Profile Evaluation and Shortlisting Schools

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Raychaudhuri
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Oct 31, 2020 5:43 am

Profile Evaluation and Shortlisting Schools

Post by Raychaudhuri » Sat Oct 31, 2020 6:10 am

DEGREES & GPA:

MS Degree from reputed Indian Institute

RELEVANT COURSEWORK:
Electromagnetism, Classical Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Introduction to General Relativity, Advanced course in General Relativity,
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:

Master's thesis topic on General Relativity
Mainly interested in self force and numerical relativity but keeping my options open.
Research Experience 1 year of master's thesis, 4 summer projects and 1 one winter project
Number of Summer Projects: 4 (All in the relevant field)
TOEFL: 103

GRE: Not taken as not required by most schools.

I have prepared a list but as I am very inexperienced any addition/amendment to the list is welcome:

Ambitious:
University of California, Irvine
UT Austin
The Ohio State University
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
University of Miami

Reach
:
New Hampshire
Kent state
University at Buffalo SUNY
University of Kansas
Washington state Uni

For Canada:
University of Calgary
University of Guelph
Simon Fraser University
University of Saskatchewan


Any help will be highly appreciated.
Last edited by Raychaudhuri on Wed Jan 20, 2021 3:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

geekusprimus
Posts: 143
Joined: Sat Jun 08, 2019 1:10 pm

Re: Profile Evaluation and Shortlisting Schools

Post by geekusprimus » Sat Oct 31, 2020 2:19 pm

Mainly interested in self force and numerical relativity but keeping my options open.
Less than half of those schools have numerical relativity programs: UT, NC State, New Hampshire, Washington State, Calgary, and Guelph have at least one person doing it, but that's it. Some US schools to consider that I know have numerical relativity programs include Princeton, Penn State, Rochester Institute of Technology, and BYU. There are groups at Caltech and Cornell, but the faculty in charge might be retiring soon. MIT might have one, too, but I'm not positive on that. I do know that UBC in Canada also has a numerical relativity group.

The other issue with your list is that I think you've misclassified some of the schools. UC Irvine, UT Austin, Ohio State, and Minnesota are all in roughly the same league, but NC State and Miami are not even close.

Raychaudhuri
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Oct 31, 2020 5:43 am

Re: Profile Evaluation and Shortlisting Schools

Post by Raychaudhuri » Sat Oct 31, 2020 3:20 pm

Thanks a lot for the information.

Yes, you are right that about the the schools with numerical relativity field but as I mentioned I am also interested in self force and its related field I made the list keeping in mind that too. But yes I have to research more about the schools.

I would appreciate if you could please tell me unis which would be in my reach as I think Princeton, Penn, Cornell, Caltech are out of my league.

geekusprimus
Posts: 143
Joined: Sat Jun 08, 2019 1:10 pm

Re: Profile Evaluation and Shortlisting Schools

Post by geekusprimus » Sat Oct 31, 2020 5:15 pm

Could you clarify what you mean by "self-force?" That's not an area of research I'm familiar with, and I've only heard it used in the context of the Abraham-Lorentz force. Considering that it's an effect from classical E&M, I'm not sure what area of research would be actively researching it.
I would appreciate if you could please tell me unis which would be in my reach as I think Princeton, Penn, Cornell, Caltech are out of my league.
There are two different universities with "Penn" in their abbreviation: Penn and Penn State. The former refers to the University of Pennsylvania, which is an Ivy League university probably on par with Cornell and not far behind Harvard, Princeton, and the like. The latter is Pennsylvania State University, which is the one I was referring to and is about on par with Minnesota and Ohio State. If you think you've got a shot at Minnesota or Ohio State, you probably have a shot at Penn State, too, although their gravity program, being one of their specialties, will probably be more competitive overall.

As for figuring out where you have good odds of getting in, it's hard to say. I don't know much about Indian schools, and I don't know how a 7.8/10 compares to a US GPA. A naive rescaling to a 4.0 scale gives you a 3.12, which is a bit on the low side for a lot of these schools. That being said, I do know a guy from India who got into some pretty good schools with a sub-7.0 GPA for his B.E., but he also took a year off after graduation and got some fellowships with researchers in his fields of interest. Your shots will depend a lot on what your letters of recommendation look like.



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