2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

  • This has become our largest and most active forum because the physics GRE is just one aspect of getting accepted into a graduate physics program.
  • There are applications, personal statements, letters of recommendation, visiting schools, anxiety of waiting for acceptances, deciding between schools, finding out where others are going, etc.

wwzy
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 7:42 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by wwzy » Tue Jan 14, 2020 8:03 pm

Undergrad Institution: Large state school with a medium reputation in physics
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): Mathematics
GPA in Major: 3.56
Overall GPA: 3.53
Length of Degree: 4
Position in Class: Between top and medium
Type of Student: International male

GRE Scores :
Q: 166 (83%)
V: 159 (89%)
W: 3.5 (39%) :oops:
P: 850 (75%)


TOEFL: Waived


Research Experience: Three years of CME in my undergrad school

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: No

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Research Assistant after graduation

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: No

Special Bonus Points: No

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: 3.69 GPA in junior and senior year

Applying to Where:

Reach:
UMich - Physics - CME - Feb. 25: REJECTED for PhD via email
UW-M - Physics - CME - Feb. 18: REJECTED for PhD via email
UCSD - Physics - CME
OSU - Physics - CME - Feb. 14: ACCEPTED for PhD via email
Penn State- Physics - CME - Feb. 14: ACCEPTED for PhD via email Will Attend!
Match:
UCD - Physics - CME - Feb. 19: ACCEPTED for PhD via email
UCI - Physics - CME - Mar. 3: REJECTED for PhD via email
NYU - Physics - CME
UF - Physics - CME - Feb. 18: ACCEPTED for PhD via email
Purdue - Physics - CME - Feb. 28: REJECTED for PhD via email
UCSC - Physics - CME - Feb. 27: REJECTED for PhD via email
Pitt - Physics - CME

Safe:
ISU - Physics - CME - Feb. 25: ACCEPTED for PhD via email
UMass - Physics - CME - Jan. 16: ACCEPTED for PhD via email
USC - Physics - CME
Virginia Tech - Physics - CME - Feb. 7: ACCEPTED for PhD via email
Last edited by wwzy on Sun Mar 08, 2020 12:44 am, edited 22 times in total.

salamander
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 10:26 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by salamander » Tue Jan 14, 2020 10:37 pm

Undergrad Institution: Large state school with a medium reputation in physics
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): Mathematics
GPA in Major: 3.528
Overall GPA: 3.884
Length of Degree: 4
Position in Class: Near top
Type of Student: White female

GRE Scores :
Q: 164 (84%)
V: 160 (86%)
W: 5.0 (92%)
P: 630 (34%) :roll:

Research Experience: One year of condensed matter research, no publications

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Two physics scholarships, dean's list all semesters

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: 2 grad classes

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:
All hep-th

UChicago Feb 11: Rejected for Ph.D via email
UPenn Feb 13: Rejected for Ph.D via email
Brown Jan. 30: Rejected for Ph.D via email
UMichigan Feb 24: Rejected for Ph.D via email
Michigan State
Penn State
UIUC Feb 20: Accepted for Ph.D via email
UFlorida Feb 11: Accepted for Ph.D via email
RPI

Update: Acceptance for UFlorida was in spam folder
Last edited by salamander on Tue Feb 25, 2020 1:02 pm, edited 7 times in total.

shortsighted_batman
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2020 12:07 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by shortsighted_batman » Wed Jan 15, 2020 12:25 pm

Undergrad Institution: Top 10 in India (Bachelor's and Master's both)
Major(s): Physics
Overall GPA: 8.54 on 10.0 scale
Length of Degree: 3+2
Position in Class: Near Top

GRE Scores :
Q: 151 (52%)
V: 160 (74%)
W: 4.5 (81%)
P: 770 (62%)


TOEFL: (R:28 , L: 25, S:28 , W: 24)


Research Experience: 1 year Nanotechnology research during Bachelors, 1 year Astrophysics research during Masters, Another 2 months research at a different institute, 1 Research paper, 1 Individual conference Posters, 3 team posters.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Awarded summer research fellowship from Indian Academy of sciences to carry out research at any astrophysics institute

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Some amount of TA, some online teaching
Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: fully funded visit to Japan representing India in science and technology team

Special Bonus Points: Took some grad classes in GR

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: -

Applying to Where:

Penn State - Astronomy - Rejected via e-mail (28th Jan)
UConn - Physics - Stellar Evolution
UVirginia - Astronomy - Stellar Evolution
Southern Methodist Uni - Physics - Particle Astrophysics - Accepted on Feb 7th (e-mail to check website)
Boston University - Physics - Particle Astrophysics
UC Merced - Physics - Stellar Evolution
UDelaware - Physics - Stellar Evolution
Last edited by shortsighted_batman on Mon Feb 10, 2020 12:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

drifter
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2020 1:40 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by drifter » Wed Jan 15, 2020 2:31 pm

Undergrad Institution: Midwest, highly ranked state school (top 25 for physics)
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): N/A
GPA in Major: 3.5 (degree institution)
Overall GPA: 3.5 (degree institution) / 2.9 (transfer institution)
Length of Degree: 3 years
Position in Class: Average
Type of Student: Domestic Asian Male

GRE Scores :
Q: 165 (86%)
V: 170 (99%)
W: 5.5 (98%)
P: 850 (75%)


TOEFL: N/A


Research Experience:
  • 1 year undergraduate research at my university in astroparticle physics
  • 3 month fellowship at NASA / JPL in molecular spectroscopy
  • Three publications, one as lead author
  • Five presentations, three talks at APS (not the speaker), two talks at universities (speaker).
Awards/Honors/Recognitions:
  • Dean's List (my university)
  • Research fellowship (my university)
  • Research fellowship (Caltech).
Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
  • Undergraduate TA (2 years)
Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:
  • Military veteran, U.S. Army.
Special Bonus Points:
  • Two graduate courses (Condensed Matter Physics, Quantum Field Theory)
  • One referee was a founder of the ATLAS project at CERN?
  • One referee has a Wikipedia article...
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: N/A

Applying to Where: All Theoretical / Experimental HEP
Beyond Reach:
  • Caltech
Reach:
  • CU Boulder - Rejected February 18th
  • UCLA
  • UC Irvine
  • University of Washington - Accepted February 18th
Match:
  • University of Arizona - Accepted January 30th
  • University of Oregon - Accepted February 1st
Last edited by drifter on Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:08 pm, edited 3 times in total.

math2peters
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Dec 14, 2019 11:58 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by math2peters » Wed Jan 15, 2020 7:56 pm

Undergrad Institution: Not especially well-known big state school, but on the rise
Major(s): Math, Physics
Minor(s): German
GPA in Major: 4.0
Overall GPA: 4.0
Length of Degree: 4.5 years
Position in Class: probably near the top
Type of Student: Domestic White Male

GRE Scores :
Q: 163
V: 168
W: 4.0
P: 910 (85%)


Research Experience:
  • 6 months research experience in computational HEP
  • ~2 years in stellar astrophysics research, all computational, 1st of many authors
  • 3 months in an international internship researching solar cell degradation mechanisms
  • 3 month internship at NASA in experimental gravitational wave research
  • 1 year AMO experimental research

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:
3 big scholarships outside of university
Several university-level scholarships

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
Tutor at university and taking a gap year to work in industry

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:
Really into machine learning, particularly deep learning. This is something I've gotten into in my gap year.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
Withdrew one semester for medical reasons and I'm currently in the middle of a gap year working in industry, also largely for (unrelated) medical reasons. Really hoping to get in so I don't die of boredom in industry.

Applying to Where:
MIT - Astrophysics - Gravitational Wave Physics - ACCEPTED (Interviewed in mid Jan.)
UChicago - Physics - AMO - ACCEPTED (Standard stipend)
Caltech - Physics - AMO/Gravitational Wave Physics - REJECTED (probably, will update if not)
UMD - Physics - AMO - REJECTED (probably, will update if not)
Berkeley - Physics - AMO
CU Boulder - Physics - AMO - ACCEPTED (Standard TA/RA stipend + 3k fellowship)
Rochester - Physics - AMO - ACCEPTED (Standard Stipend)
Last edited by math2peters on Sat Feb 15, 2020 9:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

cat_mama
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2019 12:07 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by cat_mama » Wed Jan 15, 2020 8:29 pm

Undergrad Institution: ivy
Major(s): chemistry
GPA: 3.7
Length of Degree: 4 yrs
Type of Student: domestic woman

GRE Scores :
Q: 170 (96%)
V: 161 (88%)
W: 4.5 (81%)
P: 760 (60%)

Research Experience:
- 3 summers, 2 semesters

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
- tutored intro chemistry/physics/math classes (2 yrs), graded hw for math/physics classes (1 yr)

Special Bonus Points:
- 3 strong research-based rec letters
- interdisciplinary academic background
- professional software developer

Applying to Where: (all for Physics PhD in CME)
UIUC - Dec. 12: ACCEPTED for PhD via email ($25K/yr + $1K of 1 sem TA + 1 sem RA + dept fellowship)
UW Seattle - Jan. 13: ACCEPTED for PhD via email ($43K/yr TA + one time $8.5K award)
UCSB - Jan. 29: ACCEPTED for PhD ($32K/yr TA with option to switch to RA after finding research group)
MIT - Feb 12: REJECTED via website
Harvard - Feb 13: REJECTED via website
UChicago - Feb 11: REJECTED via website
Stanford - Feb 11: ACCEPTED for PhD via email ($45K/yr of 3 quarter RA/1 quarter TA)
UC Berkeley - Feb 20: REJECTED via website
Caltech - Feb 19: REJECTED via website
Cornell - Feb 21: ACCEPTED for PhD via email ($31K/yr of TA)
Yale - Feb 19: REJECTED via website
UMichigan - Feb 24: REJECTED via email
Princeton - Feb 19: REJECTED via website
Columbia - Mar 18: REJECTED via email

Thoughts: I'm so pleasantly surprised with my results! And in retrospect, for each of my rejections, I can actually identify things I messed up (ranging from some utterly stupid mistakes to just bad luck), and a good third of my list don't even really align with my research direction (only added because I thought I needed to increase my chances, but I got the L anyways lol). Perhaps I would have had better results if I applied to some Applied Physics departments since I'm in CME and my background does fit applied physics better, but oh well. Over all, I'm pretty thrilled about my results!
Last edited by cat_mama on Fri Mar 20, 2020 11:21 am, edited 20 times in total.

CaptJaneway
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2020 12:09 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by CaptJaneway » Thu Jan 16, 2020 12:39 am

Undergrad Institution: Large state school, not well known in physics
Major(s): Physics & Astronomy
Minor(s): Physics and Computer Science
GPA in Major: 3.91 (astronomy)
Overall GPA: 3.62
Length of Degree: 5 years
Position in Class: idk
Type of Student: Domestic, Woman

GRE Scores : (revised or old version?)
Q: 166 (89%)
V: 162 (90%)
W: 5.0 (92%)
P: 550 (17%) :( - Only sent to schools that require it

Research Experience: Two years of research with a professor that resulted in a first-author publication in an undergraduate journal. Presented research at an AAS meeting and an undergraduate research conference at home university.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Won a research award at home university and an assistantship.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Physics and math tutor for one year.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Studied abroad for one year. Founded the physics club at my home university and served as president for one year.

Special Bonus Points: Took a graduate-level astronomy class and got an A.

Applying to Where: Astronomy departments with exoplanet focus

The University of Western Ontario (Astronomy Master's program)- Interviewed (2/7) - Accepted (2/11) - $40,000 stipend per year ($26,000 after tuition) - Will Attend!!
The University of Hawaii - (interviewed 1/15) - Rejected
The University of Arizona - Rejected (2/12)
The University of Washington - Rejected (1/31)
The University of Colorado Boulder - Rejected (2/5)
The University of Texas Austin - Rejected (2/5)
Penn State University - Rejected (1/28)
University of California Los Angelos - Application Withdrawn
Arizona State - Application Withdrawn
Ohio State University - Application Withdrawn
The University of California Irvine - Application Withdrawn
The University of New Mexico - Application Withdrawn
University of California Santa Cruz - Application Withdrawn
Last edited by CaptJaneway on Sat Feb 29, 2020 11:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

emjay
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Oct 19, 2019 4:36 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by emjay » Thu Jan 16, 2020 6:36 pm

Undergrad Institution: Large state school, well known in physics
Major(s): Physics & Material Science and Engineering
Minor(s): Classical Studies
GPA in Major: 3.47 (Physics) 3.52 (MSE)
Overall GPA: 3.35 (weighed down by engineering weed-out classes)
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: idk
Type of Student: Domestic, Woman

GRE Scores :
Q: 154 (53%)
V: 157 (76%)
W: 4.0 (57%)
P: 760 (60%)

Note: Should have taken the GRE again but $$$ and only took PGRE once

Research Experience: Two years of research with a well known CME professor. Resulted in a first-authored paper that is in revision but has been accepted to a journal. Currently working on another project for him that has a paper in prep. MSE capstones with two well known engineering firms.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Physics TA for 2 years. FRC robotics mentor?

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: An officer for a Materials Science club?

Special Bonus Points: Took some of the 400 series lecture at my school (which not many people do) and did well?

Applying to Where: Physics departments with CME focus

Beyond Reach:
University of Maryland- Feb 28: REJECTED for PhD on website
University of Pennsylvania- Feb 13: REJECTED for PhD via email to check decision
Cornell (Applied Physics)- Feb 28: REJECTED for PhD via email
Northwestern (Applied Physics)-Jan. 23: ACCEPTED for PhD via email

Reach:
Stony Brook
University of Michigan- Feb 24: REJECTED for PhD via email
Penn State
U-Wisconsin-Jan. 28: ACCEPTED for PhD via email
U-Minnesota -Jan. 21: ACCEPTED for PhD via email
Ohio State-Jan. 23: ACCEPTED for PhD via email


Match:
U-Virginia-Feb.3: ACCEPTED for PhD via email
Brown - Jan. 28: ACCEPTED for PhD via email
Rochester
Michigan State - Feb 13: ACCEPTED for PhD via email

Safety (there are no real safeties):
Oregon State - Feb. 21: ACCEPTED for PhD via email
Rensselaer-Jan. 27: ACCEPTED for PhD via email

Note:
Wow! This has gone a lot better than I thought. I was told by my undergrad institution that my GPA would make me an unsuitable candidate for most of the programs I applied to so I applied to a ton of schools! Happy I got in to so many places, but I wish I hadn't spent so much money on applications.
Last edited by emjay on Sat Feb 29, 2020 12:35 am, edited 11 times in total.

Astrochick
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Nov 24, 2017 6:50 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by Astrochick » Fri Jan 17, 2020 7:52 pm

Undergrad Institution: #1 public university high ranking in Physics/Astronomy - Transferred here from community college
Major(s): Astrophysics - Physics and Math (CC)
Minor(s): Geophysics and Planetary Physics
GPA in Major: 3.00 - 3.60 (CC)
Overall GPA: 3.25 - 3.75 (CC)
Graduate Institution: State School with small Physics Department
Major: Physics MS
GPA in Major: 3.84
Overall GPA: 3.84
Length of Degree: 2 years in CC, 3 years in undergrad, 2 years in grad
Position in Class: average to near the top
Type of Student: Domestic Minority Female

GRE Scores : revised
Q: 167 (90%)
V: 152 (54%) (English is my third language)
W: 4.0 (57%)
P: 690 (47%) (I know! I don’t care anymore!)

Research Experience: About 9 months in my Undergrad Institution, have experience with radio astronomy and data calibration in Star cluster formation. And 2 years in my graduate institution with millimeter wavelength astronomy studying protoplanetary disks. Will produce a thesis and have a first author publication at the end of it. Have experience presenting at a symposium at my school. As well as a poster presentation at AAS.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: I got one of three exceptional student awards at my graduate institution which paid for my tuition. Won a AAS graduate student achievement award for my poster. Have multiple dean’s honors and honors at graduation in undergrad.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutored for 5+ years. Have 3 semesters of TA experience in Astronomy and Physics. Been members of Scolars Program and Alpha Gamma Sigma Honor Society. I have years of outreach experience like running planetarium shows to organizing telescope nights to giving talks at high schools.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I moved to the US when I was 16 and knew no English. Now I have a masters in physics.

Special Bonus Points: Female minority. Two strong recommendation letters from research advisors. I know 4 languages. I have a masters degree. I have met with some of the faculty at conference/colloquia.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I don’t know what else can help. I’m praying though.

Applying to Where: these are all PhD in Astronomy/Astrophysics with focus on either exoplanet and planet formation or occasionally something else (ie black hole, galaxy, AGN) if they didn’t have exoplanet people.

Johns Hopkins University (Coin: No) Rejected 3/10
University of Colorado Boulder (yes) Rejected 2/5
University of Washington (yes) Rejected 1/31
University of Maryland College Park (yes) Maybe Rejected/ Maybe Waitlisted... very vague email 2/21
University of Pennsylvania (yes) Rejected 2/13
University of California Los Angeles (no) Rejected 3/25
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (yes) Rejected 2/7
University of Texas Austin (yes) Rejected 2/24
Rice University (yes) Rejected 2/17
University of Maryland Baltimore County (no) Rejected 2/11
University of Arizona (no) Rejected 2/4
Pennsylvania State University (yes) Rejected 1/28
University of California Santa Cruz (yes) Rejected 3/23
Vanderbilt University (yes) Rejected 3/27
Rochester Institute of Technology (no) 3/3 Waitlisted for PhD, 3/10 Accepted to Masters with 30% tuition waiver and hourly TA position was told this does not effect my PhD waitlist Rejected 4/13
Stony Brook University, New York (yes) 3/2 Rejected from PhD, admitted to unfunded Masters with an out of state tuition of $25k. I already will have a masters this summer!!! - will Decline
University of Massachusets at Amherst (no)
Arizona State University – Tempe (yes)
New Mexico State University (no) 2/28: Invited for interview
3/15 Did Interview now we wait...
3/23 I got waitlisted after all that!!!

University of Missouri (yes) 3/28 ACCEPTED - $20K 10 month TA ship + $3K fellowship over the entire year + $3 summer fellowship + another $10K in tuition waiver and health insurance
University of Nevada Las Vegas (no)

Update 1/25: I have been scrolling through here and thegradcafe and I saw a bunch of people get into UCLA, UT Austin, Penn State, and Maryland. Some have already notified their waitlists too. So I’m starting to realize I am not getting into either one of these...
I haven’t gotten an acceptance yet and I haven’t gotten a rejection yet. (I guess that’s a good sign?)
I don’t know what I should have done differently. I don’t know what in my application is hurting me?! Maybe the PGRE but I just don’t test well...
I am really hoping to get into one program by the end of the season or I have wasted a lot of time and money applying. I don’t know what my life will be like if I don’t get in anywhere. I have ZERO hope now. :cry:

Update 1/28: As expected Penn State was a bust. We are trying to stay hopeful, but it isn't easy with at least some good news up my sleeve.

Update 1/31: I am giving up now... that’s two rejections... pretty depressed

Update 2/5: That is 4 rejections so far with no acceptances... I am just at an all time low point and I don’t know if any school will ever accept me?!

Update 2/7: These rejections be dropping like flies. I better fill out an application for McDonald’s soon...

Update 2/13: Today makes 7th rejection with no acceptance. I’d be surprised if I get any acceptance?!

Update 2/22: So 8 rejections and one vague wait-jection still waiting for that one acceptance. I am also starting to think of alternatives to getting a PhD...

Update 2/28: So I had a very positive reply from NMSU! I still can’t believe it! I am very hopeful and my gosh IT ONLY TAKES ONE!

Update 3/24: RIP me going to grad school! It’s just not going to happen! And the world is ending with this whole pandemic going on...
Last edited by Astrochick on Thu Apr 16, 2020 7:27 am, edited 29 times in total.

thomyorke
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jan 18, 2020 11:40 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by thomyorke » Sat Jan 18, 2020 11:56 am

Undergrad Institution: Notre Dame, US
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): None
GPA in Major: 3.967
Overall GPA: 3.925
Length of Degree: (Are you graduating after 3, 4, or 5 years?) 3.5
Position in Class: (No numbers needed, but are you top? near top? average? struggling?) School doesn't report
Type of Student: (Domestic/International, male/female, minority?) Domestic male

GRE Scores : (revised or old version?)
Q: 169 (95th)
V: 168 (98th)
W: 4.0 (57th)
P: 970 (93rd)


TOEFL: (R: , L: , S: , W: )


Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications (Mth author out of N?) or conference talks etc...)
2 semesters HEP experiment research, 4 hours/week, no papers
1 summer Solid State research, 15 hours/week, no papers
1 semester HEP experiment research at CERN, 25 hours/week, no papers

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, SPS officer etc...)
Multiple Physics tutoring jobs

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:

UIUC - Physics - CME, Chemical Physics - Mar. 10th: REJECTED for PhD via email
Colorado - Physics - Chemical Physics, CMT - Feb. 18th: REJECTED for PhD via email
OSU - Physics - CME, Cold Atom - Mar. 2nd: WAITLISTED for PhD via email
Duke - Physics - Chemical Physics, CMT - Feb. 27th: REJECTED for PhD via email
Florida - Physics - CMT - Feb. 12th: ACCEPTED for PhD via email
North Carolina - Physics - Computational Quantum Matter
Florida State - Physics - CMT, CME - Feb. 5th: ACCEPTED for PhD via email
Last edited by thomyorke on Wed Mar 11, 2020 11:05 am, edited 4 times in total.

T60
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Jan 19, 2020 1:57 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by T60 » Sun Jan 19, 2020 2:39 am

Undergrad Institution: Notre Dame, IN, USA

GPA in Major: 3.1/4.0
Overall GPA: 3.1/4.0
Length of Degree: 3.5 years (7 semesters)
Position in Class: Not reported
Type of Student: Domestic Male
GRE Scores :
Q:160
V:155
W:4.0
P:610 <-Took every official/released pGRE; apparently not helpful



Research Experience:
1 Summer doing aerospace simulations for Air Force Research Labs - learned what programming/coding was
1 Summer doing hypersonic magnetohydrodynamics research for Air Force Research Labs - in charge of high school intern - letter writer
1 Summer REU in HE/Nuc exp. with ATLAS @ UIUC - my PI was promoted to Dep. Chair one week in - letter writer - Presented work at International APS-Japan PS Nuclear Conference- yay Hawaii
1 Semester taking no classes, only doing research (Quantum Cosmology/HE Theory) for semester abroad at KU Leuven - New (axion-dilaton) euclidean wormhole solutions, bound the dilaton mass permissive of wormhole formation in the theory - letter writer

IN-SCHOOL RESEARCH:
-ND particle phys: QuarkNet - data analysis and detector creation for CMS 2.0 upgrade - 2 semesters, couple of hours/week
-Directed readings in QFT with Theory professor ( 1 on 1, went through some group theory, then QFT texts)
-Theoretical Astrophysics: Big Bang Nucleosynthesis simulation modifications, ongoing research on explanations of the three large, spatial dimensions we seem to be in - 1, 2 semesters respectively

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
SPS President for 2 years - lots of outreach and demo construction for undergrads (i.e, made cloud chamber from scratch)
Gave invited seminar (1 hour) to my (large) astrophysics department on the work I did abroad - titled "Wormholes in Quantum Gravity" bc I could :)

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Made KU Leuven project entirely from scratch- soooo much paperwork during the hardest semester for phys majors at ND

2 large-ish in-university grants to do on-site, winter break research on:
-Founders of GR and QM, and their handwritten correspondences at Cambridge's Churchill College Archives - (selfie with Born's Nobel Prize, touched -Einstein's signature, and Hawking's door on his last birthday- on the same day somehow...)
-Educational biases in Urban Kazakhstan's secondary school systems - interviewed a bunch of high school teachers in Kazakhstan about various things

Special Bonus Points:

Abroad work background was pretty much self-taught - learned GR on my own, got credit for it and Particles/Cosmology upon showing my home advisor my research
One of my abroad advisors coauthored Hawking's final paper published while alive- no letter from him
REU advisor was (is?) the chair - letter from him


Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

-Graduated 1 semester early to work at a Spanish-only special needs school in Honduras for 8 months
-Lots of special needs activities

-Can do:
--English
--Spanish
--French
--Russian

Applying to Where:

U Hawaii at Manoa - HE Pheno - Rejected email notice
U
Caltech - HE Pheno & Gravity Theory - Rejected email notice
U
Stanford- HE Pheno & Gravity Theory - Rejected email notice 2/11
UC Santa Barbara- HE Pheno & Gravity Theory
UC Berkeley - HE Pheno & Gravity Theory - Rejected email notice
UIUC - HE Pheno & Gravity Theory - Rejected email notice
U Chicago- HE Pheno & Gravity Theory Email notice - Rejected by email, then portal 2/11
U Cincinnati - HE Pheno - Accepted with full tuition and $22K/year
Case Western - HE Pheno
Penn State - LOOOOOP Quantum Gravity - Rejected email notice
UT Austin - PetaWatt Laser Phenomenology, HE Pheno & Gravity Theory
Cornell - HE Pheno & Gravity Theory - Rejected email notice
Harvard - HE Pheno & Gravity Theory - Rejected email notice
MIT - HE Pheno & Gravity Theory - Rejection by email 2/12
Tufts - Negative energy densities, HE Pheno


Terrified of my grades/scores, but wouldn't change if I had to do it over again (at least at this point, before any decisions have come back) because I spent my time (2 years) primarily preparing for abroad project in QC/QG, and had a wonderful time with it all. NO PAPERS, some in the pipework

None of my recs are coming from my home uni :roll:

Let's see how important research is in decisions, bc honestly, I couldn't have done more...

Final important notes: Lot of my free time these last few years has been spent reading through the day's gr-qc, hep-ph, hep-th arXiv preprints, and textbooks and lecture notes from the web; met with phys profs for advice whenever I traveled, kept notes in a notebook that's always with me


NOTES TO FUTURE APPLICANTS
Don't hammer away on being good at one thing - you should spend your undergrad and summers making sure they can't weed you out by a GPA, PGRE, or GRE threshold.
Last edited by T60 on Sun Mar 15, 2020 11:39 am, edited 7 times in total.

rameshrkris
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue May 14, 2019 1:10 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by rameshrkris » Thu Jan 23, 2020 11:31 am

______________________________________________
Undergrad Institution: Institution of Engineers - India - Mechanical Engineering; MS Physics UTDallas, MS Computer Science, Old Dominion U
Major(s): Mechanical Eng; Computer Science, Physics
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 3.67
Overall GPA: 3.67
Length of Degree: (Are you graduating after 3, 4, or 5 years?) 4 (+2 Masters)
Position in Class: (No numbers needed, but are you top? near top? average? struggling?) near top
Type of Student: (Domestic/International, male/female, minority?) Domestic Indian American Male

GRE Scores : (revised or old version?)
Q: 150
V: 151
W:4.5
P:610


TOEFL: (R: , L: , S: , W: )


Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications (Mth author out of N?) or conference talks etc...)
Photo-reflectance Spectroscopy, Term papers - High Tc Superconductivity, MEMS/NEMS, Published Paper in Computer Science - Network Management
Research experience in computer science

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?): GRA - Computer Science. 30 years IT experience

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, SPS officer etc...) Tutored High school students for AP Physics.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)
Strong recommendation letters from Chair of CS dept where I worked, Strong letter from recent employer, strong letter from MS physics professor

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
Elderly applicant: 54 years old. 2 Masters degrees in Physics and Computer Science. Loads of work experience, computing experience.

Applying to Where:
Columbia - Applied Physics - Condensed Matter
Baylor - Condensed Matter (Nano-Optics) - Accepted with TA/Fellowship
U of Alabama - Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
University of Texas at Dallas - Condensed Matter (Strongly Correlated systems, Meta Materials) Rejected
NorthEastern U - Condensed Matter Rejected
Southern Methodist U - Astro-Particle Physics ]Accepted. Details to follow.
Texas A&M - Condensed Matter Application being reviewed
U of Houston - High Tc Superconductivity Application being reviewed
Wisconsin - Milwaukee - Condensed Matter Waitlised
Last edited by rameshrkris on Fri Apr 17, 2020 12:57 am, edited 5 times in total.

oosb20
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2020 3:55 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by oosb20 » Thu Jan 23, 2020 4:10 pm

Undergrad Institution: large state research university with a good reputation in physics, esp nuclear
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): Music Theory
GPA in Major: 3.85
Overall GPA: 3.87
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: near top
Type of Student: domestic white female

GRE Scores : all from fall 2019
Q: 165 (86%)
V: 163 (93%)
W: 5.0 (92%)
P: 780 (63%)


Research Experience: All 4 years, 2 full summers in nuclear experiment at my institution, one REU in nuclear theory, honors thesis in plasma acceleration

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: research grant, deans list, academic achievement award, nothing fancy

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: a little bit of tutoring

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: meh

Special Bonus Points: worked my way all through school with part-time jobs, started a science communication podcast, am woman :) also two of my recommenders know me SUPER well and are relatively high up in their fields (nuclear experiment, plasma acceleration) so I'm sure they're letters are quite good

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I made sure to have a phone or skype call with at least one faculty I wanted to work with from every school I applied to. A few of these I have direct connections to. My advisor's advisor is at UCLA, my former advisor is at Amherst, and my current advisor is at Stony Brook, and all of them are relatively keen to work with me.

Applying to Where: (all for Ph.D.)

Plasma Schools:
UCLA - Electrical & Computer Engineering - Plasma Acceleration - Accepted via informal email from specific PI 1/21
UCBerkeley - Physics - Plasmas
Stony Brook - Physics - Plasma Acceleration - Accepted via email 1/23 w/ $20K TA and $3K Fellowship


Nuclear Schools:
MIT - Physics - Nuclear Experiment - Rejected via email 2/12
Stanford - Physics - Nuclear Experiment - Accepted via email 2/11, w/ $44K RA (research group rotations)
UCDavis - Physics - Nuclear Experiment - Accepted via email 2/14 w/ $22K TA and $6K summer support
UMass Amherst - Physics - Nuclear Experiment - Accepted via email 1/16, w/ $23K TA, $5K fellowship and guaranteed $9K summer 2021 RA
CU Boulder - Physics - Nuclear Experiment
Last edited by oosb20 on Mon Feb 17, 2020 5:31 pm, edited 4 times in total.

parambu
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jan 24, 2020 1:56 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by parambu » Fri Jan 24, 2020 5:23 pm

Undergrad Institution: Medium Size US News top 50 National University. Good astro reputation but small physics department
Major(s): Physics and Math
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 3.82 (3.79) [My fall grades were posted super late so not everyone got the higher gpa]
Overall GPA: 3.76 (3.72)
Length of Degree: 4
Position in Class: Top or near top
Type of Student: International Hispanic Male

GRE Scores :
Q: 169
V: 162
W: 4.0
P: 830

Research Experience: 2 years working on experimental high energy astrophysics. I presented my work at 2 large US conferences and am preparing a publication on it. One of my recommenders is the professor I have been working with.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: University Distinguished Student award, deans list, won a data science competition. Got two university fellowships for funding to continue my research through the summer.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: I worked as a TA for several semesters. I worked as a math tutor for a full year. I also worked as a facilitator for a leadership program at the university.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I did lots of work with student organizations and brought a prominent speaker to campus. I served in many boards of groups. I also did a lot of service work during my time in college.

Special Bonus Points: Took math graduate courses and have very good relationships with my recommenders.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I am applying to CME and AMO. I applied for astrophysics at Harvard.
My GPA has a very upwards trend. I got a C in introductory mechanics and a B- in introductory EM. Have gotten almost only As in physics since.

Applying to Where:

University of Maryland - physics - Rejected
Uchicago - physics - Rejected 2/11
University of colorado, Boulder - physics - Accepted 2/10 $24000 9 month TA + $3000 first year fellowship - Will attend! :D
Harvard - astronomy - Rejected 2/10
UC Berkeley - physics - Rejected 2/20
NYU - physics - Rejected
Northeastern - physics - Got no Reply as of April 22 :roll:
Rice - physics - Waitlisted - Declined
Boston College - physics - Accepted 1/24 $32000 semester TA along with summer RA - Declined
University of Washington - physics - Accepted 2/6 $22000 9 month TA + $1500 first year fellowship - Declined
UC Davis - physics - Accepted 2/18 $22600 9 month TA + $6000 summer support - Declined
Boston University - physics - Rejected
university of Oregon - physics - Accepted 2/14 - Declined

Edit 2/7: I can't believe I got into UW. I thought after the BC acceptance I would just get rejections since so many people posted acceptances earlier. I guess they do take time reviewing the applications and some departments admit as they go and others do not.
Edit 2/10: Got into another one but also got my first rejection. Starting to feel my application was stronger than I thought. (expected 2 admission offers)
Edit 4/22: I decided to attend Boulder after going through the virtual open houses. They have the most research in what interests me and overall I think Boulder is the best fit for me. I heard from several people that schools were withdrawing offers and/or funding and wish luck to those in that situation.
Overall, I got more acceptances than I expected and found that those schools that admitted me were the ones that fit my lifestyle the most. The process is tough, but getting advice from the people around you helps a lot.
Last edited by parambu on Wed Apr 22, 2020 1:30 pm, edited 7 times in total.

silasmarner
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jul 30, 2019 5:50 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by silasmarner » Fri Jan 24, 2020 7:58 pm

Undergrad Insitution: Ivy
Majors: Physics and Math

GPA in Major: 3.08 (both combined--got a D in my first math class)
Overall GPA: 3.23
Length of Degree:3.5 yrs
Position in Class: Bottom (I would guess)
Type of Student: Dom White Male

GRE:
Q: 168 (93%)
V: 163 (93 %)
W: 4.5 (81%)
P: 910 (85%)

Research Experience: 3 years in High School Higgs to Zgamma with CERN.
2.5 years on a Detector Building project for dark fermions where there was no grad student, thus I had more responsibility
REU on Heavy Vector Triplet searches
3 months at CERN after graduation on Upgrades to ATLAS innner tracking detector through UMIch Semester at CERN
3.5 years of work in high NC QCD theory studies---upcoming paper

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: deans list (1 semester), math scholarship, leadership award for educational outreach

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA'ed for two classes (prof from 1 is writing my rec letter), Was president of our chapter of SPS and was president of an educational outreach program known as Splash (our local chapter of such). Have been out of school since '18. Worked in a maser manufacturing company as a test engineer, now a AI examiner for the patent office. Also participated in the Wolfram Summer School.
{EDIT--Whoops forgot this} I have been a tutor for 12 years.

Special Bonus Points: Took 4 graduate courses in physics (QM, QFT and EM) and have a well-known prof, with whom I do research and have upcoming paper, writing one of my recs. Paper on ArXiV

Any Other Info: Upwards Trend on GPA---Serious family tragedies in freshman year, applying hep-ex, girlfriend is applying and is accepted to a bunch of MD/PhD's that have offered to push on their physics departments to request a bit nicer treatment of my app--this was no help, I only got in where she didn't

Applying to where: (all physics, all hep-ex except where otherwise noted)

(Based on Stats pretty much all reach--oof)
Harvard--REJECTED
Northeastern
Yale--REJECTED
Columbia--REJECTED
NYU--REJECTED
CUNY--hep-th--INTERVIEW invited 19/2/2020--Accepted via email to check portal ---30k/year plus possible summer support
SUNY Stony Brook--REJECTED
UPitt--Accepted via email to check portal (19/1) TA-9 months $2345/mo plus possible summer research
CMU--REJCETED
OSU--REJECTED
UMinn--REJECTED (24/1)
CU Boulder--REJECTED
UCSD--REJECTED
Stanford--REJECTED

Yeah, no surprises here, asking about masters programs at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, NYU and Stony Brook--turns out one of my recs was weak.
Last edited by silasmarner on Wed Apr 01, 2020 10:20 am, edited 3 times in total.

hummus16
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2020 11:01 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by hummus16 » Sat Jan 25, 2020 11:48 pm

Undergrad Institution: small local state university... no reputation
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): Math
GPA in Major: 3.80
Overall GPA: 3.74
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: top 5 out of 20
Type of Student: US Dometic Indian

GRE Scores : (revised or old version?)
Q: 158
V:159
W:4
P:620

Research Experience: 3 years of biophysics research both computational and experimental in DNA folding. No papers. 3 posters each with poster conferences one of which was a big APS conference. interdisciplinary collaboration ongoing.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 2 research grant awards, 1 physics dept award, 1 university-wide scholarship

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: physics tutor

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: lots of volunteer hours

Special Bonus Points: none. im boring.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Took a significant number of chem and bio classes like org chem, biochem, genetics, etc.

Applying to Where:

Drexel U - Physics phd (1/24: ACCEPTED for PhD via email + $23,500/year plus $3,000/summer TA)
Lehigh U - Phsyics phd (2/7: ACCEPTED for PhD via email + $29,800/year plus TA)
Carnegie Mellon - Phsyics phd (2/12: rejection via email)
Ohio State - Phsyics phd 4/1: rejection via email. They said the rejection was partly due to COVID-19 :(
CU Boulder - Phsyics phd (2/21: rejection via email)
UCSB - Phsyics phd (3/3: rejection via email)
UCLA - Phsyics phd (3/27: rejection via email)

wayne - medphysics MS interview scheduled for 2/26 notified via email 1/31 rejected for phd but accepted for MS 3/17
Duke - medphysics MS no interview so probably a rejection...they sent an email on 1/10 saying invites wold be sent around 1/24
LSU - medphysics MS waitlist via email 2/9 rejected 3/12
UPenn - medphysics MS interview scheduled for 2/22 notified via email 2/5 accepted via email 2/26

Side Notes: I went to Drexel's admitted students day and really enjoyed visiting. I think its a really good school not many people know about. They beginning to transition to be fully focused on research and the overall vibe from the other students there was really nice. Students and faculty weren't afraid to tell us about what was bad about Drexel and overall it felt like there was a strong friendly relationship between all the students and faculty.
I might end up going here, but I'm waiting to hear back from OSU since it was my top choice.
Last edited by hummus16 on Sat Jun 20, 2020 2:27 pm, edited 18 times in total.

james1998
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2018 6:19 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by james1998 » Sun Jan 26, 2020 1:39 pm

Undergrad Institution: Large State School, R1, well known for physics
Major(s): Physics and Astronomy
Minor(s): Mathematics
GPA in Major: 3.56 Physics 3.67 Astronomy
Overall GPA: 3.60
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: Top 25% maybe?
Type of Student: Domestic white male

GRE Scores : (revised or old version?)
Q: 164 (84%)
V: 155 (68%)
W: 4.5 (81%)
M: 510 (16%) This is the Math Subject GRE not Physics


TOEFL: (R: , L: , S: , W: )


Research Experience:
2.5 years in computational astrophysics. 1 conference proceedings, senior thesis (in prep :[ )
2.5 years in condensed matter physics. 2 first author journal publications (in prep :[ )
Internship at National Lab

5 Posters at random undergrad conferences
3 talks, again nothing notable.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:
Funding for research over a summer based on a project proposal at home institution
Deans list sometimes
School Scholarship

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
1 Semester as a multivariable calc TA
1 year tutor for underrepresented groups
Independent Contractor for a medical scientific communications company

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:
N/A

Special Bonus Points:
2 grad classes
2 incredibly strong rec letters and 1 rec letter from an incredibly notable person (from national lab internship)

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
N/A

Applying to Where:
Note: Not all physics, in fact, most aren't. However I have a physics degree and still want to pursue computational physics just within a mathematics program. I thought someone would still be interested in seeing this.

Stanford - Compuational Mathematics and Engineering
UCSB - Astrophysics
UCSD - Mathematics / Computational Sciences track
UCSC - Applied Mathematics Interviewed 1/24 with very strong words towards acceptance although nothing official yet!
Caltech - Applied Mathematics
UCLA - Mathematics
UC Berkeley - Computer Science

asingal
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2020 2:42 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by asingal » Mon Jan 27, 2020 3:48 pm

Undergrad Institution: top 3 Indian engineering school, high research output, great in applied and experimental AMO/CM physics, building HE group
Major(s): Engineering Physics
GPA in Major: 8.407/10
Overall GPA: 8.399/10
Length of Degree: 4
Position in Class: Top 10/63

Masters Institution: Top 50 in the USA
Major: Physics
GPA: 4.0
Length of Degree: Variable (ideal: 1.5- 2 years), completing in 1 year
Position: Not defined

Type of Student: International Male

GRE Scores :
Q: 170
V: 159
W: 4.5
P: 990

Research Experience: Considerable, total ~ 10 months full time + 10 months part-time. No publication, 1 preprint - second author, all cosmology or HE Pheno or theory of HE experiment.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
TA for undergrad and grad quantum mechanics during undergrad

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points:
Applying to current masters university for Ph.D. with PI submitting recommendation asking to take me in.

Applying to Where: All for HE Pheno, Cosmology

Berkeley - rejected (February 20 2020);
Cornell - rejected (February 12 2020);

Illinois - Withdrawn (Feb 28, 2020);
Maryland - Rejected (Feb 28, 2020);
San Diego - Withdrawn (Feb 28, 2020);
Stony Brook - Accepted (January 23 2020), will attend!

I will post other decisions here for closure.

Takeaway -
'Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, no doubt, no doubt, no doubt, no doubt' - Jake Peralta et al., Brooklyn 99, NBC Studios (2013)
Last edited by asingal on Fri Feb 28, 2020 10:06 pm, edited 7 times in total.

chiyooo
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2020 6:10 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by chiyooo » Mon Jan 27, 2020 9:13 pm

Undergrad Institution: (Fairly well known liberal arts school in the US with a good reputation in physics)
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): Computer Science
GPA in Major: 3.4 :p
Overall GPA: 3.45
Length of Degree: 4 year BA
Position in Class: Average
Type of Student: East Asian + White Female

GRE Scores : (revised or old version?)
Q: 159
V: 158
W: 4.5
P: 550 (yes this is about the same as guessing on every question, no I did not send this anywhere)


TOEFL: N/A


Research Experience: REU in AMO physics which results in a conference presentation
1.5 years in AMO physics at my home institution. 1 journal publication, 2 poster presentations, and working on senior thesis

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: One minor fellowship from my college,

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Lab TA, Problem Session TA, SPS President, 3yrs of track and cross country

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: My current research advisor seems to have a lot of connections in the AMO physics community and has a reputation for producing high-quality research despite being at a small liberal arts institution

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: one of my recs is quite good.

Applying to Where: (A shorter list than I hoped because I only applied to schools that don't require PGRE scores...)

Rice - Physics (AMO)
University of Central Florida - CREOL (Optics Insitute)
Georgia Tech - Physics (AMO) (Waitlisted 2/6/2020 via online portal-- notified via email)
Last edited by chiyooo on Thu Feb 06, 2020 5:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

kazmaniac47
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2020 8:43 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by kazmaniac47 » Mon Jan 27, 2020 9:32 pm

Undergrad Institution: Big state school ranked among top 15 for physics in US
Major(s): Engineering Physics
Minor(s): N/A (would have gotten a math minor, but decided to graduate a semester early instead $$$$$)
GPA in Major: 4.0
Overall GPA: 3.977
Length of Degree: 3.5 years
Position in Class: No available rankings, but would guess near top
Type of Student: Domestic male

GRE Scores : (revised or old version?)
Q: 164
V: 152
W: 4.0
P: 880

Research Experience: Worked on an engineering based research project developing free-falling microdrone sensors for in-situ atmospheric measurements from second semester freshman year, over the summer, and during the first semester of my sophomore year. Started working in condensed matter/optics lab beginning January of my sophomore year, and continued working in that lab over two summers and to the present. No publications when applying, but two in preparation. Presented at 2019 APS March meeting (and will in 2020), Quantum Science and Technology Workshop (hosted at my school, but included people from other universities), Engineering Design Expo (at my school). Also graduated a semester early and am doing research full time during winter semester (indicated this in application).

My adviser thinks very highly of me and has told me so many times. She recommended that I apply (and would likely get in) to the top programs (including MIT/Harvard), but I am not a city person, and I decided I wouldn't be thrilled spending the next six years dealing with the craziness of Boston. So I am quite confident her letter of rec was rather revering.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's List, University Honors, James B. Angell Scholar, Top Undergraduate Presenter Award at APS March Meeting, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Student Achievement Award, Regents Merit Scholarship (from my undergrad school), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Medal Award (though I did not attend there)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Physics tutor, Science Communication Fellow (creating and presenting hands-on science displays for kids)

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: The lab I joined was only a year old upon me joining, so I helped develop the lab including designing and constructing a rather novel experimental setup and some laser pulse compression and characterization techniques for the lab.

Special Bonus Points: Graduate courses: Advanced Condensed Matter (Phase transitions), Optical Waves in Crystals

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I played competitive club soccer in college (lead our division for three years, won a regional title, and showed well at nationals all four years); I was also on the fundraising committee on my soccer team.

Applying to Where:
All Applications were to physics department with indicated interests in condensed matter experiment:
University of Michigan (Jan. 29: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + total "value" of funding = $313,550 for 5 years of funding through combination of TA/research (key word "value", so that amount likely includes the "value" of tuition as well)
CU Boulder (Jan. 30: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + $23,842/9 months TA + summer TA/Research = ~ $35,000 -38,000 + one time $3,000 fellowship)
Princeton (Feb. 13: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + $30,800 + $4,000 per year fellowship for years 1-5)
UIUC (Jan. 4: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + $24,266/9 months TA + 2 months TA/Research)
Cornell (Feb. 12: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + $30,573 TA)
UCSB (Jan. 24: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + $32,000/12 months TA (or research? email was a little unclear))
Last edited by kazmaniac47 on Fri Feb 21, 2020 12:04 pm, edited 10 times in total.

FearAndLoathing
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2019 9:42 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by FearAndLoathing » Mon Jan 27, 2020 10:23 pm

Undergrad Institution: Ivy
Major(s): Physics and Math
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 3.97
Overall GPA: 3.85
Length of Degree: 4
Position in Class: school doesn’t rank
Type of Student: DWM

GRE Scores : revised
Q: 168 (93%)
V:165 (96%)
W: 6.0 (99%)
P: 920 (86%)


TOEFL: N/A

Research Experience: 2 years experience in geophysics at home institution with a publication on the way, 1 year in HEP-EX at home institution with research that was published in a technical note. 2 presentations at national conferences.


Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Grader for the math department


Applying to Where: applying to all for HEP-EX, specifically neutrino physics or dark matter where applicable

Stanford - Physics -(2/11: REJECTED for Ph.D via email)
Harvard - Physics - (1/16 Interview) (2/13: REJECTED for Ph.D via email to check website)
UCSD - Physics - (1/23: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email from PI) withdrew applicaiton
UCSB - Physics - (3/3: REJECTED for Ph.D via website)
Berkeley - Physics - (2/20: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + TA position) withdrew applicaiton
UMD - Physics - (2/6: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + TA position) withdrew applicaiton
Duke - Physics - (2/27 WAITLISTED via email) (3/3: Withdrew from waitlist)
Cornell - Physics - (2/12: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + TA position) withdrew applicaiton
University of Washington - Physics - (1/30: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + TA position) Will Attend!
UChicago - Physics - (2/7: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + TA position)! withdrew applicaiton
University of Michigan - Physics - (2/24: REJECTED for Ph.D via email)
Northwestern - Physics - (1/30 Interview) (2/7: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + TA position) withdrew applicaiton
University of Wisconsin - Physics - (1/28: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + TA position) withdrew applicaiton

NSF GRFP - (Honorable Mention via email 3/31
Last edited by FearAndLoathing on Wed Apr 15, 2020 2:13 pm, edited 16 times in total.

radhikari123
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:28 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by radhikari123 » Tue Jan 28, 2020 11:12 am

This is the most useful resource PhysicsGRE has to offer. If you have used this information in the past or are currently using it to help decide upon schools, I highly suggest you help out and post your own profile once you have applied to schools. Future members of this forum will find it very useful! Don't be shy!

Copy and paste the template below in your reply to keep the formatting.

Note from moderator: Profile threads are best when they only have profiles. Please avoid making other posts on this thread. If you wish to discuss profiles, it is helpful to have a separate "profile discussion thread", as was done in some past years. Thanks.

______________________________________________
Undergrad Institution: small public school, no reputation
Major(s): physics and math
Minor(s):
GPA in Major:4.0
Overall GPA:4.0
Length of Degree: 4
Position in Class:
Type of Student: international




TOEFL: (R: , L: , S: , W: )


Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications (Mth author out of N?) or conference talks etc...)
one summer REU

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, SPS officer etc...)

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...)

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
Last edited by radhikari123 on Tue Feb 04, 2020 11:30 am, edited 2 times in total.

Russiankid
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2019 12:50 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by Russiankid » Tue Jan 28, 2020 9:01 pm

Undergrad Institution: Public school; top but not best.
Major(s): Physics, Math
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 3.7 (phys including cc) 4 (math at uni, 3B's and 3A's at cc)
Overall GPA: 3.59 (community college); 3.94 (university)
Length of Degree: ~3 (cc) 2 (uni) -- I really had to get my s**t together after high-school. Only started performing at my ability at uni and last year of cc.
Position in Class: near top for uni
Type of Student: domestic white male

GRE Scores :
Q: 170
V: 162
W: 4.5
P: 910



Research Experience: Only from the last year in only one group, experimental. I think I have done much more than most can in the year that I have worked, as heard from postdocs in the lab and my PI. Couple papers in preparation, and I have given talks at two conferences (not undergrad conferences) as a first author.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Research Honors, excellence award from cc, gpa-related stuff.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Worked as a math tutor at cc and at a private firm (also tutoring) while at cc.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Lots of A+ grades at uni in notoriously difficult classes.

Special Bonus Points: My PI is famous in his field (though not necessarily the field(s) I'm applying for). He has told me multiple times how good his recommendation will be. If I do well with applications, its due to him. Won an international (team) physics competition last Fall.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I'm taking a reading course in differential geometry at the graduate level with a famous professor in that field (and in hep-th), who is writing one of the recs for oxbridge. I mentioned this in all of my apps, though.

Applying to Where: All physics/astronomy. Some AMO, some astronomy (with focus on experiment or simulation), and some hep-th. I recognized that without relevant research in hep-th and publications in that field I would not be accepted to top programs. Since I like what I am doing now, I decided that I am fine with working in AMO or astronomy if I will be unable to join a hep group and would rather attend a top program than do hep at a worse program. Where I applied to hep-th, I stated that as my only interest. Due to the fact that I applied to hep-th to some programs (which are totally up in the air), I applied to a lot of schools.

UCSB - astro - REJECTED by e-mail to check website.
UCSC - astro - REJECTED by e-mail to check website.
UCB - amo - ACCEPTED 2/17 by e-mail; funding details coming soon
CU Boulder - amo - ACCEPTED Jan. 28 by e-mail to check website with TA (or RA if find an advisor) 35-38k per year + 3k in one-time fellowship
Stony Brook - hep - REJECTED by e-mail to check website.
Harvard - astro - REJECTED 2/10 by e-mail to check website.
MIT - amo - REJECTED 2/12 by e-mail.
Stanford - astro - REJECTED 2/11 by e-mail.
Yale - astro - REJECTED 2/5 by e-mail to check website.
Princeton - astro - REJECTED 2/10 by e-mail.
UW (Seattle) - amo - ACCEPTED Jan. 30 with TA 22k for 9 months + 1.5k in one-time fellowship
Caltech - amo - REJECTED 2/19 by e-mail.
Cornell - hep - REJECTED by e-mail to check website.
Columbia - hep - REJECTED by e-mail to check website.
UPenn - hep - REJECTED 2/13 by e-mail to check website.

Masters in UK:
Oxford (MSc math. and theoretical physics) - ACCEPTED by e-mail to check website.
Cambridge (DAMTP Part III tripos) - ACCEPTED by e-mail to check website.

2/20: In retrospect, I probably should have applied to all AMO for the big-name schools, since that is where my background is strongest. I then may have had a shot at stanford, princeton, etc. Overall still very satisfied 8D!
Last edited by Russiankid on Thu Jun 25, 2020 10:50 pm, edited 7 times in total.

jvazquez
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2020 12:40 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by jvazquez » Wed Jan 29, 2020 1:27 pm

Undergrad Institution: Randolph College (RC), small liberal arts college with a bad dropout reputation (41% dropout rate); however, good reputation in physics outreach and ranked 25th in Virginia in physics by physics-schools.com
Major: Physics
Minor(s): Mathematics, Music
GPA in Major: 3.65 (had a rough transition semester when I started RC but my grades improved throughout my career)
Overall GPA: 3.72
Length of Degree: Spent 3 years at RC after taking gen-eds/freshman-level physics at a community college
Position in Class: Top 25%. The top three seniors (myself included) are all anomalies in the department who all happen to be from the same year in a graduating physics class of 8. Neither of the other two students are pursuing grad school.
Type of Student: Domestic Hispanic transgender woman

GRE Scores :
Q: 158 (67%)
V: 156 (73%)
W: 4.0 (57%)
P: 560 (19%) :( (I knew I would do badly, but this is awful. I made sure to scout schools that didn't require the PGRE, I only have like 2 or 3 that required it)




Research Experience: Did some theoretical work in the astronomy department at Cornell University at an REU modeling the gravitational effects of asteroids on pulsars and the variance in timing (learned Python and LaTeX). I also did some work at my college building a wave equation solver in Python.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Sigma Pi Sigma, Dean's List every semester, Phi Theta Kappa (at the community college).

Jobs on Campus: Treasurer of an outstanding SPS chapter in 2018-19, current Vice President of that SPS Chapter, physics and math tutor

Special Bonus Points: Hispanic, domestic, and trans. That gotta help...Please? Also Cornell REU should help. I presented my Cornell research at AAS in Seattle, my RC research at PhysCon, and I've presented my work at various conferences on campus.


Applying to Where:

Out of reach:

Cornell University - Astronomy (No GREs)
University of Virginia - Astronomy (Both PGRE and GRE) (Rejected via E-mail on 2/24)
New Mexico State University - Astronomy (no GREs)
University of Pittsburgh - Physics and Astronomy (no GREs) ("Acknowledgment of Application" on Admissions Portal - 1/27 )


Reach?
Texas Christian University - Physics and Astronomy (no GREs) (late application, the faculty were tweeting about their apps still being open) ( Skype Interview on 3/2 )
University of Maine - Physics and Astronomy (PGRE recommended but not sent, GRE required)
George Mason University - Physics and Astronomy (Both PGRE and GRE) ( Skype Interview on 2/25 )
Last edited by jvazquez on Fri Feb 28, 2020 11:05 pm, edited 7 times in total.

borism
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2020 12:13 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by borism » Wed Jan 29, 2020 8:59 pm

Undergrad Institution: US Public School, Top 50 in Physics according to US News
Major(s): Physics B.S., Math B.A.
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 3.66
Overall GPA: 3.75
Length of Degree: 4
Position in Class: probably top half in physics class
Type of Student: Domestic white male, first-gen college student

GRE Scores :
Q: 166
V: 166
W: 5.5
P: 830

Research Experience:
- 5 semesters of research at home institution, mostly in NMR spectroscopy, specifically instrumentation and experiment, completing an undergraduate thesis
- 2 summers at internship with research institute in Europe, computational condensed matter, no publications yet :(

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:
- nothing but dean's list

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
- Co-President of astronomy club (SEDS)
- some tutoring/outreach activities

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:
- big personal project with weather balloon + cool results

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
- one recommender was less a research advisor and more unofficial mentor for said weather balloon project
- mostly got B's in theory classes, especially early on

Applying to Where:

University of Colorado Boulder - AMO Experiment (Feb. 18: Rejected via website)
University of Wisconsin Madison - Condensed Matter Experiment (Jan. 29: Rejected via email)
University of Pittsburgh - Condensed Matter Experiment (Feb. 5: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via website + $2345/month TA for academic year) 8)
Northeastern University - Condensed Matter Experiment ...assumed rejection
Dartmouth College - Condensed Matter Experiment (Feb. 11: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + $31k (idk RA or TA) for calendar year)
Boston College - Condensed Matter Experiment (Jan. 26: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via website + $32k RA/TA for calendar year) :D :D :D
University of Delaware - Condensed Matter Experiment (Feb. 19: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via website + $28k TA for calendar year)
University of Tennessee Knoxville - Condensed Matter Experiment ...assumed rejection

I definitely put less effort into the UT Knox application - I didn't mention any specific research groups I was pursuing. I did interviews with Dartmouth and UT Knox so watch out for those.

Hope this is useful to someone!
Last edited by borism on Tue Mar 24, 2020 5:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.

rahulshaw
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2018 10:20 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by rahulshaw » Wed Jan 29, 2020 11:02 pm

Undergrad Institution: Small government school in India. No Physics ranking available
Major(s): Electronics and Communication Engineering
Minor(s):
GPA in Major:
Overall GPA: 8.71/10
Master's Institute: IITK(big government institute, huge reputation in Physics in country)
Master's Degree: M.Tech. in EE, with RF, Microwave and Photonics as specialization
Length of Degree: 4 (B.Tech.) + 2 (M.Tech.)
Position in Class: near top
Type of Student: Indian male

GRE Scores : revised
Q: 170
V: 146 :(
W: 3.5
P: 870


TOEFL: (R: 22 , L: 26, S: 23, W: 22)


Research Experience:
1 year 4 months of research experience during Masters. 2 conference publications(in one first author another 3rd author), 1 journal(second author, alhough the whole idea was mine).
My research was in the field of Photonics.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Nope, Nothing

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 2 year (4 semesters) TA for EE department, 4 Months RA with a Physics lab at IITK

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: Mentioned Prof. R. Vijaya(IITK, Physics department head), who was my mentor while I was RA

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Poor family conditions has hindered my progress in Physics

Applying to Where:

MIT - Physics - REJECTED on 12th Feb via email
Caltech - Physics - REJECTED on 21st Feb via email
UCB - Physics - REJECTED on 21st Feb via email
Princeton - Physics - REJECTED on 19th Feb via email
Cornell - Physics - REJECTED on 12th Feb via email
Yale - Physics - REJECTED on 20th Feb via email
Wisconsin Madison - Physics - REJECTED on 29th Jan via mail

Georgia Tech - Physics - REJECTED on 21st Feb via email
RPI - Physics - REJECTED on 8th April via email
USC - Physics - REJECTED on 3rd April via email

Tufts University - Physics - REJECTED on 16th April via email
University of Oregon - Physics - REJECTED on 11th March via email
Louisiana State University - Physics - REJECTED on 5th May via email
Last edited by rahulshaw on Sat May 16, 2020 7:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

lfeete
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Feb 01, 2020 2:03 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by lfeete » Sat Feb 01, 2020 2:17 pm

Undergrad Institution: State School, top 10 in physics
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): Music
GPA in Major: 3.84
Overall GPA: 3.81
Length of Degree: 4 years


GRE Scores :
Q: 167
V: 160
W: 5.0
P: 860


Research Experience: Summer internship at NASA facility, two years at national lab (12 hours/week during the semester), summer research with professor at another university (top 50 in physics).

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Graduating with honors (includes honors thesis).

Special Bonus Points: Recommenders are well-known within my field (One professor, two staff scientists). I was in contact with professors I want to work with at most schools I applied to.


Applying to Where (all PhD in physics with an emphasis in observational cosmology or astronomy):

UC San Diego (Jan 8: Accepted Unnofficially via email, Jan 31: Official Acceptance via email)
UC Santa Barbara (Jan 17: Accepted via phone call)
UC Los Angeles (Jan 30: Accepted via phone call)
UC Berkeley (Feb 19: Accepted via email)
Stanford (Feb 11: Rejected via Email)
Caltech (Jan 31: Accepted via website)
University of Pennsylvania (Jan 27: Accepted via email)
Harvard (Feb 5: Accepted via email)
Princeton (Feb 19: Rejected via email)
Boulder (Feb 21: Rejected via website)

Fellowships: NSF GRFP: Physics and Astronomy, Astronomy and Astrophysics (Pending)
Last edited by lfeete on Fri Feb 21, 2020 7:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.

JHLiu
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2020 11:18 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by JHLiu » Sat Feb 01, 2020 9:00 pm

Undergrad Institution: Project-985 Univ. in China
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): N/A
GPA in Major: 3.63 (Quant. Mech: 90/100. Stat. Mech.:96/100. Classic Mech: 94/100. Electrodynamics 97/100)
Overall GPA: 3.65
Length of Degree: 4 years

TOEFL:
R 28 L 30 W 22 S 22
GRE Scores :
Q: 166
V: 155
W: 3.0
P: 910

Research Experience:
Summer Research in Hep-ex. REU on strongly correlated system. Currently working on topological cond. mat.

No pub.(sigh

Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics

Rice U.(rej)
Stony Brook(rej)
UCSC(rej)
UCR
UCI(rej)
USC
Indiana
Pitts
Purdue(rej)


Gatech (waitlisted)
UVa(watlisted)


Emory.(Accepted)
Northeastern.(Accepted)
Virginia Tech.(Accepted)
U Florida(Accepted)
TAMU(Accepted)
ASU(Accepted)
Boston College (Accepted)
Last edited by JHLiu on Sat Mar 28, 2020 7:17 am, edited 7 times in total.

Alvin1949
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Dec 30, 2019 9:49 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by Alvin1949 » Mon Feb 03, 2020 4:47 am

Undergrad Institution: A young university in China
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): None
GPA in Major:
Overall GPA: 3.88
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: near top
Type of Student: International, Male

GRE Scores:
Q: 169 (96%)
V: 153 (61%)
W: 3.5 (41%)
P: 990 (95%)

TOEFL: (R: 30, L: 24, S: 24, W: 28)

Research Experience: Did a project of building a photoluminescence spectrometer and measuring the bandgap of 2D materials; roughly 9 months studying light-matter interaction in condensed matter; a summer project at UC Berkeley in Biophysics

Special Bonus Points: two strong recommendation letter from professors at home institution; one letter from professor at UC Berkeley

Applying to Where: Condensed Matter Experiment/Biophysics, applied to Physics PhD unless stated
US:
Berkeley -
Cornell -
Columbia -
Michigan (Applied Physics) -
UIUC - 12/20: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + $24K/11 months TA + Fellowship TBA :D
UCSD -
UW -
UT-Austin -
Maryland (MSE) - 1/20: Interviewed
WashU (MSE) - 12/21: Interviewed
PennState -
Florida -

Non US:
NUS (MBI) -
HKU (EE) -

glen797
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2020 7:35 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by glen797 » Tue Feb 04, 2020 7:44 pm

Undergrad Institution: Large state school with a good rep in physics
Major(s): Physics & Math
Minor(s): None
GPA in Major: 3.89 & 3.88
Overall GPA: 3.9
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: near top
Type of Student: Domestic Male

GRE Scores:
Q: 167 (89%)
V: 166 (91%)
W: 4.5 (86%)
P: 960 (92%)

Research Experience: 3.5 years with a one group (one mid author paper), about a year total with another, one summer REU, and a year post-bac at a national lab (first author paper in progress)

Special Bonus Points: I have 4 solid LoR from my research and classes. I also did a year long research project in the history of science which resulted in a first author published paper, for what that's worth if anything.

Applying to Where: HEP-X with a secondary interest in computational physics

Berkeley -
CalTech -
Cornell -
Columbia - Accepted 2/6 w/ Dean's Fellowship (Apparently "an early offer")
Harvard -
Michigan -
MIT CCE -
MIT Physics -
Princeton -
Stanford -
UIUC -
UCSD -
UCLA -
UCSB -
U Chicago -
UW Maddison - Accepted 1/28
Maryland -
Yale -
U Penn - interview on 1/7

(I did some applications last year and didn't do nearly as well as I'd hoped, so I guess I was a little paranoid)
Last edited by glen797 on Sun Feb 09, 2020 4:10 pm, edited 3 times in total.

RazzleDazzle
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2020 10:57 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by RazzleDazzle » Tue Feb 04, 2020 11:13 pm

Undergrad Institution: Ivy League moderate rep. in physics
Grad Institution: Top 3 in materials science
Major(s): BA (physics) BE (mechanical engineering) MSc (Materials Science)
Minor(s): Math and Econ
GPA in Major: 3.93 physics, 3.6 mech. eng.
Overall GPA: 3.71 Undergrad, 3.85 grad
Length of Degree: 5.5 years
Position in Class: Near top
Type of Student: Domestic white male

GRE Scores :
Q: 163
V: 167
W: 5.5
P: n/a


Research Experience: 6 months in undergrad in quantum physics leading to poster session in a conference. 6 months condensed matter experimental research in graduate school leading to 2 1st author papers still in development + 1 fourth author paper still in development. 2 patents from research in industry.

Awards/Honors/Recognition: (all within institution) Dean's list, magna cum laude, award for showing "most promise in experimental physics" in class

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 1 year Co-Op in plasma physics and photonics R&D leading to multiple patents. TA for multiple math and physics courses. Various science-education related volunteer activities.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Nothing noteworthy

Special Bonus Points: Average recommendation writer reputations reputations

Applying to:

Caltech - Applied Physics - Condensed Matter Rejected 2/20 via email
MIT - EECS: Applied Physics - Condensed Matter Rejected 2/20 via email

Columbia- Materials Science under Applied Physics - Condensed Matter
Harvard - Applied Physics - Condensed Matter Rejected 2/20 via email
Last edited by RazzleDazzle on Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:57 pm, edited 3 times in total.

lordbaelish
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2020 4:17 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by lordbaelish » Wed Feb 05, 2020 3:34 pm

Undergrad Institution: Small state school(no Physics reputation)
Major(s): Physics and Biology B.A
GPA in Major: 3.7
Overall GPA:3.7
Physics M.S. in a state school(somewhat a Physics reputation)
GPA: 3.35
Length of Degree: 4.5 years for Bachelors and 2 years for Masters
Type of Student: Domestic male

GRE Scores : (revised or old version?)
Q: 160
V: 158
W: 4
P: 710


Research Experience: 1.5 years research on atomic physics and 1 year biophysics (both theoretical, one paper submission under review)

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutor and adjunct lecturer after

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: Some Phd classes taken and solid recommendation letters

Applying to Where:

Yale U - Physics - CMT - Rejected
NYU- Physics - CMT
Brandeis - Physics - CMT - (Interviewed via Skype, then invited to their open house a week after)
Syracuse - Physics - CMT - Accepted
U of Pittsburgh - Physics - CMT
Rutgers - Physics - CMT
Stony Brook - Physics - CMT
Grad Center - Physics - Atomic physics - Email to interview
U Conn - Physics - CMT - Accepted
Last edited by lordbaelish on Tue Feb 25, 2020 2:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.

orion_dwarf
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2020 1:40 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by orion_dwarf » Thu Feb 06, 2020 1:58 am

Undergrad Institution: public university in the US, decent in physics and astro
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): None
GPA in Major: 3.90
Overall GPA: 3.93
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: Top
Type of Student: International female

GRE Scores:
Q: 166, 164
V: 157, 166
W: 5.5, 5.0
P: 750

TOEFL: Not required - I come from an English-speaking country

Research Experience: Extensive in astronomy
1 first-author published in MNRAS (with advisor at home institution) before applications were due, 1 first-author paper in prep at time of application (with a professor from a highly reputable US university).
Started as a freshman, worked with 2 advisors at home institution - so >3 years of research when applying.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Many honors and research awards within the school, Dean's honors etc.

Applying to Where: all astronomy or astrophysics unless specified (some schools have combined physics/astro departments with only a physics PhD option)

Harvard - Accepted 2/5
Princeton - Interviewed 1/17
Columbia - Accepted 2/2
UChicago - Accepted 1/27
Northwestern - Accepted 2/4
Cornell
Caltech - Accepted 1/31
MIT - Physics - Interviewed 1/13
UC Berkeley - Accepted 2/3
Yale - Accepted 2/5
UCSB - Accepted 1/25
UCSD - Physics - Accepted 1/9
UCSC - Interviewed 2/3
UT Austin - Accepted 1/17
University of Arizona - Accepted 1/29
Ohio State - Accepted 1/13
Colorado Boulder - Accepted 2/4
Stony Brook - Accepted 2/4
Rutgers - Physics - Accepted 1/29

lechatellier4
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 11:56 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by lechatellier4 » Thu Feb 06, 2020 7:49 pm

Undergrad Institution: Top Private (Ivy-level) Tech school
Major(s): Physics, Mathematics
Minor(s): Chemistry, Computer Science
GPA: 3.85 (4.0 in physics, 3.8 in math)
Type of Student: International Asian Female

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (96%)
V: 156 (73%) LOL
W: 3.5 (39%) :(
GRE Subject Test in Physics:
M: 930 (88%)

TOEFL Score: NA

Program Applying: CMT

Research Experience: 2-year computational chemistry research; 2-year CMIT research
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: some achievement awards within school
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: tutored physics/chemistry classes, graded physics/math classes
Any Miscellaneous Points that Might Help: 3 physics grad classes, 1 math grad class
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where: (Color use here is welcome)
Physics
Harvard - Rejected (2/13 website)
Princeton - Admitted (2/13 email) Joseph Henry Merit Award (+$5k offer) & +3k from the department (second year) Declined (4/8)
Caltech - Rejected (2/19 email)
Berkeley - Admitted (2/6 email) Berkeley fellowship Declined (4/8)
UCSB - Rejected (3/3 website)
CU Boulder - Admitted (1/3 email) +$3k offer Declined (in Feb/March)
Perimeter Scholars International - Admitted (11/30 interview offer via email, 12/6 accepted via email)

Math
Harvard - Rejected (2/6)
Stanford - Waitlisted (3/2) Admitted (unofficially 4/2, officially 4/8)
Columbia - Rejected (2/6)
UCLA -
Stony Brook - Admitted (unofficial email 2/26, official letter in a week or two) Declined (4/10)
Northwestern - Admitted (email for a scheduled call 1/25, official email 2/2) Declined (4/10)


I have way stronger background in physics but am tending to going to math grad school
Last edited by lechatellier4 on Fri Apr 10, 2020 8:34 pm, edited 13 times in total.

quarkgluonplasma
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2020 10:33 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by quarkgluonplasma » Thu Feb 06, 2020 11:32 pm

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Undergrad Institution: One of the top public schools in physics (USA)
Major(s): Mechanical Engineering
Minor(s): Physics
GPA in Major: 3.90/4.00
Overall GPA: 3.89/4.00
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: Unknown (Near top?)

Masters Institution: One of the top private schools in physics (USA)
Masters Major(s): Applied Physics
Masters GPA: 4.00/4.00
Length of Degree: 4 years (did masters part-time)

Type of Student: Domestic Male (immigrant)

GRE Scores:
Q: 168
V: 153
W: 4.0
P: 920 (86%)


Research Experience:
- 2 summers at a national lab doing physics research during undergrad - No publication - Presented research posters at APS annual conferences twice
- Currently doing part time research with a Prof. at my Masters institution

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:
- Honors in undergrad
- One of the top students in national physics olympiad during high school

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
- Worked ~ 6 years full-time as an engineer (doing R&D work) in semiconductor industry after my undergrad. My engineering background, industry experience, and age would probably go against me. :|

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:
- 6 years R&D work in semiconductor industry resulted in 10 patents

Special Bonus Points:
- Completed most of the core physics graduate coursework through Masters
- Contacted prospective advisors/professors in some schools. Met some of them in person and talked to some of them via email/skype.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
- I did Masters part-time while working full-time in industry

Applying to Where:
Applying to condensed-matter experimental PhD programs. Mentioned AMO as second choice for some of the schools.

Stanford - Applied Physics - Feb. 10: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via website/email
CalTech - Applied Physics - Feb. 20: Rejected via email
MIT - Physics - Feb. 12: Rejected via email
Princeton - Physics - Feb. 19: Rejected via email
Harvard - Applied Physics - Feb. 24: Rejected via email
Berkeley - Applied Science & Technology (AS&T) - Feb. 5: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via website/email
Columbia - Physics - Feb. 3: Skype Interview - Mar. 3: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via website/email
Cornell - Applied Physics - Feb. 28: Rejected via email
Univ of Penn - Physics - Jan. 9: Skype Interview - Jan. 18: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via website/email
Yale - Applied Physics - Jan. 23: Skype Interview- Feb. 7: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via website/email
UCLA - Physics
Cambridge (UK) - Physics - Multiple Interviews - Jan. 28: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via website/email
Oxford (UK) - Physics

Update: There is hope for people like me with unusual and/or engineering background who want to get back to physics :)
Last edited by quarkgluonplasma on Fri Mar 06, 2020 12:09 am, edited 6 times in total.

chickenpotato1997
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Feb 07, 2020 7:31 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by chickenpotato1997 » Fri Feb 07, 2020 10:10 pm

Undergrad Institution: Small Liberal Arts School, High Rank
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 3.82
Overall GPA: 3.82
Length of Degree: 4 Years
Position in Class: Near top but not quite there
Type of Student: International male

GRE Scores :
Q: 165 (86th Percentile)
V: 162 (90th Percentile)
W: 6.0 (99th Percentile lol)
P: 840 (74th Percentile)


TOEFL: (R: , L: , S: , W: )


Research Experience: Research every summer (AMO, ultrafast optics, soft matter), two winter terms, one year in soft matter, publication in progress.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Dean's list

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA'd every core physics course

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: Good recs methinks

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I

Applying to Where:


Harvard - Physics - AMO - Feb. 5: Accepted
Stanford - Physics - AMO - Feb. 11: Rejected
Caltech - Physics - AMO - Feb. 19: Rejected
UChicago - Physics - AMO - Feb. 11: Rejected
UC Berkeley - Physics - AMO - Feb. 21: Rejected
Columbia - Physics - AMO - Feb. 28: Accepted
Yale - Physics - AMO Feb. 19: Accepted
CU Boulder - Physics - AMO Jan. 30: Accepted
UCLA - Physics - AMO - Mar. 27: Rejected
UWashington - Physics - AMO - Feb. 6: Accepted
UMD College Park - Physics - AMO - Mar. 1: Rejected
Last edited by chickenpotato1997 on Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:41 pm, edited 8 times in total.

IMSSEQMC
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Dec 25, 2016 1:28 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by IMSSEQMC » Sat Feb 08, 2020 8:19 am

Associates' Institution: Community College in US
Majors: (Triple) Physics A.S., Biology A.S., Mathematics A.S.
Overall GPA: 3.49
Length of Degree: 3 Years

Bachelor's Institution: Top 10 in Physics in US, Public
Major: Physics B.S.
GPA in Major: <2.52
Overall GPA: 2.52
Length of Degree: 3 Years

Master's Institution: Top 10 in Physics in US, Private
Major: Physics M.S.
GPA in Major: 3.34 (3.41 w/ Fall quarter grades, unsure if they saw them)
Overall GPA: 3.34 (3.41 w/ Fall quarter grades, unsure if they saw them)
Length of Degree: 2 Years
Type of Student: Domestic Male, Latino/Asian, Gay, First-Generation College Student, Low-Income Background

GRE Scores:
Q: 158 (69%) / 159 (73%)
V: 157 (76%) / 155 (69%)
W: 5.0 (93%) / 4.5 (82%)
P: 510 (10%)
Note about GRE Scores: I took the General GRE twice, but UChicago lists the highest score from either.

Research Experience (consecutively):
1 ) ~2.5 Years in Bachelor's Institution in Computational Condensed Matter Theory and Statistical Mechanics [~6 PowerPoint presentations, ~5 poster presentations, acknowledgement in advisors' publication, 1st author publication manuscript in progress].
2 ) ~6 Months at a European Research Institute in between Bachelor's and Master's (some work during Master's) in Computational Condensed Matter Theory and Statistical Mechanics [1 ChalkTalk, 1 PowerPoint presentation, 2nd author publication submitted to PRL for review].
3 ) ~3 Months in Master's Institution in Biophysical Sciences.
4 ) ~9 Months in Master's Institution in Computational Condensed Matter Theory and Statistical Mechanics.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:
1 ) Full Tuition + Stipend Scholarship for M.S.
2 ) Edison Summer Research Scholar (during B.S.)
3 ) McNair Scholar (during B.S.)
4 ) HSF Scholar (no funding) (during B.S.)
5 ) LGBTQ STEM Scholar of the Year (university based) (during B.S.)
6 ) European radiation protection based grant to attend space summer school in Europe. (in between B.S./M.S.)
7 ) CAMP Scholar (during B.S.)
8 ) $1000 Scholarship (during B.S.)
9 ) Departmental Research Honors (B.S.)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
1 ) Community College math tutor for ~3 months during A.S.
2 ) Co-president of LGBTQ+ STEM club for ~2 years during B.S., then grad liaison during M.S.
3 ) Planning committee/workshop leader for large K-12 outreach at university during B.S.
4 ) Panelist/interviewee for 12 university panels/video during B.S.
5 ) Advisory committee member to division's Dean for ~3 months during M.S.
6 ) Advisory board member for diversity at university's grad office for ~3 months during M.S.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: My life is weird.

Special Bonus Points: First letter writer is probably famous, was my faculty advisor during undergrad, knows me well and I worked with them a lot. Second was my grad student mentor / post doc mentor / European institute advisor who knows me well and worked with me a lot. Third is my current MS advisor, is probably famous, and likely has connections at UChicago (whatever that means).

Applying to Where (yep just one, which elicited many confused reactions and was not recommended by many people):

University of Chicago (UChicago) - Physics Ph.D. - Feb. 7: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email to check website + $26,250 TA during Fall through Spring Quarters + $8,750 TA/RA First Summer

Have a good day.

khinflaton
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 09, 2020 4:37 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by khinflaton » Sun Feb 09, 2020 5:40 pm

Undergrad Institution: Big state university
Major(s): Physics, Mathematics
Minor(s): N.A.
GPA in Major: 3.97 (physics), 3.94 (math)
Overall GPA: 3.97
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: N.A.
Type of Student: International female

GRE Scores :
Q: 170 (96%)
V: 159 (83%)
W: 4.5 (81%)
P: 850 (75%)


TOEFL: N.A.


Research Experience: All research experiences are at home institution. 3.5yrs in theoretical/computational astrophysics (two projects with the same professor, one 1st author paper in prep); 0.5yrs in theoretical cosmology.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Two summer research awards from my home institution.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Physics tutor; mentor of a math program.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: A short reading project with a math professor.

Special Bonus Points: Took several grad classes and did well.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: One of my recommenders hasn't mentored me in any research context.

Applying to Where:

PhD programs (all to physics department):

Princeton - astrophysics/cosmology/gravity Feb. 19: REJECTED via email
UC Berkeley - astrophysics/cosmology Feb. 20: REJECTED via website A little sad - there has my favorite astro&cosmology group :(
Caltech - astrophysics/cosmology/gravity Jan. 31: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via website So grateful!!
JHU - astrophysics/cosmology/gravity Feb. 4: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email
UCSB - astrophysics/cosmology/gravity Jan. 22: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via phone
UIUC - astrophysics/cosmology/gravity Jan. 4: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email
Stanford - astrophysics/cosmology/gravity Feb. 11: REJECTED via email
UChicago - astrophysics/cosmology/gravity Feb. 11: REJECTED via website
UT Austin - astrophysics/cosmology Jan. 28: Invited to open house (tried to change it to an online interview due to exams, not sure if it's happening) Feb. 28: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email without an interview - I'm surprised and grateful
NYU - astrophysics/cosmology/gravity Feb. 3: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email; Feb. 6: offered a 4-year fellowship
Harvard - astrophysics/cosmology Feb. 13: REJECTED via website
Stony Brook -astrophysics/cosmology/gravity Feb. 4: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email
UMichigan - astrophysics/cosmology Feb. 24: REJECTED via email

Master programs:

Cambridge - part 3 MASt in applied math
Perimeter - Master in theoretical physics
Last edited by khinflaton on Sun Mar 01, 2020 2:44 am, edited 8 times in total.

aesthete
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 09, 2020 6:50 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by aesthete » Sun Feb 09, 2020 7:17 pm

Undergrad Institution: Top private institution, probably top 5 in physics in the US. Worldwide-known institution.
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): Geology/Planetary Science
GPA in Major: Institution doesn't calculate, probably around 3.3?
Overall GPA: 3.4
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: Average for school, probably average for department.
Type of Student: Domestic, white, legally female but nonbinary + transgender

GRE Scores: (revised v.)
Q: 167 (90%)
V: 166 (97%)
W: 5.0 (92%)
P: Abysmal, like bottom 25% bad. I didn't really study for it and I kinda regret it. :/ At least Stanford made it optional this year and a few of the UCs don't require it...

TOEFL: N/A

Research Experience: Two summers, after sophomore and junior years. Sophomore year research was on asteroid detection (which got me a publication, 10th author or something but better than nothing), junior year research was optics computer simulation. (I don't particularly want to go into either but hey, the experience was nice.) I also observed at Palomar and am currently using that data on my senior thesis/year-long research project.

Awards/Honors/Recognition: School doesn't do academic awards lol. I applied for a fellowship but I still don't know if I've received it.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Not really any, I have a 5 hour/week job at my school but it's not relevant to academics.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I discovered/co-discovered 8 asteroids during my first research experience? I dunno how much that helped for the physics applications, though...

Special Bonus Points: (Such as connections, grad classes, famous recommenders, female or minority status etc...) My school requires that physics juniors take graduate-level classes in quantum, statistical physics, and advanced classical/E&M (as well as graduate-level electives) in order to graduate. I'm doing a senior thesis at the moment, though I don't need it to graduate and haven't been progressing much so I might just drop it. Also, being legally female and/or trans probably helps in some cases.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I used to do fencing (stopped when the team fell apart) and am self-taught in sewing and Twitter API coding, though I have no idea if this matters at all beyond it maybe showing I'm self-motivated or something. I'm also extremely sure in what I want to do in both HEP-ex and astro, which probably helped me out.

Applying to Where:

Physics, HEP-Ex (or applied for astro but actually want HEP-ex):
Brown: Jan 30: Rejected via email (Not entirely surprised here, their department is tiny)
UC Irvine: Jan 30: Accepted, email to check website. $7300/quarter TA fellowship for 2 years + full tuition and insurance support + 5-year housing guarantee + relocation allowance. (Woo, first acceptance! May accept depending on other offers.)
Stanford: Feb 11: Rejected via email (Not entirely surprised lol)
UC Berkeley: Feb 20: Rejected via email
University of Maryland College Park: Feb 28: Rejected via website/later email.
University of Washington:
University of Chicago: Feb 11: Rejected via email/website
Yale: Feb 19: Rejected via email/websitel
UC Santa Barbara: March 3: Rejected via email/website
Stony Brook: Feb 29: Rejected via email after inquiry. (Would've been nice to not have to email for this...)
UC Santa Cruz: Feb 26: Rejected via email
University of Delaware (safety): Feb 21: Accepted via email. (Didn't check stipend but it's more than $28,000, this was my safety and I'll be attending another school.)

Astronomy/Astrophysics, stellar evolution or astroparticle:
University of Washington: Jan 31: Rejected via email
Columbia: Feb 4: Rejected via email/website
University of Maryland College Park: Feb 21: Waitlisted/soft-rejected via email
Harvard: Feb 10: Rejected via email/website
Cornell:
Princeton: Feb 10: Rejected via email
UCLA:
University of Chicago: Feb 17: Rejected via email/website
Last edited by aesthete on Thu Mar 05, 2020 3:12 pm, edited 6 times in total.

NinadKD
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2018 8:10 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by NinadKD » Tue Feb 11, 2020 3:21 am

This is the most useful resource PhysicsGRE has to offer. If you have used this information in the past or are currently using it to help decide upon schools, I highly suggest you help out and post your own profile once you have applied to schools. Future members of this forum will find it very useful! Don't be shy!

Copy and paste the template below in your reply to keep the formatting.

Note from moderator: Profile threads are best when they only have profiles. Please avoid making other posts on this thread. If you wish to discuss profiles, it is helpful to have a separate "profile discussion thread", as was done in some past years. Thanks.

______________________________________________
Undergrad Institution:Indian Institute of Technology-Varanasi..decent in India, known more for Mining,Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering than Physics
Major(s):Engineering Physics
Minor(s): We don't do that here :( :(
GPA in Major:8.91/10
Overall GPA:8.3/10 :?
Length of Degree: 5
Position in Class: 4/14
Type of Student: International Male

GRE Scores : (revised or old version?)
Q:165
V:156
W:4.5
P:940(meh :x ) (920 in 2018)


TOEFL: (R:30 , L:26 , S:24 , W:27 )


Research Experience:
1. Five months in Quantum Information during my sophomore year
2.One summer in neutrino oscillations(HEP)
3. 9 months on a numerical project in soft condensed matter
4.~15 months in topological condensed matter( manuscript in preparation..but could not finish in time for the applications)
5. 9 months post-grad, long distance internship on non-Hermitian topological matter

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Departmental fellowship on clearing a national level exam in which I stood 58th out of ~15k candidates


Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, SPS officer etc...)

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points:

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where: All for Condensed Matter Theory

Brown University - Rejected (31/01)
University of Texas at Dallas - Accepted via e-mail (11/02) First acceptance in over a year
Stony Brook -
UC Santa Cruz - Had emailed a POI in late December, Interview on 4th February.. really want to get in here
Bonn-Cologne Graduate School-Rejected (9/02)
U Pittsburgh -
Stony Brook -
Texas A & M-
CUNY-

PS-This was the second time I was applying for graduate school, having failed to get anywhere last year. My previous profile can be seen herehttps://physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... si#p237881
Edit 11/02-Glad to get my first acceptance from Dallas. Best wishes to everyone else out there. Will post a detailed analysis of my take on the grad school application process once all the other results are out.

physdes
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2020 2:14 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by physdes » Wed Feb 12, 2020 2:46 pm

Undergrad Institution: Top 20 public school in US
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): N/A
GPA in Major: 3.3 / 4.0 -- solid GPA in my junior and senior year. I just did not study in my first two years. :oops:
Overall GPA: 3.165 / 4.0 -- same as above
Length of Degree: 4 yrs
Position in Class: near top
Type of Student: International student

GRE Scores :
Q: 165
V: 148
W: 3.0
P: 800 (67th percentile) -- not a good test taker and did not prepare that well after knowing all the connections. I should have done the opposite :!:


TOEFL: (R: , L: , S: , W: ): exempt


Research Experience:
I started my research pretty late at my home institution, doing soft matter and fluid dynamics -- 6 months before graduation plus a whole gap year right after that. I am just a lucky kid and that's it. name on the author list of article which has been submitted to a high-impact index journal and one on-going project which I will co-author.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Provost Honor? does that one count? hahaha

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: research assistant during my gap year

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: :oops: no

Special Bonus Points: 1 very strong LOR from the professor I have been working with.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: maybe march meeting presentation
Applying to Where:

UChicago - physics - Accepted via website Feb. 7th
MIT - applied math - Rejected via email Feb 6th
Caltech - applied physcis
Princeton - MAE - Rejected via email Jan. 31st
Wisconsin Madison - physics - Rejected via email Feb 17th - expected. congrats and good luck to those who got admitted.
UCSB - physics - had an informal interview but I screwed up
UCSD - physics - Accepted via email Jan. 13th
NYU - physics - have some solid connections
Cornell - physics - Rejected via email Feb 12th
Last edited by physdes on Tue Feb 18, 2020 1:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

purplepinetree
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2019 1:34 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by purplepinetree » Wed Feb 12, 2020 3:20 pm

Undergrad Institution: Small liberal arts school
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): Computer Science, Philosophy
GPA in Major: 4.95
Overall GPA: 4.96
Length of Degree: 4yrs
Position in Class: Top
Type of Student: International female

GRE Scores : (revised or old version?)
Q: 169
V: 158 :oops:
W: 4.5
P: 780 :oops:


TOEFL: (R: , L: , S: , W: ) N/A


Research Experience:
4 HEP-EX research and 1 Mechanical Engineering research.
- one at CERN (for a summer)
- one in a national lab (for a summer, one presentation)
- one at a university close to my college (for 3.5 years, one publication one of many et.al, but did my senior thesis and got some honors with it)
- one at another university for a year after my graduation
- one at another university for a semester, paid position (Mechanical Engineering)

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:
- an award based on GPA
- another based on research
- Sigma Pi Sigma
- Magna cum laude
- High Honor in Physics
- two huge scholarships for undergrad program
- two huge scholarships for graduate program

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
- TA for every semester except for my first semester
- grader for 2 years
- mentor/tutor for physics for 3 years
- department liaison for a year
- research assistant for a year
- software engineering at Microsoft for a summer (kind of related??)
- SPS officer for a year
- Research Fellow at one of the top universities for a year
- Annual lecture series I had in Asia for the past three years for women (high school students) in science
- Contributed a couple of articles about my research and physics in general to a widely read newspaper

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:
- Two huge scholarships. One covers full tuition for 4 years + stipend of $3000/month + research grant, and the other also covers full tuition for 6 years + stipend of $2000/month :D
- launched a new scholarship program in collaboration with one of the scholarship groups and the admission office of my school, for future students hoping to go to my college from the country I am from. :D

Special Bonus Points:
- Very strong recommendation letters.
- The PI I have been working with was my recommendation letter writer, and she also helped me choosing programs/professors to apply to, and she knew most of the professors I mentioned in the SoP.
- Same for another recommendation writer. He went through the list of professors I am applying to, and he seemed to know most of them.
- Those two professors I mentioned above are the professors at my first choice school.
- The other recommendation writer is a prof at my undergrad institution, and he has seen me from struggling through classes as non english speaker to getting a research fellow position and starting off my career as a professional scientist.
- Some people told me my SoP was one of the best they have ever read :D

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
I was raised to be a house wife and did not know any math or science until I came here for college. It's been rough 5 years, but I studied so much harder and put so much effort in bettering myself,and I am pretty sure it showed up in the LoR from a prof at my undergrad institution.
I also won some prizes with playing the flute but I guess it doesn't really matter..?
I already talked via Skype/phone or in person to the most of the professor mentioned in SoP.


Applying to Where: All High Energy Physics Experiment
Harvard - Feb. 5 : ACCEPTED via email :D
MIT - Feb. 12 : ACCEPTED via email :D
Yale - Interviewed/casually talked to PIs (November/December), Feb 19: ACCEPTED via email :D
Princeton Feb 19: REJECTED since they don’t have any neutrino experimentalist, totally makes sense
Columbia - Feb. 11 : Interviewed (they already know Columbia is not my first choice)
Berkeley
U Michigan -
Stanford - application withdrawn


Having gotten acceptance from my top choices, a couple of thing:
- PGRE is not everything! There might be some threshold, but you don't have to get crazy high scores if you can cover that aspect with something else.
- Don't give up on getting into top graduate programs just because you are from liberal arts school. I myself was, but honestly the education I got there was extraordinary and I wouldn't have gotten such an amazing results without it, or specifically, professors there. Talk to you professors and learn as much as you can from them.
- If you feel like you didn't have enough research experience, it's a great choice to take a "gap" year and do research. That was exactly what I did, and I am so glad I did. I got experience, and I now know that I want to pursue my career in physics for sure.
- I don't know how much the full funding scholarship has helped me with the application, but it definitely will once I start my graduate study. I know applying graduate schools are stressful enough already, but if you could, I really recommend applying to scholarships/fellowships as well.


So thrilled to be back to school next year!! :D
Good luck to all of us here!!
Last edited by purplepinetree on Wed Feb 19, 2020 2:58 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Ajbaker14
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2019 4:51 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by Ajbaker14 » Thu Feb 13, 2020 12:44 am

Undergrad Institution: State school with Top 20(US) Physics
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): Mathematics
GPA in Major: 3.781
Overall GPA: 3.683
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: Not tracked
Type of Student: Domestic white male

GRE Scores :
Q: 164 (84%)
V: 170 (99%)
W: 4.0 (57%)
P: 810 (68%)


TOEFL: N/A


Research Experience: 3 years of CME research and simultaneously 3 years of MechE research on piezoelectrics. No publications, the MechE research was part of the school honors program and culminated in a thesis.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: 2 academic merit based scholarships, dean’s list for 2 years, completed the gemstone honors program (above mentioned MechE research)

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: 5 years as a nuclear submarine officer

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: I have the GI Bill to use for partial funding

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: My GPA has a slight negative trend, I’m a first generation college student, and I joined the navy to pay for my undergrad so I have non-standard experience and soft skills to talk about

Applying to (all CME with an interest in quantum materials):

MIT - Physics - Feb. 12 REJECTED for Ph.D. via email
Columbia - Applied Physics - No response
University of Washington - Physics - Jan. 30 ACCEPTED for Ph.D. via email
UCLA - Physics - Feb. 07 ACCEPTED for Ph.D. via phone Attending!
Northwestern - Physics - Feb. 21 REJECTED for Ph.D. via email
Boston University - Physics - Feb. 12 ACCEPTED for Ph.D. via email
UCSD - Physics - Mar. 13 REJECTED for Ph.D. via email
Rice University - Applied Physics - Jan. 12 ACCEPTED for Ph.D. via email
UC Irvine - Physics - Feb. 07 ACCEPTED for Ph.D. via email
NYU - Physics - Mar. 17 ACCEPTED for Ph.D. via email
Northeastern - Physics - no response
UCSC - Physics - Feb. 28 REJECTED for Ph.D. via email
Pittsburgh - Physics - Feb. 05 ACCEPTED for Ph.D. via email
USC - Physics - Apr. 02 REJECTED for Ph.D. via email
Georgetown - Physics - Jan. 17 ACCEPTED for Ph.D. via email
Last edited by Ajbaker14 on Tue Apr 21, 2020 3:22 pm, edited 4 times in total.

hawksolo
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Feb 11, 2020 2:45 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by hawksolo » Mon Feb 17, 2020 5:57 pm

Undergrad Institution: Medium engineering school, decent physics
Major(s): Engineering Physics
Minor(s): Math
GPA in Major: 4.00
Overall GPA: 3.95
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: Likely very close to top, unreported
Type of Student: Domestic male

GRE Scores:
Q: 165 (86%)
V: 159 (83%)
W: 4.5 (81%)
P: 770 (62%) and 660 (36%?) :oops:

Research Experience: R&D internship freshman summer at a large semiconductor company. Uni fellowship funded junior year project computational modeling of low temp CM experiment. Summer school and research experience at a well known quantum computing institute. Worked in experimental condensed matter/QC group. No publications so far.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Nothing significant.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Vice president of very active SPS chapter junior year and president of Sigma Pi Sigma senior year. Serve on a number of department committees.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: Applied for NSF GRFP with professor at one school applying to and noted on applications that asked. Quite confident in the quality of my recommendations, mostly junior faculty but connected in intended fields.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
Reached out to a number of faculty at about half the schools. Either a few emails back and forth or phone calls in early fall. Physics GRE didn’t quite go as planned. The 660 score was from the October date and I had it set to automatically send to four schools. Those that did not require physics GRE I did not send either too.

Applying to Where: All for condensed matter experiment with emphasis towards quantum computing

UChicago - Molecular Engineering Jan 18: ACCEPTED + fellowship
CU Boulder - Physics Feb 6: ACCEPTED + TA + scholarship
U Wisconsin-Madison - Physics Jan 28: ACCEPTED + TA + first year scholarship
Yale U - Applied Physics Feb 7: Rejected
Princeton U - Electrical Engineering Jan 16 interview with a POI, Feb 10 wait-listed
U Maryland, College Park - Physics Feb 12: ACCEPTED + TA/RA + 1 yr fellowship
U Rochester - Physics Jan 24: ACCEPTED + TA
U Pittsburgh - Physics Jan 29: ACCEPTED + TA

FrankFu
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Feb 17, 2020 5:38 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by FrankFu » Mon Feb 17, 2020 7:01 pm

Undergrad Institution: Public uni with okay (10-20 ranked) physics
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): Nah
GPA in Major: 3.91/4.0
Overall GPA: 3.78/4.0
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: Top 10%
Type of Student: International male

GRE Scores:
Q: 167 (90%)
V: 166 (97%)
W: 5.0 (92%)
P: 970 (93%)
(got a lot of improvement prepping so feel free to ask)

Toefl: 112


Research Experience:
0.5 yr building electronics for a trapped ion group. ~8 hrs/week
1 yr (but very long hour) microwave design for a condensed matter experiments in Japan. 2 full days/week through both semesters plus a month full time in winter.
4 months doing analysis and CNN stuff for a US ATLAS prof. 2 months full-time, ~10 hrs/week after

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Interdisciplinary and departmental honors, JASSO scholarship and invited for Sigma Pi Sigma. Dean's list too.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Summer internship teaching ML and doing market researches for a growth-stage analytics firm.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Year-long exchange in top Japanese university and a highly selective program at our business school (~20 ranked). Also glee club?

Special Bonus Points: All quite strong recs, 2 from PI's and 1 from department dean. All recommenders know me very well personally. Japanese PI is famous in QI circle and knows some prospective profs. 7000$ scholarship in Japan. Additional rec from a business prof. Also took 4 grad lvl classes with good grades: nuclear (A), QFT I (A+), quantum algorithm (A+) and GR (I earned that B, dammit).

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: Talked to most profs in SoP (esp. for PPPL). Publication in progress, but don't think they care unless it's already published.

Applying to Where: All condensed matter/atomic except PPPL

Reach:
Princeton Plasma Physics - 2 hard phone interviews (late Jan early Feb), but ACCEPTED on Valentine's Day, 38k/12mo, RA. No way!!
Yale Applied Physics - Shortlisted in late Jan phone interview, ACCEPTED on Feb, 7th, 36K/10mo, RA.
Cambridge Physics - Interviewed w/PI mid Jan (pretty much settled), ACCEPTED on Jan 29th. Rejected for Trinity but accepted for Churchill. No $.
Harvard SEAS - REJECTED on Feb. 24th
MIT Physics (condensed matter) - REJECTED on Feb. 12th
MIT EECS (QI) - REJECTED on Feb. 20th
Stanford Physics - REJECTED on Feb 11th
Caltech Applied Physics - REJECTED on Feb. 20th
Oxford Physics WITHDRAWN

Match:
UCB Physics - REJECTED on Feb. 20th
U Penn Physics - REJECTED on Feb.13th
Columbia Physics - WITHDRAWN

Safety:
UW Physics - WAITLISTED on Mar. 18th
UMD Physics - REJECTED on Feb. 28th
UCSD Physics - REJECTED on Mar. 4th

Takeaway:
They want good researchers that gives results, and most schools use committee made out of PI's. Think you don't need flashy publications, activities or conference talks if your background's broad and solid. Recs are real important - get as many from PI's as possible. Make sure you contact a lot of people at grad schools, because replies are rare but real helpful.

You'll get'em! Feel free to PM, I'd be glad to help.
Last edited by FrankFu on Wed Mar 18, 2020 11:33 pm, edited 16 times in total.

fortunate_indv
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2020 2:01 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by fortunate_indv » Fri Feb 21, 2020 2:29 pm

Undergrad Institution:R1 Public institution, somewhat well-known in Physics
Major(s): Honors Physics and Honors Math
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 3.67 for Physics at time of application - Improved after fall grades
3.3 ish in math
Overall GPA: 3.47 at time of applications, 3.52 after Fall
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: haha not great
Type of Student: Male, First Generation

GRE Scores :
Q:160 -good enough for me
V:157 -same
W:4.0 -same
P: Didnt take -rookie mistake tbh


TOEFL: (R: , L: , S: , W: )
NA

Research Experience: (At your school or elsewhere? What field? How much time? Any publications (Mth author out of N?) or conference talks etc...)
4 summers spent working at a national lab. Fields ranged from Geology/Astrophysics/Nuclear Physics/Chemistry. Some conference proceedings from this. Somewhat big deal 1st author publication still in works with NIMA. Last summer did REU with POI at Caltech in HEP-ex. Currently running own lab with students under me in fusion research after fundraising several $k and borrowing lab space from my honors advisor.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?)
Several scholarships in physics department, some for my community service within the college and my honors program, very competitive summer fellowship from Caltech.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, SPS officer etc...)
Organized and fundraised two university wide nobel laureate lectures, one being one of the LIGO 2017 award. Founder of a student advocacy group for individuals in Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Was an SPS officer at one point. Focused most non-fundraising efforts on mental health initiatives for student in my honors program. Occasionally work as a farm hand in North Texas to help family. Sometimes a volunteer snake-wrangler.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:
Took a few grad courses in Math, Physics (QFT), and Chemistry. Got As in the Physics and Chemistry ones. Running my own lab and supervising several undergraduates definitely helped at the cost of my sanity and increased greying of my hair.


Special Bonus Points: First Gen probably helped, I also made it clear I care about the well-being of my peers and that I want to make sure my peers succeed as well.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
Bombed my first few semesters due to some mental health issues, then really started caring and collected myself causing for extreme upward trend. Not taking the physics GRE definitely hurt my application. My rec letter writers definitely came through and I am so lucky to have had such wonderful research experiences to show my potential.

Applying to Where:
Stanford - Physics - HEP-ex (Feb. 11: ACCEPTED for Ph.D)- words dont describe how happy and lucky I am. Was super stressed after caltech rejection
UIUC - No details yet
Michigan - no details
MIT - Physics - HEP/Nuclear -ex Rejected via email
Caltech - Physics - Research Interest (Feb. 7: Rejected via informal email from mentor over summer-pretty salty)


Takeaways: If given the chance to apply again, I would take the PGRE and apply to some back up schools. Even though I was accepted to my top choice, I would never wish the stress I had of not having a backup onto anyone. But, I am an example of someone who can succeed without stellar academics and I wish everyone the best of luck in this awful awful experience.

fefifofumfe
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2020 12:45 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by fefifofumfe » Sat Feb 22, 2020 1:13 am

Undergrad Institution: Small Liberal Arts in US. Not well known
Major(s): Physics
GPA in Major: 3.4
Overall GPA: 3.28
Length of Degree: 5 yrs
Position in Class: middle ish?
Type of Student: domestic Hispanic female

GRE Scores : Taken Sept 2019
Q: 157 (64%)
V: 158 (80%)
W: 3.5 (38%)
P: 590 (26%)

Research Experience: Worked at my school building a Raman Spectrometer for a summer. Built an STM. Physics education research on soap bubble vibrations.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Scholarship for Physics students 2018

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: tutor, grader, TA lower division physics labs

Applying to Where:

Notre Dame- Physics - CME or AMO

Purdue- Physics- CME (Jan 30: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email, 19k/9mo TA)

University of Washington- Physics- CME or AMO

Washington State University- Physics- CME or AMO (Jan 22: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email, 17k/9mo TA. Feb 22: offered additional $4k scholarship for women in physics)

University of Oregon- Physics- CME or AMO

Oregon State University- Physics- CME or AMO (Feb 25: REJECTED via email)

University of Utah- Physics- CME or AMO

Montana State University- Physics- CME or AMO (Jan 31: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email, 21k/12mo TA)
Last edited by fefifofumfe on Tue Feb 25, 2020 4:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ventus96
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 23, 2020 2:06 am

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by ventus96 » Sun Feb 23, 2020 3:26 am

Undergrad Institution: Top university in my country, well-known at least within East Asia.
Major(s): Physics, Mathematics
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 4.17/4.30 (Physics), 3.79/4.30 (Math)
Overall GPA: 3.99/4.30
Length of Degree: 5 years
Position in Class: Near-top
Type of Student: International Male

GRE Scores :
Q: 154
V: 170
W: 4.0
P: 920


TOEFL: (R: 30, L: 29, S: 26, W: 28)


Research Experience:
  • Summer research in astronomy (observational) in my freshman year summer at my home institute, continue to work with this advisor on various projects ever since, lead to one first-author publication in the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ).
  • Did a second summer research project in astronomy (observational) at Leiden University (the LEAPS program, check it out, it's amazing!);
  • did another summer research project on cosmology at a top European university;
  • and yet another summer research project on weak gravitational lensing in Japan.
  • Have also worked for ~1 yr in particle physics at my home institute before I applied, mainly studying the phenomenology of a new dark matter model.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions:
  • Nothing related to physics, but have won first place in a large international Hackathon
Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
  • TA in a year-long graduate quantum mechanics course
Special Bonus Points:
  • All three of my letters are coming from faculties I have worked closely with. I would say all of my recommenders are known within the subfield of astronomy/cosmology I have been working in.
Applying to Where:
I expressed interest in cosmology in all my applications

Reach:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Physics - Feb. 12: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email, financial support to be announced (Interviewed on Jan. 14)
Harvard University - Physics - Feb. 13: Rejected via website
Stanford University - Physics - Feb. 11: Rejected via email
University of California, Berkeley - Physics - Feb. 20: Rejected via website
California Institute of Technology - Physics - Feb. 19: Rejected via email
Princeton University - Physics - Feb. 19: Rejected via email

Target:
University of Chicago - Astronomy & Astrophysics - Jan. 27: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via website + 35k TA/RA (Interviewed on Jan. 13)
Yale University - Physics - Feb. 19: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via website + 36k TA/RA
Carnegie Mellon University - Physics - Feb. 11: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via website , financial support to be announced
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - Physics -Feb. 20: Application Withdrew

Safety (though nothing is safe):
Johns Hopkins University - Physics & Astronomy - Feb. 07: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + 25k TA/RA
Ohio State University - Astronomy

Randomly Applying to (not a good fit to my current research, but would like to explore other possibilities if I get admitted):
Cornell University - Physics - Feb. 12: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + 30k TA/RA
University of California, Santa Barbara - Physics - Jan. 27: ACCEPTED for Ph.D via email + 32k TA/RA (Interviewed on Jan. 14 and 16)
University of California, Los Angeles - Physics
University of Michigan - Physics - Feb. 20: Application Withdrew

jz82
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 19, 2020 8:12 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by jz82 » Tue Feb 25, 2020 6:28 am

As an Australian who knew very little about applying to the US (I was the only one from my physics cohort to apply to the US), I found this forum incredibly helpful. Thus, I shall try and give back by sharing my details as well.

Undergrad Institution: an Australian University
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s): Maths
GPA in Major: 6.95/7.0?
Overall GPA: 6.7/7.0 converts to US 3.7 or 3.8? (did not study hard/ had one particularly disastrous semester during early uni, perfect GPA last two and a half years)
Length of Degree: 3 + 1 year honours
Position in Class: near top? small cohort
Type of Student: International female

GRE Scores :
Q: 159 (83%)
V:163 (82%)
W: 4.5 (81%)
P: 720 (51%) yike! prepped 1 day due to thesis submission the day before and general unpreparedness for US apps

TOEFL: (R: , L: , S: , W: ) Not needed

Research Experience:
- Research based degree so I did four semester long projects (not including honours) throughout my undergrad. in theory/ exp in various fields.
- Spent last two years on topological photonics with six month 3rd year project (Jul 2018 - Nov 2018), three month internship in Singapore (Nov 2018 - Feb 2019) and also honours thesis (Jul 2019 - Oct 2019)
- Honours thesis was also in quantum optics theory in niche area (waveguide QED). First author arxiv submission in this field in Nov 2019, that was submitted to Physical Review Letters (got accepted in Feb 2020, don't think any schools would know except Cornell since I was emailing POI at the time)

Awards/Honors/Recognitions:
- Various academic awards/ scholarships, mostly last two years of undergrad
- 1 prestigious conference (Lindau) and 1 conference specifically on niche subfield (quantum topological photonics) where I won best poster
- Fulbright, full tuition and stipend ($3.5kAUD/month) for five years for full US PhD (website said max funding for 10 months - 2 years, so I did not even realise it was five years till I got it. Fulbright used to only allow Australian PhD with US visit. I am one of the first cohorts for full US PhD's which is a heads up for future Australian applicants as not many people know this is allowed under Fulbright Aus now).

Pertinent Activities or Jobs:
- Olympiad tutor for 4 years?

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:
- Topic very niche: topological photonics/ waveguide QED.

Special Bonus Points:
- Australian group and Singapore group are two of the strongest groups for topological photonics
- Did not plan for arxiv submission in waveguide QED, got very lucky and stumbled upon unexpected/ really deep result during honours project, which made supervisor want to push for publication quickly
- one strong main supervisor letter, one famous/ highly cited supervisor probably weaker letter, one overseas letter
- Got to meet a bunch of POI's that I was applying to during niche conference in December (Duke, Stanford, CUNY, Maryland). Lucky timing.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where:
Duke - ECE - topological photonics exp (Jan 9 Accepted) Dec interview
Stanford - Applied Physics - topological photonics/ waveguide QED (Feb 11 Accepted) no interview
Cornell - Applied Physics - topological photonics (Feb 14 Accepted) no interview
Harvard - Physics - quantum optics theory/exp (Feb 14 Rejected)
Caltech - Applied Physics - quantum optics exp (missing my strongest recommendation letter which I did not follow up) (Feb 21 Rejected)
CUNY - Physics - topological photonics (invited for interview - withdrew)
Maryland - Physics - topological photonics
Penn State - Physics - topological photonics, Nov interview (Feb 20 Accepted)
Columbia - Physics - waveguide QED theory, Dec interview
Cambridge (UK) - Physics - topological photonics (Jan 30 Accepted - withdrew due to guilt of accepting US funding) applied last minute in case US applications did not go well – sent one referee request to submit two hours before deadline and she actually submitted on time lol.

Reflections:
  • It's possible with bad pGRE! Yay. For reference I think there was someone in forum few years ago with 660 who still did well
  • I had VERY targeted applications. Emailed all schools/ groups with very specific research interests adjusted to fit the groups interest around October/November. I think this is why some interviews happened so early. Stanford was likely the strongest research fit since POI does both my niche topics. Harvard and Caltech were less related to research interests, so rejections there unsurprising. I think having keen/specific research interests was one of the stronger parts of my application, since I know there are people with higher scores/grades who did not get in to Stanford
  • I think field matters. HEP-th and quantum information theory are normally really competitive. I think the fact that my field was really niche inadvertently helped. I expect the groups I applied to would be surprised to have applicants with background in the field
  • You should write your application as if the field/ group you are applying to (and grad school) is a perfect fit for your interests, even if you are unsure. Same goes for grad jobs actually. Practical lessons I learnt late.
  • I think opportunities came due to judicious life choices about what physics/ opportunities I did throughout undergrad, rather than just blind hard work. Though I did also work hard to turn my early grades around. Chose topological photonics because I knew there were groups if I wanted to do an overseas PhD. So I knew of a few of the groups I applied to since mid-2018.
  • Was close, I think, to my referees. Or at least I respected them a lot, so probably helps with the letters. Good also to get your writers gifts as thanks.
  • I guess serendipity, luck and privilege (as well as hard work) play a role
  • May link my statement of purpose here as a reference later if I remember

yellowcard420
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Feb 26, 2020 1:38 pm

Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results

Post by yellowcard420 » Wed Feb 26, 2020 2:02 pm

Undergrad Institution: Top 20 Private School(non - ivy), decent at physics
Major(s):Physics & Mathematics
Minor(s):none
GPA in Major:3.87
Overall GPA:3.87
Length of Degree:4
Position in Class: up there somewhere
Type of Student: Domestic

GRE Scores: (didn't really study for either but I'm a good test taker I guess):
Q:168
V:163
W:5.0
P:830


Research Experience: 2 years on CMS at LHC, no publications.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Honors in both degrees, Sigma Pi SIgma

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: TA for 3 years in math and physics departments, all service courses

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: nah


Applying to Where:

All for Hep-Ex:
MIT - Rejected(2/12)
Harvard - Rejected(2/13)
Cornell -Accepted(2/19) 30k stipend
UC Berkeley - Rejected(2/21)
UC Santa Barbara -Accepted(1/29)32k stipend
Chicago - Rejected(2/11)
Columbia -
UMD College Park -
Duke -Accepted(1/27)32k stipend
BU -


probably going to cornell



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