Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Hi everyone,
I just got into Cornell for CMT, but my research advisor at my home university basically said that its not a good place for CMT, but CME.
Any thoughts?

Saying it's "not a good place" is a little silly. They are better in CME than they are in in CMT, certainly, and there are definitely better places for CMT out there, but it's a damn good place for CMT overall. The CMT faculty aren't exhaustive, so make sure you have a couple good options before you commit (same goes for anywhere).

grae313 wrote:Saying it's "not a good place" is a little silly. They are better in CME than they are in in CMT, certainly, and there are definitely better places for CMT out there, but it's a damn good place for CMT overall. The CMT faculty aren't exhaustive, so make sure you have a couple good options before you commit (same goes for anywhere).

Hi grae313, thanks for the reply. I guess what I was trying to say was that it isn't one of the best places to do CMT (then again thats relative to an extent). I'm waiting to hear back from other schools, and I actually like the work that some of the professors at Cornell are doing. But from what I've heard from seniors, their work is a bit cutoff from the mainstream topics. Idk if that gave you a better picture of what I wanted to say.

In my opinion, Cornell is the best school you've been accepted to for CMT. I'm actually quite certain of this! But seriously, don't let the doubts creep in and ruin your excitement, revel in your fellowship and the hard work that got you it.

You shouldn't worry about what your professor has said about any given place; it's my firm belief that when a program excites you, you should go for it, regardless of rankings or external opinions. You have to find an advisor you'll want for 6 years, in a place you can stand living in for that long, with people you can be friends with for the foreseeable future.

Oh, and as a theorist, I find the multiplicity of experimental groups to be of more use than having a wide variety of other theorists to talk to. It keeps you grounded in the state-of-the-science experimentation. As long as there are a couple advisors you would like to work for at Cornell, I'd not worry one bit about the state of their theory group.

How do you feel about living in a small (and very cold for a lot of the year) college town, very far from the nearest big cities? Also, you should check out the CMT faculty out at arxiv.org and see if you'd enjoy working on the kinds of problems they like.

King Vitamin wrote:How do you feel about living in a small (and very cold for a lot of the year) college town, very far from the nearest big cities? Also, you should check out the CMT faculty out at arxiv.org and see if you'd enjoy working on the kinds of problems they like.

I think I would be fine with living in a small city etc. etc. But my main reason for asking the question was that I don't really understand whether the research CMT prof.s at cornell are doing is what a lot of CMT people are doing at other places or is it um, different (for the lack of my words in my vocabulary). A postdoc at Berkeley said " Within strongly correlated condensed matter theory, there focus is a bit different than, say,
MIT/Berkeley/UCSB/Harvard (the four places I am most familiar with)"
I wasn't able to interpret that very well. I would like to work on something more in touch with reality, like spintronics, but not at the cost of being cut-off from the scientific community at large (pardon my words).

Could anyone give me an insight as to what 'kind' of work is going on in the Cornell in the CMT department?

Thanks

Ok, well just being an undergraduate in your same position I have trouble stating broadly what all of the condensed matter theorists at Cornell are doing. However, I am mostly interested in strongly correlated systems, and I agree that Cornell is less focused on that than the other schools you mentioned. However, I know a couple faculty there who have done some interesting work in that area. For someone such as myself who would like to work in the field, that's less than ideal, but if you're interested in other topics that are more common at Cornell, then you should strongly consider it. Since strongly correlated systems are so popular, there will still be interesting work being done at Cornell and I'm sure you'll still be able to familiarize yourself with the work.

Of course, if you get into a place such as UIUC, you'll have no trouble finding your preferred focus in condensed matter while still staying in touch with all others.