Highschool teacher to grad school

  • 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.

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ma2rcl
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2020 2:46 pm

Highschool teacher to grad school

Post by ma2rcl » Mon May 11, 2020 7:03 am

Hello, just wondering about the chances for a highschool teacher to apply to grad school in physics in a field that's not physics education. How much will my past undergrad grades matter if I have spent a few years with actual job experience and a decent record/character references with a high GRE score?

I say this because I did not have a high GPA like some of you guys in the 4.0 range, but it also seems a bit pointless to go back to undergrad if I've already studied the material and got a good GRE score. Im not looking to get into a top private school or anything like that.

General advice on this topic would be appreciated is all im asking here.

geekusprimus
Posts: 143
Joined: Sat Jun 08, 2019 1:10 pm

Re: Highschool teacher to grad school

Post by geekusprimus » Mon May 11, 2020 11:47 am

Most grad schools don't care what your undergrad was as long as you have the prerequisite coursework. As for your GPA, they still might care about what your grades were in said prerequisite coursework, but I can't say for sure. The real challenge I suspect you're going to have to fight is research experience, which is something a lot of high school teachers don't get to do. If you don't have a lot of research experience, you can get it: some schools have NSF-funded summer RET (research experience for teachers) programs to supplement their REU programs.



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