Physics GRE Discussion Forums

i was browsing this website http://www.gradschoolshopper.com/
i am confused about the no of applicants applying..
say you go for UMD physics.. then you see that there were around 660 applicants. 660 applicants??? only ??
from all over the world???

am i missing something.. i thought no of applicants will be in the order of 4000-5000 or even more..

no, that sounds right. admission rates for physics phd applications are usually on the ballpark order of 10%. The more competitive (or sometimes just smaller) ones are closer to 5%. If there were thousands of applicants, spots would only go to the top 1 or 2%. There aren't nearly that many ppl looking to get physics phds.

We are not going to med school where you will see those kind of applications. Consider this, most schools have maybe 50 to 60 physics majors compared to hundreds if not thousands of pre-meds

blackcat007 wrote:i thought no of applicants will be in the order of 4000-5000 or even more..

Dude, there aren't that many first year graduate students in the entire United States, never mind applying to one school!

Keep in mind that only ~5,500 bachelor degrees handed out in the US every year, and under 40% continue to grad school in physics. International students increase the number of applicants, but to no where near the levels you're thinking of.

Helio wrote: Consider this, most schools have maybe 50 to 60 physics majors

Not even that many.