I really need your help; Please suggest me a school

[Hansen]

Hi guys,
I'm upset and I need your suggestions to select a school. Here are my scores and experiments:

EDU
Bsc: Aerospace, Strong experiences on Instrumentation, but weak GPA 2.95/4.0
Msc: Aerospace, Planetary Atmosphere modeling, GPA 3.35/4.0
Grad Independent Study: Planetary Atmosphere modeling (Radiative Transfer)
About 10 supplimetary courses on astronomy and space science

Work
Principal Investigator of an Aerial Vehicle project
Principal Investigator of a Space project
Director of some national scientific festivals

Pub
About 15 conference papers + some in arXiv (I can publish my recent works in ApJ or Icarus, too)

Not really strong recommendation letters

Scores
iBT: 84! (R:15- L:25- S:20- W:24)
GRE-g: Q790-V250-W1.5!!! (I can improve it up to Q800-V400-W3.5 but not more right now)
GRE-ph: 650-45% (I know it’s too bad- can improve up to 800)

Honors & Prizes
6 national prizes on scientific competitions
1 excellent student award at my Bsc degree

Interests: Extra solar Planets and Planetary Atmospheres

I'm in hurry plz help me

[Ft437w]

That's not how this forum works. Look at the applicant profiles of people with similar backgrounds and see how they fared during the admissions process. These can be found at the top of the Prospective Physics Graduate Student Topics forum.

[matonski]

Also, I don't think there's a need to hurry. Applications for most schools aren't due for about 10 months.

[Hansen]

That's not how this forum works. Look at the applicant profiles of people with similar backgrounds and see how they fared during the admissions process. These can be found at the top of the Prospective Physics Graduate Student Topics forum.

I know it! But there is no one accepted here with these scores. This forum needs a part for bad score guys and a part for UnivRank>50.

Still I'm waiting for a suggestion.

[mobytish]

Then my suggestion is to work on improving the score or look up some of the threads discussing safety schools, which are more likely to accept low scores.

[Hansen]

Then my suggestion is to work on improving the score or look up some of the threads discussing safety schools, which are more likely to accept low scores.

Tanx dude
But, I'm looking forward to hearing from you guys, too.

[YellowXDart]

Nobody is going to do the work for you. It's too late to submit any applications for this year anyway, so maybe you should work on improving your test scores and apply for 2010-2011.

[HappyQuark]

Although the general purpose of the forum profiles is to help people figure out which programs to apply to without having to ask, In this instance I think Hansen's situation is a bit more unique so it may deserve more specific input. Here is my advice/comments/questions in bullet point fashion

-- Slow down and calm down. The deadlines to prepare/apply for 2010 grad programs has long since passed, and you have many months before you really should be feeling pressured for the 2011 year. It is Mid March now meaning you have 7-8 months to prepare and retake the PGRE (depending on whether you take the October or November test). Is there some reason that I'm not seeing that you should be saying, "in hurry plz help me "?

--Your undergrad GPA is low but you may be able to use it to your advantage as long as you "sell yourself" by emphasizing that your GPA went up 0.4 points in your Master program. By "sell yourself" I mean convince the admissions committee that you excel at research and advanced topics and this resulted in a higher GPA so as to not suggest that your GPA went up simply because graduate grading is notoriously relaxed.

-- If you can improve on your PGRE scores that would be good, and like I said, you've got roughly 7 months of study time to prepare so you probably could do even better than an 800 if you put in the effort.

-- As for specific recommendations for planetary physics/astronomy, I'm afraid I can't be of much help. What I would recommend doing is figuring out a few areas of interest (which I suppose you already did with the Exo-planets and atmospheres comment) and try to figure out specific departments and researchers who are working in these areas and if possible find departments that have a significant population of faculty working in that department. This will increase your chances of working with faculty that you will like (as well as giving you more room to move around if you get stuck with an advisor that you can't stand working with) and working on topics that you enjoy.