Re: 2020 Applicant Profiles and Admission Results
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 4:24 pm
purplepinetree wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 3:20 pmUndergrad 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
W: 4.5
P: 780
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
- 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.
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
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
MIT - Feb. 12 : ACCEPTED via email
Yale - Interviewed/casually talked to PIs (November/December), Feb 19: ACCEPTED via email
Princeton - Feb 19: REJECTED since they don’t have any neutrino experimentalist, totally makes sense
Berkeley -Feb 24: REJECTED Aw, kinda makes me sad
Columbia - Feb. 11 : Interviewed (they already know Columbia is not my first choice)
U Michigan - application withdrawn
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!!
Good luck to all of us here!!