What is Grad: Definition and 1000 Discussions

Hi. I am hoping to pursue high energy physics in graduate school. I have a few extra math electives I need to take for my math degree(majoring in math and physics). I was wondering if these classes would be of any real relevance Abstract Algebra Algebraic Geometry Lie AlgebrasDifferential...

I recently got back my final marks for the first half of my courses (3rd year physics in Spain) and am getting a little frustrated at the fact that my marks don't reflect the work I've put into them. Grades in my country's system work as follows: "Aprobado" (5.0-6.9/10) "Notable"...

Hi. I am currently studying pure mathematics in the University of Waterloo, Canada. I am graduating next year and I wish to study pure or applied mathematics in States. I have some questions about my GPA and grad schools in States that I may apply to. If I suppose that I can keep up the grades I...

Hello everyone, I have been a reader of this forum for quite some time and so I've read plenty on this topic. I have a question though... When applying to graduate schools most people first think about rankings (and then all other factors come in - research specialities, location, atmosphere...

So I'm graduating in a little under two weeks with a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The thing is, having looked at my transcript, I did way way better in my Chem (3.66 GPA) and Physics courses (3.4 GPA, though we were only required to take the introductory level Physics courses)...

I am board certified Dosimetrist (CMD) and have been accepted to a Medical Physics Graduate Program but it is NOT Campep approved. If I attend and graduate will I be able to get into a Campep approved medical physics residency? Will I be dramatically less competitive vs. Phd applicants. I have a...

I am entering the final year of my undergraduate studies. From what I understand, it is fairly common for students to apply to grad school halfway through their final year. However, I am thinking of working for a couple of years before applying to grad school. Would that hamper my chances of...

First of all just joined and wanted to say hello. I am starting at a 4 year in the Fall after some work at a community college. I am looking on advice on which path i should take for my grad work. Right now the goal is studying, then hoping to find a career, studying gravity and magnetic...

I am currently majoring in Applied Physics and have an interest in electronic devices and material properties. I am applying to grad school in the fall and having trouble deciding between Material Science, Physics, and EE. I am currently leaning towards EE but was wondering if anyone here had...

Comsol grant? Hey PF, I'm a grad student and I have an idea, which I would like to explore using COMSOL. Unfortunately, this software appears to be prohibitively expensive. Does anyone know of any grant/scholarship opportunities available that I might apply for, or perhaps where to look? My...

Do they only look at gpa and transcripts? Would there be anything else they look at?

Hi, I'm freshman studying physics in the University of Patras (an unknown but demanding unversity but in Greece). My grades are good (3.2-3.7/4.0) and I have excellent recommendations. I just want to know what are the odds of getting into a great university in the USA (MIT, Princeton, Berkeley...

So I just got my PGRE score back and received a somewhat disappointing 820/76% I was wondering if applying to top schools like Stanford and Berkeley for a physics PhD is out the question now. I go to a big state school with a top 50ish physics program for undergrad with a GPA/Major GPA of...

Hello all, This is very long and I apologize! I tend to be somewhat thorough, haha. I have a couple of things that have been weighing on my mind that I hope someone may have some insight on. Mainly, I am concerned with my preparation for grad school. Specifically I am worried about my...

I aspire to getting into a reputable US physics grad school. As I'm aware of so far (correct me if I'm wrong), there are 4 main things grad schools look at: (in no particular order) 1. Your GPA 2. Your research experience 3. Recommendation letters 4. Your physics GRE score Do any of...

I should begin by stating that I'm going to be a college Freshman this upcoming fall, and I plan on majoring in Physics. I took Multivariable Calculus at my local community college, and I did not receive too good of a grade in the class because I couldn't attend the lectures (they were at the...

Greetings. I plan to apply for the PhD program in physics at the the University of Miami. I want to go there because it is in my home town. Its physics department, it seems, is not stellar. My real disappoinment is the apparent lack of courses: they teach statistical mechanics, quantum...

Hi, I am a rising sophomore at Lehigh University. Currently, I am a Mech E major with an Aerospace Engr minor. My main interest is Aerospace Engineering, and so i plan on going to grad school(the best ones, obviously) in Aerospace Eng. research. However, I need some advice regarding choosing...

I feel very comfortable doing this because I've taken numerical analysis and written a short term paper on numerical approximations for PDEs. I am very strong in linear algebra and have calc I/II. The reason I ask for advice is because I have just graduated from undergrad with a degree in...

I will be starting my first year as a phd physics student in the fall. I'm trying to get everything I need to start my first year of grad school. The one thing I'm not sure of is whether I should get a laptop or a desktop for graduate school. I am going into theorectical amo. Also I plan to...

Greetings! Maybe a silly little question but here goes. Suppose that a couple that are both in the same department and are about to finish their studies at about the same time and both want to apply for some postgraduate program at the same department (or at least the same town/city). Is...

I was wondering if there was any particular difficulty in going from a Physics undergraduate program to graduate program in Optics/Photonics. Let's say to an Optics college such as the one at UCF (http://www.creol.ucf.edu/) I still have my upper level Physics classes to take so is there any...

Hi Guys (and Gals), I hope no one minds that I posted this in "Academic Guidance", but I figured this is something you all have dealt with... I'm starting graduate school in the fall and I'm looking to buy a new laptop. I will be traveling on the train/bus with it daily so I want something on...

Hello all. I'm sorry if this is a long post but I would love to hear from someone who got into a masters or Ph.D. program in robotics, machine learning, or data mining. I really would just like to know how my chances are of going to a good school and earning financial support for it...

Before I begin, I am still a year removed from applying to grad schools. However, it never hurts to read up on some information beforehand. How binding and obligatory is the initial declaration of area of interest on the application? In other words, once you get into grad school, can you...

Hello, I am a student currently in my junior year that is starting to narrow down his graduate school search. I am primarily looking at Canadian schools for grad school at the moment, and I was just looking for some advice as to which schools would be the best ones for me to apply to. The...

I am a 28 year old community college student who is about to finish his last semester before "transferring". I put that in quotes because I was actually denied acceptance to all of the schools that I applied to. I have a bachelor's in computing arts, and it seems to be the worst time ever to...

I just finished my freshmen year with a 3.5 gpa which isn't anything amazing. My gpa in the sciences, however, is a 3.75. If I continue along this path maintaining a fairly high gpa in the sciences, will prospective grad schools overlook the not-so-good overall gpa and just focus on my science...

Hello, I'll be graduating in one year with a BS in Physics and a BS in Applied Mathematics. I've done research in Astrophysics and Photovoltaics, and I'm considering pursuing a graduate degree (either MS or PhD) in Material Science Engineering. I've looked at various school websites and it...

Hi, I am a sophomore physics major. Down the road I could see myself applying for physics, engineering, math, or economics graduate school. I'm assuming down the road I'll of narrowed it down depending on the course work I go through and how my interests change. So when applying to graduate...

For example there is geophysics, space physics, biophysics, medical physics. Are there any other physics grad programs besides pure physics? Just trying to look at all the options.

I am a first year student (canadian citizen) at the University of Toronto in Canada- It's a pretty big university so hopefully someone will know their policies and what not. I'll get straight to the point- I totally flunked first year. I failed 2 courses and received a very low gpa. I'm...

I wonder if this is a good schedule to take in the Spring for my M.S? I've been taking 4 classes + doing research in the last 2 quarters of my undergrad, and even though it's pretty stressful, I've been surviving. I am doing no research year 1. I may be TAing however. Spring would be this...

Hi! I've been searching the web trying to find out the average GPA's of undergraduates in physics who were accepted to Princeton, Caltech, Chicago, MIT, Cornell, etc... with no luck. Could someone enlighten me as to the approximate tiers of difficulty and the corresponding ~GPA's? On...

So here's the story. I am a 20 years old student about to finish his B.Sc in Physics in Leipzig (I will get my degree this very semester), and the situation which I am facing right now is a bit troublesome for my future. Even though I am getting my bachelor in physics, I want to do my master...

Hi everyone. I am a EU national that did a large part of his education in the US. Upon graduating from a US high school, I got into a big IT school of my choice and had a good future ahead of of me. However, due number of reasons including a lack of emotional maturity, wrong choice of major, bad...

Hey, So I was hoping to get anyones opinion on a situation I'm in. I'm currently planning on graduating in 4 years with a honors in mathematics and physics (it would entail a thesis in math and some research credit in physics). I'm on track to complete that, however, I'm currently thinking of...

I understand the importance of letters of recommendation for grad school applications. My question is: ideally, how much should my recommender know about me? I ask this because I study in a top, big research school in which the interaction between the undergrad researcher and the PI is very...

How important is your GPA for grad school admissions? I study in a very competitive college (top 3 in physics) and, for most classes, even though grade inflation exists, getting an A+ can be extremely hard (top 5%) and require substantially more work than getting an A (which isn't that hard). Do...

Homework Statement r=xi+yj+zk and r =\sqrt{x^2 + y^2 + z^2} Let f(r) be a C2 scalar function Prove that \nablaf = \frac{1}{2}\frac{df}{dr}r Homework Equations Vector identities? The Attempt at a Solution \nablaf = (\frac{df}{dx} , \frac{df}{dy} , \frac{df}{dz})...

So I'm finished with all my core requirements, and I want to major in math or physics. I was wondering if grad schools would have a problem with perhaps the following Analysis II (Rudin) Modern Algebra Elementary Topology Differential Geometry (Spivak) My question is, would a grad...

Hi all, I just got into NYU-POLY for graduate school in electrical engineering. I didn't really know much about the school before applying, I just thought NYU sounded good so I applied there. I applied to three other schools but I haven't heard back from them, and I may not as I might have...

Hello. I am a Junior in high school. I have a 4.0 GPA, got an 1820 on the SAT, and a 31 on the ACT. I have participated in the honors all-state band, and been in many extra-curriculur activities throughout high school. I am, however, upset with myself. My first two years of high school...

Hey Guys. I was wondering if having a minor would be important for applying to graduate school in pure math. I realized about 2 months ago that if I want to keep a minor in my degree either: 1. I have to take six courses in the winter semester (2 upper math, 2upper physics, 1 2nd year stats...

So, I'll be going to grad school in condensed matter physics in a couple years, and since my current laptop is on it's last legs I'll need a new computer. However, I do still have a nice monitor which still works. As I see it, I have two options: 1. Get a new laptop, and hook it up to the...

Hi. I've been lurking the forums for quite some time now, but I haven't found an answer to what I wanted to know. I'm currently an undergrad double majoring in Applied Physics and "Computer Systems" (a.k.a., Computer Engineering, they just changed the name) from a "not-that-bad"...

I will be entering my third year of undergrad this fall in the process of earning my Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. My current stats for school such as GPA is 3.74 (no research experience, already taking upper-level undergrad mathematics courses, maybe a few grad courses). However, I am...

I am interested in going to graduate school for biophysics. I'm currently majoring in biological engineering although I've been considering changing my major to physics. I've been considering the change partly because I feel as though it will better prepare me for biophysics graduate programs...

I'm a first-year grad student studying physics. I've always heard that grades in grad school don't matter too much; just maintain at least a 3.0 GPA, or whatever the minimum is to maintain funding, and everything's fine. Since "grades don't matter," I haven't put too much focus on...