Cosmology Schools
Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2015 4:27 pm
I am an international student from South Africa applying for grad school in the States. I want to focus on cosmology (theoretical/observational/combination of the two), and I would really appreciate some feedback on which schools to apply to, especially good safety school suggestions.
My general GRE scores are 170, 170 and 5. I don't have physics results yet (the suspense is killing me!) but I scored between 890 and 950 on the practice tests. We don't use GPAs here, but my average for undergrad was 96%. I am completing my Master's, so I have some research experience (mainly CMB lensing and some HI), but won't have publications by the time the applications are due.
My list so far is
Princeton
Chicago
Berkeley
Harvard
MIT
Ohio State
Johns Hopkins
UPenn
Cornell
U of Michigan
Arizona State
U of Illinois Urbana Champaign
U of Washington
I would really appreciate any advice on good cosmology safety schools (and professors at those schools I should look into), and also just any good cosmology schools or people that I'm missing, or any schools on my list that maybe aren't so great for any reason.
As a side note, I would love opinions on whether it is really a good idea to email Profs you want to work with: it feels so contrived to send the standard 'I loved your paper and want to work with you' spiel. Does it really improve your chances of getting in?
Thanks in advance!
My general GRE scores are 170, 170 and 5. I don't have physics results yet (the suspense is killing me!) but I scored between 890 and 950 on the practice tests. We don't use GPAs here, but my average for undergrad was 96%. I am completing my Master's, so I have some research experience (mainly CMB lensing and some HI), but won't have publications by the time the applications are due.
My list so far is
Princeton
Chicago
Berkeley
Harvard
MIT
Ohio State
Johns Hopkins
UPenn
Cornell
U of Michigan
Arizona State
U of Illinois Urbana Champaign
U of Washington
I would really appreciate any advice on good cosmology safety schools (and professors at those schools I should look into), and also just any good cosmology schools or people that I'm missing, or any schools on my list that maybe aren't so great for any reason.
As a side note, I would love opinions on whether it is really a good idea to email Profs you want to work with: it feels so contrived to send the standard 'I loved your paper and want to work with you' spiel. Does it really improve your chances of getting in?
Thanks in advance!