Hello everybody,
I recently received my PGRE scores and it's time for some hard questions, but first let me put things into perspective. I completely bombed the exam to put it lightly (due to my own failure to properly study for it) with a scaled score of 470 putting me in the 4th percentile and I'm very worried about what that will do to my chances. My GPA is sitting at a 3.93 cumulative and 3.95 major on a 4.0 scale. I don't have any publications but I've started doing unofficial (not for credit) research with a professor since the start of this year and will be continuing through at least June. I have no other research to my name. I'm fairly certain my letters will be strong.
So far I've applied to the following so far:
-University of Maryland (College Park)
-University of Washington (Seattle)
-University of Wisconsin (Madison)
-University of Texas (Austin)
-University of Colorado (Boulder)
What do you think my chances are? Are there any schools you think I'd be more likely to get into, perhaps that don't require the GRE? If necessary I'll put off grad school for a year and retake the exam.
Thank you for any feedback you can give.
Edit: For the record, my research interests are in Plasma Physics first and Nuclear Physics second.