Profile Evaluation, copied from reddit

[blackhole343]

UG University - Asian Uni

GPA - Undergrad: Major GPA 3.8x/4, CGPA 3.5x/4

GPA - Master: 3.8x/4

GRE - Physics GRE 990/990

TOEFL/IELTS - Expected somewhere between 90 - 105

Research Paper/Experience - 4 papers in The Astrophysical Journal (APJ)

2 published, 1 accepted, 1 submitted

Work Experience - In a data science company

1 research paper in progress

Academic references - my UG advisor, one assistant professor from the US, one research professor at a very renowned astronomy department

Presentations - attended a lot of virtual conferences.

Target programs (ranked in my favourite order):

1. UIUC (Astro and Physics)
2. Northwestern (Astro and Physics)
3. CU Boulder (Astro and Physics)
4. Gatech (Physics)
5. Columbia (Astro and Physics)
6. Toronto (Astro)
7. Maryland (Astro and Physics)
8. UCSC (Astro)
9. UCSB (Physics)

So I will apply to 14 programs and might add some master programs if needed.

I want to specialize in theoretical/computational Astro

Remark: I dream of becoming a university professor and creating an Astro research team. I mentioned it in the SOP.

Remark: I will turn 26 next year, so I fear that I will be too old to be competitive

[fdiwol]

It is a very excellent profile to me, given the perfect pGRE and a number of published papers. I am no expert(also applying this year lol), but I would add more reaches given this profile. You could talk with your advisors about this.

Also, why are you considering adding a few master's programs if you already had a master's degree(I'm asking because you already had a GPA for master's)?

[blackhole343]

It is a very excellent profile to me, given the perfect pGRE and a number of published papers. I am no expert(also applying this year lol), but I would add more reaches given this profile. You could talk with your advisors about this.

Also, why are you considering adding a few master's programs if you already had a master's degree(I'm asking because you already had a GPA for master's)?

Hi, thanks

I won't add anymore reaches, since I can't find any research that fit my interests (I am interested in high-energy astro simulations, like black holes, neutron stars, plasma, etc ...) so maybe I will add Princeton, but from what I heard, the atmosphere there is mediocre, plus my GPA should prohibit me from being selected by Princeton, so whatever

The so-call elite institution like caltech harvard are heavily biased towards experiment/observations, and I don't like doing these stuff (so boring), and I truly understand it is painful to do things that I don't like, thus better not waste money

I add masters/bridging programs, because if I am not selected this cycle, then I can spend one year researching in the US, and probably apply again

[blackhole343]

a little push

[cosmologyftw]

How about ASU Astrophysics (not Physics)? They have a few people doing simulations, models, and pure theory.

UCSC Physics and Astro also have some great theorists.