Profile Evaluation

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cmttime
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue May 03, 2022 9:21 am

Profile Evaluation

Post by cmttime » Sun May 08, 2022 12:29 pm

This may be too early for this but I'm applying for Fall 2023 and would like someone to guide me a bit on the schools I should be targeting, so I can spend some time researching and finalizing over the summer.

Undergrad Institution: Private Research University in Pakistan (One of the best in the country but I don't know if that counts for much)
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): Math
GPA in Major: Unknown
Overall GPA: 3.93
Length of Degree: 3.95
Position in Class: Top 2 in my physics batch (of around 20 people)
Type of Student: International South Asian

GRE: Haven't taken yet, would ideally like to not take it if possible
TOEFL: I'm confident I can get a good score in this

Research Experience: I have been working on a research project on computational quantum mechanics since last summer, that's more geared toward pedagogy. We will hopefully submit it for publication in the coming month and my professor is confident about it. I also worked for a long while on a quantum control/decoherence project with another professor (and his PhD student) for a 6-7 months, but this ended up not producing anything to show for it. I did end up learning a lot from it, and I intend to work with the same professor over the summer again. During this semester, we had our advanced physics laboratory and this involved significant bits of what felt like was research (we were asked to perform novel experiments and build apparatus and test it), but I don't know if that would count. I also finished review projects for courses in GR (on Fibre Bundles and connections) as well as a course on special topics in CMP (I worked on the integer quantum hall effect). I will also work on a bachelor's thesis starting in Fall and that could count as research. This project will hopefully be directly related to theoretical condensed matter, which I intend on pursuing.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's honour list in all years, I got a merit scholarship for 100% for two years and 50% for another.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: I worked as a teaching assistant for a quantum mechanics I course. I worked as trainee in an NMR laboratory and learned how to use the machine and analyze data. I also took part in a student-professor partnership program regarding a new course on Linear Algebra that was being offered where I helped design the course and obtained student feedback and helped build resources. I have been an active member of the school's mathematics society and helped organize a seminar series on mathematical physics (on a very small scale).

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: N/A

Special Bonus Points: I am confident that I'll get a very strong rec letter from the professor I've worked with on the computational qm project. I have taken a few grad courses (QFT and a special topics course in CMP).

Applying to Where: I want to apply for Condensed Mattery Theory and the following places would be absolutely amazing:
UIUC - There are multiple professors here that seem to be doing things that I would love to be doing
UMD, College Park - same as the above
Perimeter Institute Scholars program - The idea of the whole program sounds very cool to me and a

Of course, then there are the ivies etc. MIT/Brown/Stanford seem very intriguing to me but I don't know if it's worth applying there given some of the profiles I've seen of people who have gotten into those schools.

Some Questions:
1. How likely is it that I get into any of the schools above? Are they reach or do they match my profile?
2. What are some other schools that I should look into for CMT? Particularly, for topological materials. I have tried looking but I would love suggestions. I would be interested in places outside the US too (a master's program works too as long as it is funded)
3. When should I start contacting professors etc. Is right now too early?
4. An aside, but would you include course projects on your cv or sop. I feel like I want to especially the quantum hall one since that's the closest thing I've done to cmt and I feel like maybe I haven't done enough stuff directly related to what I want to pursue yet.
5. How likely is it that I'll be able to get into a great grad school without giving the GRE (general or physics). It would take a significant chunk of time I could use for research over the summer and would be really hard for me to afford it. I was hoping that my GPA would be sufficient to cover the gre gap up but I am not sure

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

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

Re: Profile Evaluation

Post by geekusprimus » Sun May 08, 2022 4:03 pm

International profiles are always hard to gauge, but your GPA looks good, and if your spoken English mirrors your written, you'll do well on your TOEFL.
  • Those are all very competitive programs. I'd say your odds are as good as anyone else's, so they're definitely worth applying to.
  • I'm not an expert in condensed matter, but I know my institution (Penn State) has a very well regarded condensed matter group. They have several faculty working on topological materials (both experimental and theoretical), and there are very rich collaborations between materials science, engineering, chemistry, and physics here for condensed matter. Penn State is probably a little easier to get into than any of those institutions, but I would still aim for some safety schools in case it's a bad year for admissions at these schools.
  • Depends on what you're asking for. If all you want to know is a little bit about their research and if they're anticipating openings in their group, it might be better to wait until around late September or October (after classes start but before you start working on your own applications). If you've got other reasons to contact them (internships, etc.), by all means, start as soon as seems reasonable.
  • I think this depends on the scope of the project and what else you've got on your CV. If it didn't produce anything novel but offered a pretty deep dive into modern research, it might be helpful to mention in your SOP as something that helped guide your interests. If it was just a quick project deriving the basic equations from a textbook or some old papers, probably don't mention it. In either case, I would leave it off your CV unless there's absolutely nothing else to put on there. But also talk to your professors and see what they think.
  • This is a tough question. A lot of schools stopped requiring the GRE and PGRE due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it's not clear how many will start requiring them again as COVID continues to evolve. The other difficulty is that it can be difficult to compare international undergraduate degrees to American undergraduate degrees, especially if your school doesn't really have a reputation (good or bad) outside your home country (which it might, I don't know. That being said, the quality of your written English is probably a good sign about your education as a whole). The PGRE, as flawed as it is, is nice for admissions committees because it provides a standardized way to compare an international physics curriculum to what is expected in an American institution, at least on a fairly basic level. I think taking the GRE would be a good thing if you can make it work, but also get your professors' opinions. The alternative is that you can also look for programs that don't even accept the PGRE. There are some excellent schools (Michigan, for example), that won't even take it. (Also, I would double check these schools that don't require the PGRE to see if they still require the general GRE.)

cmttime
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue May 03, 2022 9:21 am

Re: Profile Evaluation

Post by cmttime » Mon May 09, 2022 8:42 am

Thank you so much for the detailed response!

gaugeinvariance
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2020 6:33 am

Re: Profile Evaluation

Post by gaugeinvariance » Mon May 09, 2022 11:51 am

Your profile looks good. UIUC is the best school for Condense Matter Theory and is also listed as Top 10 in physics (check out the US News ranking), so it would be extremely tough, good luck!!!!!



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