Profile Evaluation and advice on where to go

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Ady
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2023 5:26 pm

Profile Evaluation and advice on where to go

Post by Ady » Fri Apr 21, 2023 2:54 pm

Current Junior (class of 24)

Institution: Bsc at large state school with decent physics rep
Major(s): Physics
Minors(s): Math, Computer Science
GPA in Major: 3.926
GPA: 3.688
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: My best guess is top 25% but not sure past that point
Type of Student: Domestic Asian Male

GRE: Haven't taken yet

TOEFL: NA

Research Experience: Did a nuclear physics project which involved identifying peaks and determining their energy levels during my sophomore year. Did this through a C++ and ROOT program that I believe the professor will be using for his data analysis, but the timeline on a paper is very vague and I doubt I will be an author. Did Dark Matter research over my Junior year which resulted in 1 nth author paper, 1 3rd author paper, and possibly one 1st author paper on a potential dark matter candidate and calculating its annihilation cross section. I accepted a SULI offer earlier in the semester for a project in HEP that is programming based. Currently working with a professor with a potential to do my honors thesis with him on a quantum computing project but no real details have been confirmed yet. However I will be writing an honors thesis, just unsure as to the topic and under which professor yet.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's List a few times, and Honors Physics

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Student Instruction Leader for E&M course, and IT job during most semesters of college with only 2 semesters without work, one being during the covid year. Internship at a publicly traded energy company where I worked on creating a machine learning program to help with detecting leaks in pipelines. Participated in the annual physics festival my school holds with a few thousand attendants 2 times and created demos for both.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: I believe all the professors that I have worked with so far are willing to write me recommendation letters, and I can also reach out to my boss at my internship to possibly get another.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Grandfather was invited to research at one of the universities below from my native country, but rejected it due to health circumstances, but its a big reason as to why I would love to go there.

Applying to Where: Want to specialize in quantum information/quantum computing mostly on the theoretical side, but I also am not super sure as to field specification. I am tempted to stay in my current state due to a long term relationship, but I haven't fully fledged it out.

DAMN
MIT
UChicago
Caltech
REACH
Rice
UIUC
Harvard
SICK
GIT
Austin
Umich- Ann Arbor

These are in order of difficulty and I cant judge how much of a reach most of these are. I am also questioning just going for a job after in case admissions don't go my way or its unfavorable. Any help is extremely appreciated.



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