I am near the very top of my class, so I expect to do fairly well. I would love to go into theory(fundamental theory to be exact), but I know with such a tarnished background, that seems rather unlikely to happen, but I will hold out my hopes and just do my best to nail the GRE, which would really help my case I think.
However, I am feeling completely blind as to where to find a school that will take me, and be a good fit. Like I said I would love to do theory, but as far as experiment goes, I suppose gravity or subatomic seem most interesting (though there may be an area I have not yet been exposed to, but out of all my classes I found quantum and relativity to be an absolute joy).
I want to go to the best school I can of course, and my end goal would be working at a research 1 school, but that of course is like winning the lottery, I'd be perfectly happy teaching at any university. I figure another Big 10 school would be my best bet, as I have a great relationship with a lot of the professors here, and I would think getting a letter of recommendation from a colleague that you do research with holds more weight, but they are pretty competitive as I understand it.
So where should I be looking? Has my recent upswing taken care of past problems, or will my overall poor GPA really doom me? What kind of GRE score should I be happy with if I want to show I have a grasp on this stuff?

Also, where can I go to get an idea of fields of research? I know unless I get a 90%+ on the physics GRE I don't have a shot doing Unification stuff. Like I said I really enjoyed QM and Relativity, and the questions they try to answer are the most interesting things in the world to me, they are the reason I chose physics in the first place, but I just have to do what I can with my situation now, and I won't count on acing the GRE.

Thanks P.F., sorry for the novel here...

 

[physics girl phd]

Ouch. Novel. Condense it, especially when it becomes important (nearer to when you apply).

One question in particular: What is your overall GPA expected to be? It's great that you've shown improvement, particularly in the coursework that matters (committees do look for that)... but some graduate schools have 3.5 overall GPA requirements. Some others have 3.25... some 3.0. I think you'll need to check the programs you are interested in for that, and not stretch TOO far on this (in my short experience in a graduate selections committee, we NEVER petitioned anyone in -- although there once was brief talk of doing so for a spouse to another departments' TOP candidate, we decided not to admit to the chagrin of that department).

Also: it's great that you are getting some research experience, and good experience at that. Since you think your application might be sketchy because of the GPA, and that your advisors' strong recommendations will be an asset... I'd really be asking them FIRST about where to apply (not PF).

After these bits of advice to hopefully get you more responders, I'm sorry, but these topics (gravity, astro, unification) AREN'T my best so I can't give you help there.

 

[QuarkCharmer]

Some/Most schools will post information about their graduate students. Things along the lines of "X many students from Y with an average GPA of M and a GRE of N...". That would probably be a good resource to go by to judge your liklihood of getting into said program.

 

[B-80]

Ouch. Novel. Condense it, especially when it becomes important (nearer to when you apply).

One question in particular: What is your overall GPA expected to be? It's great that you've shown improvement, particularly in the coursework that matters (committees do look for that)... but some graduate schools have 3.5 overall GPA requirements. Some others have 3.25... some 3.0. I think you'll need to check the programs you are interested in for that, and not stretch TOO far on this (in my short experience in a graduate selections committee, we NEVER petitioned anyone in -- although there once was brief talk of doing so for a spouse to another departments' TOP candidate, we decided not to admit to the chagrin of that department).

Also: it's great that you are getting some research experience, and good experience at that. Since you think your application might be sketchy because of the GPA, and that your advisors' strong recommendations will be an asset... I'd really be asking them FIRST about where to apply (not PF).

After these bits of advice to hopefully get you more responders, I'm sorry, but these topics (gravity, astro, unification) AREN'T my best so I can't give you help there.

I just had a meeting with the head of graduate admissions asking him just this(in fact part of the reason I posted this was to gather my thoughts).
He was the first person who I worked for, so we have a pretty good relationship, he tried to put it nicely to me, and he basically said if I do poorly on the GRE, it'll be all but impossible to get in anywhere, and if I do fantastic (90%+) no one will care about my old grades. He said I should apply to 3-4 top 20 schools, 3-4 middle level (20-40), and as many lower ranked schools which have some interesting research going on as I can.
In all, I just have another thing to stress about now which is the physics GRE. I just look forward to the day when I can look back at messing up and laugh rather than cry because I have to be perfect now.

Some/Most schools will post information about their graduate students. Things along the lines of "X many students from Y with an average GPA of M and a GRE of N...". That would probably be a good resource to go by to judge your liklihood of getting into said program.

This is tough, I feel like I should have right around a 3.0 when I am applying, but it's very hard to pull up a 2.0 (currently I have about a 2.9)

 

[The_Duck]

physicsgre.com is a good place to try to figure out admissions standards of various schools. http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3421" is this year's thread where 150 people posted information about their grad school application profile, where they applied, and where they got in. There are similar threads for 2010, 2009, and 2008. If you just take some time to read through these, you'll probably get as good a sense as you can of what different schools' admission standards are like.

 

[B-80]

physicsgre.com is a good place to try to figure out admissions standards of various schools. http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3421" is this year's thread where 150 people posted information about their grad school application profile, where they applied, and where they got in. There are similar threads for 2010, 2009, and 2008. If you just take some time to read through these, you'll probably get as good a sense as you can of what different schools' admission standards are like.

Awesome thread man, thanks. It seems like I legit have no chance to get into a top 20 school, but I should have a chance somewhere.

 

[Mororvia]

Back in the day when I was searching for schools I liked: http://www.gradschoolshopper.com/

Many or most of the schools that come up in the results will have a fact sheet that lists average GPA, GRE scores, etc. I'm not sure how often it gets updated so searching for specialties may not be entirely accurate. You can always visit the school's website though and see what they have to offer for research.

FWIW, I applied and got into a masters program in physics with a low undergraduate GPA (~2.8 overall, not much higher in math/physics) with an increasing grade trend, somewhat below average General GRE scores and no research experience. Surely you can find a place too, but you should be willing to have a broad search of areas.