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My realistic Prospects

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 2:42 pm
by physicsdud
Need opinions, I'm entering my "Senior" year in physics, and have a had a tumultuous academic past. I changed majors a lot before settling on physics and used to withdraw from classes halfway through the semester because I'd get bored with Gen Ed's etc. Last semester I had a rough go of it because of some personal situations and ended up with a C+,C+ and D+ in some important classes. While I will finish my degree within the next year or so I probably wouldn't apply to a ph.d. program until the year after and do some research work/ take graduate classes in the meantime.

I have a lot of physics credits left to take this coming year and my overall GPA at my current University is 3.63 for 70 or so credits. My career GPA is somewhat lower, in the 3.0 range, due to my less than stellar history in mostly Gen. Eds. For instance I'm doing 16 credits in Physics next semester, hopefully I can pull my GPA up and so I can do outstanding in advanced physics coursework.

I'm also doing research at an affiliated university on a major experiment in particle physics. I have been doing it since January and will probably continue until the end of next summer.

What do my options look like for grad school. How will my older grades and my aberration last semester effect me? What I can do to be more competitive?

Thanks!

Re: My realistic Prospects

Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 5:24 am
by cesascencio
physicsdud wrote:Need opinions, I'm entering my "Senior" year in physics, and have a had a tumultuous academic past. I changed majors a lot before settling on physics and used to withdraw from classes halfway through the semester because I'd get bored with Gen Ed's etc. Last semester I had a rough go of it because of some personal situations and ended up with a C+,C+ and D+ in some important classes. While I will finish my degree within the next year or so I probably wouldn't apply to a ph.d. program until the year after and do some research work/ take graduate classes in the meantime.

I have a lot of physics credits left to take this coming year and my overall GPA at my current University is 3.63 for 70 or so credits. My career GPA is somewhat lower, in the 3.0 range, due to my less than stellar history in mostly Gen. Eds. For instance I'm doing 16 credits in Physics next semester, hopefully I can pull my GPA up and so I can do outstanding in advanced physics coursework.

I'm also doing research at an affiliated university on a major experiment in particle physics. I have been doing it since January and will probably continue until the end of next summer.

What do my options look like for grad school. How will my older grades and my aberration last semester effect me? What I can do to be more competitive?

Thanks!

Get a high score on the Physics GRE and publish, publish, publish all the research that you perform!!! This will make you much more competitive.

Re: My realistic Prospects

Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:58 am
by grae313
Your GPA isn't terrible and graduate schools will forgive bad grades in early gen Ed classes if you do well in upper division physics courses. When you say you got Cs and Ds in "important" courses, what do you mean? What is your GPA for your upper division physics courses?

If you get As in your remaining upper division physics courses and perform will in your research and get strong letters out of it, I think you're looking at 20-40 ranked schools.