Is it over for my grad school dream?
Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2022 1:33 pm
I had read several posts here in this forum and I realized that how research experience is important in getting admission offers from grad schools. However, it seems like I am lacking in research experience as a recent undergrad. Here are few background information of mine:
-My undergrad research was in experimental condensed matter. Did a research presentation at my University. I had also done a poster presentation at other university. However, my research interest is in HEP (which my small uni's two physics professor doesn't have HEP)
-I do not have any internship experience. As an international student, I was unaware of CPT (only know that I can apply OPT post grad for some reason) and I didn't get to seek for research internships. Because of this, I spent all my summers working on-campus to earn money for my 4th year tuition.
-I had tutored math classes many semesters during undergrad
-I had a CGPA of 3.8 from a private university that isn't super famous or anything
From all of these background information of mine, is it over? Is there no point of salvage? You telling me I have to compete other top tier applicants with this garbage credentials of mine? I want to study HEP. I want to be involved in HEP research. It is literally the only thing that motivated me to study physics. Knowing how and why things work from the mathematical description of reality inspired me hard to study at my uni. Now what? After lurking more in this forum, some of the people that had more research experience than me during undergrad or more post-grad work experiences also got rejected from grad school got me thinking about my future... what are the chances of me going to graduate school at all?
I'm at the lower percentile of prospective grad student applicant pool and I don't know what can I do to make myself more attractive to grad school admissions team. I don't know if anyone in this forum had similar situation as mine. Please give me any helpful advice. I don't want to give up on my grad school dreams yet.
-My undergrad research was in experimental condensed matter. Did a research presentation at my University. I had also done a poster presentation at other university. However, my research interest is in HEP (which my small uni's two physics professor doesn't have HEP)
-I do not have any internship experience. As an international student, I was unaware of CPT (only know that I can apply OPT post grad for some reason) and I didn't get to seek for research internships. Because of this, I spent all my summers working on-campus to earn money for my 4th year tuition.
-I had tutored math classes many semesters during undergrad
-I had a CGPA of 3.8 from a private university that isn't super famous or anything
From all of these background information of mine, is it over? Is there no point of salvage? You telling me I have to compete other top tier applicants with this garbage credentials of mine? I want to study HEP. I want to be involved in HEP research. It is literally the only thing that motivated me to study physics. Knowing how and why things work from the mathematical description of reality inspired me hard to study at my uni. Now what? After lurking more in this forum, some of the people that had more research experience than me during undergrad or more post-grad work experiences also got rejected from grad school got me thinking about my future... what are the chances of me going to graduate school at all?
I'm at the lower percentile of prospective grad student applicant pool and I don't know what can I do to make myself more attractive to grad school admissions team. I don't know if anyone in this forum had similar situation as mine. Please give me any helpful advice. I don't want to give up on my grad school dreams yet.