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Another Weird Profile

Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2018 11:42 pm
by Gingery
Hey all. I'm not sure if you're supposed to just post your profile and ask for school suggestions here. I thought, anyway, my profile might be unusual enough to warrant it. I want to do HEP theory. Long story short, I've dealt with anxiety, and my GPA is 2.5, but my GRE scores are 85th percentile and I have studied QFT on my own.

Some of the schools I am applying to have a 3.0 GPA minimum, but they will often take steps to make an exception if they want someone who has a lower GPA.

I just have no idea what to expect. It's hard for me to find people in similar situations. Is anyone out there? Or, does anyone have comments about what I should be aiming for and expecting?


Undergrad Institution: University of Arizona
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): None
GPA in Major: 2.8
Overall GPA: 2.54
Length of Degree: 5 (+2 in film major beforehand)
Position in Class: Unknown
Type of Student: Domestic male

GRE Scores : (revised)
Q: 165 (88%)
V: 161 (88%)
W: 3.0 (17%)
P: 920 (86%)


TOEFL: N/A


Research Experience: One junior research project in nonlinear optics as part of my lab class. The research contributed to a grant-funded physics education outreach program for Puerto Rico. I wrote up a nice paper but only considered publishing it to an undergrad research journal in the future.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Nope.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: A lot of self-study. It allowed me to take grad QM I as a junior, and I moved on to self-study QFT and QED. No jobs. Experience with computer sim/modeling and neural networks/machine learning. Mentioning a personal neural network project and a few hobby Python physics modeling projects in my CV.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Happened to have done some volunteer work and spent a week in Mexico helping children.

Special Bonus Points: I speak Chinese and English, so I can help communication with those Chinese PhD students...

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I like video production and I'm pretty okay at it.

Applying to Where:

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - HET / PhD
University of Arizona (U of A) - HET / PhD
University at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo) - HET / PhD
University of California, Riverside (UCR) - HET / PhD
Columbia University (CU) - HET / Master's
Virginia Tech - HET / Master's
University of Washington (UW) - HET / Master's
University of Waterloo (U of W) - HET / Master's
Boston University (BU) - HET / Master's
University of Arizona (U of A) - Quantum Optics / Master's
University of California, Merced - Quantum Optics / PhD
University of Oregon (UO) - HET / PhD
University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) - HET / PhD
University of Victoria (UVic) - HET / Master's
Arizona State University (ASU) - HET / PhD
Univesity of Alberta (UAlberta) - HET / Master's

Re: Another Weird Profile

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2018 5:28 pm
by jabennett2194
I would shoot for it!!!
Granted, your personal statement will have to be incredibly descriptive on how you have worked to come back from your mishaps and needs to show them that you have what it takes to succeed.
I would talk a lot about that^^ but also your Chinese fluency and your point about helping Chinese grad students is awesome! I would talk about that a lot! Talking about outreach if good:D
My concern is the amount of research. I know that in US, PhDs are funded and Masters are not, but if I were on the grad committee I would feel good about offering you the masters admission. Thus, I think it would be wise to look at Canada! If you do a masters there (funded!!!!) that includes a small thesis (masters length not Phd) you will look much more appealing to PhDs in US:) In my opinion!:D

Re: Another Weird Profile

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2018 3:15 am
by Gingery
jabennett2194 wrote:I would shoot for it!!!
Granted, your personal statement will have to be incredibly descriptive on how you have worked to come back from your mishaps and needs to show them that you have what it takes to succeed.
I would talk a lot about that^^ but also your Chinese fluency and your point about helping Chinese grad students is awesome! I would talk about that a lot! Talking about outreach if good:D
My concern is the amount of research. I know that in US, PhDs are funded and Masters are not, but if I were on the grad committee I would feel good about offering you the masters admission. Thus, I think it would be wise to look at Canada! If you do a masters there (funded!!!!) that includes a small thesis (masters length not Phd) you will look much more appealing to PhDs in US:) In my opinion!:D
That was super informative, thanks!
I am already applying to a couple places in Canada though I was worried it would be more competitive as an international applicant. I've been looking at a master's too...I didn't know it could be funded in Canada, that sounds pretty ideal ideal (: Thanks for the encouragement, I'll definitely check this out!
PS, any suggestions on Canadian schools for HEP theory? (I've looked at U of Toronto, U of Alberta, McGill U, U of Victoria, UBC, Carleton U, and SFU, though I'm past the deadlines or below reqs for some.)