Grad School Options besides next intake?

[theoryl]

It's almost the end of January... Most of the grad school admission deadlines (for Physics) either have already passed, or they are approaching, when I've just begun to think about going to grad school. I finished my Physics B.Sc. in Dec 2008, but I have yet to take both the GREs (having cancelled my Physics GRE in November). So, what are the options out there for me getting into a grad school at this time? I would really like to get into some top experimental HEP program to get better learning/research opportunities (my undergraduate university only has a moderately-sized Physics faculty, and I'm looking for a grad school better than that).

I know many good universities are receiving much less endowments, which means less funding for grad students, which also means less openings. Financial aids are seemingly scarce nowadays (their deadlines are fast approaching too) and it's too risky for me to pay the tuition and fees without some form of assistantships. My GPA standing is very good (above 3.9 but the Physics undergraduate program is very small) and I have done substantial work in CMS off-line analysis during my undergraduate. My professor is willing to write a strong recommendation letter on my behalf (although I might not secure a good third recommendation letter). I only hope I shouldn't have to wait until the next December/January

Thank you for your help!


A little more background:
My initial plan was to get some non-academic job, but the current economic situation has made it too hard and so I decided I'd go on to grad school instead. It's "too hard" because of my international student status and the fact that I can only be unemployed for not more than 90 days before I'm out of 'status' and become an illegal immigrant in the U.S.

[trani]

So the top 10 are clearly out of the question but I seem to recall that Stony Brook accepts applications until February 1st. In addition, they do not require the Physics GRE even though it is strongly recommended but you would have a pretty good excuse for not taking it-->It's not offered at this time. You better convince them that you are dead set on getting a PhD though. So you could potentially take the General GRE this week and then submit app by Feb 1 and then order the scores for them as soon as they come out. And of course self report the once you see when you finish the computer test. I mean the writing does not matter all that much anyway... You wanna be sure you score well on the quantitative part though. Also whether this is at all a possibility depends on whether you can get all recommendations in on time. So here is the Stony Brook FAQ you can see for yourself:

http://graduate.physics.sunysb.edu/faq/ ... pplication

Also there is another thread that lists schools that do not require the Physics GRE
http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2051
look into whether their HEP involvement interests you and what are the deadlines.

Oh, you also got to convince them that you do not need TOEFL...
Finally, don't fool yourself, this will be hard to pull off, at best.
And that's all I got on the matter. Good luck!

[theoryl]

So the top 10 are clearly out of the question but I seem to recall that Stony Brook accepts applications until February 1st. In addition, they do not require the Physics GRE even though it is strongly recommended but you would have a pretty good excuse for not taking it-->It's not offered at this time. You better convince them that you are dead set on getting a PhD though. So you could potentially take the General GRE this week and then submit app by Feb 1 and then order the scores for them as soon as they come out. And of course self report the once you see when you finish the computer test. I mean the writing does not matter all that much anyway... You wanna be sure you score well on the quantitative part though. Also whether this is at all a possibility depends on whether you can get all recommendations in on time. So here is the Stony Brook FAQ you can see for yourself:

http://graduate.physics.sunysb.edu/faq/ ... pplication

Also there is another thread that lists schools that do not require the Physics GRE
http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2051
look into whether their HEP involvement interests you and what are the deadlines.

Oh, you also got to convince them that you do not need TOEFL...
Finally, don't fool yourself, this will be hard to pull off, at best.
And that's all I got on the matter. Good luck!

Thank you so much trani!! It looks like Stony Brook is my best bet now. I looked at the list of the schools that don't need the PGRE, it seems like none of them is particularly good in HEP (maybe with the exception of Michigan State & UT Arlington). Since Stony Brook is not an easy school to get into, I guess to wait until the next intake might be the best option for me

I'm thrilled to find out that UIUC has Spring intake tho, which is also something I would consider! But they state that a student from the spring intake might not get any financial aid, which is disappointing. Do you know any other good or decent physics grad schools that offer Spring intake?

[Kaiser_Sose]

I have a year to go, but I am interested in going to Stony Brook. Anyone have special knowledge of the school or any special advice on what one can do to get in, besides the obvious get good grades etc. I'd be interested to know the 'specs' on people that got it.

Holla,

KS