Do I Have A Shot At Even A State School?

[tshafer]

I am a bit limited in where I can go for graduate school due to (soon-to-be) fiancé's job, so I am only realistically looking at programs in North Carolina (UNC, Duke, NCSU) even though I am applying to a couple of others.

I am top of my class in both physics & mathematics at a state system school in NC, though I doubt our program has much recognition. I have a 4.0 in both majors, am writing a senior thesis in quantum optics, have recommenders who got their Ph.D.s from 2 of the schools I am applying to and expect excellent recommendations. I got an 800 Quant/610 Verbal on the GRE, but I only managed a 650 on the PGRE (after pre-testing near 800 then getting a nasty cold day or two before ). Did the PGRE kill me or do I still have a chance of getting in, in your opinion? I am very, very nervous...

Thanks,
Tom

[Helio]

thought about wake forest?

Duke might be out of the league cause of the 890 average on PGRE last year. UNC might be right there cause they had a 740 average last year

[tshafer]

I hadn't really considered Wake, mainly because I had never heard of their physics program prior to my school search and been hoping for a much better score so I'd at least make NCSU/Chapel Hill. I had, in fact, forgotten about them. I'm still in a kind of denial about my PGRE score, I think...

[secander2!]

The rest of your application seems strong (how's your research?), so you're probably fine. A while ago, I compiled a listing of all the average PGRE scores for different schools using the old grad school shoppers, and Chapel Hill's averages seems to fluctuate a good bit from 632 to 740 over the 2005-2009 period, so for a domestic applying there, your PGRE might even be above average! Also, Duke's PGRE average hasn't always been that high either! Anyways, in case your interested, here's the data I've got:

Chapel Hill:

• PGRE 2009 - 740
• PGRE 2008 - 694
• PGRE 2007 - 702
• PGRE 2006 - 632
• PGRE 2005 - 660

Duke:

• PGRE 2009 - 890
• PGRE 2008 - 833
• PGRE 2007 - 828
• PGRE 2006 - 734
• PGRE 2005 - 679

Don't despair just because last years PGRE averages were high! Best of luck!

[Helio]

i don't understand how you can let your average score increase by over 200 (that is a percentile increase by 40%) if you are not something like MIT, Harvard or just had a noble prize

[vicente]

Are there any other campuses of UNC other than Chapel Hill that have a passable physics grad school program?

Also depending on where you are in NC, VTech might be close enough for a weekly commute.

[a13ean]

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