in dire need of grad school help
Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:30 pm
Well, I guess as application time is looming I need help figuring out which tyoes of schools would be safe schools and which types would be schools I have a "good chance" but not "gauranteed.
My over all gpa is 3.3, my physics gpa is 3.6; I'm expecting my physics grades to rise to A- average by the time I graduate. Specificially, half my physics major grades were A or A-, the other half B+'s. Quantum mechanics was the one advanced physics course that brought me down for my major gpa, plus I had an unusually hard combe of classes. I had one quarter where I was doing quantum, E/M and biochemistry and research one quarter, another where I was doing quantum, E/M, upper level microbiology, a fourth class and research in one quarter. In fact, all quarters where I did not get all A's in my physics classes were quarters where I was taking physics concurrently with upper level chemistry and microbiology classes. Partially because of this, partially becuase I have a tougher time staying mentally organized than others, and for other reasons my physics gpa is not quite where I wanted it to be. Obviously, I am pretty disappointed with my physics grades, esp quantum, and do feel I had the ability to do a lot better. It was at Ohio State University undergrad, which i do believe is recognized for being increasingly tough in physics and other areas.
As for research, again I am unfortunately not very strong in that area either. I started research during my autumn of my junior, and plan on continuing the smae project through my senior year with a possible publication/recommendation from a very highly repsected professor in his field of particle physics.
Now, I would like to think I'm not completely out of touch with reality. I'm aware that fro me getting into a school like stanford, MIT, Caltech, Princeton, Columbia, Berkeley, etc would basically be like winning the lottery, regardless of how well I do on my physics gre. However, the grad studies chair in physics said, when i asked him abvout my grades, he said,
"Your grads look good. Based on these grades I would say you would have a
good chance of being accepted into a strong physics graduate program of
the level of OSU or possibly higher...your grades look very good".
I would hope thaty serves as good news, but I don't really know. I was wondering if anyone could help me determine, as dependent on my physics gre score, my chances of getting into these types of schools:
Rice University
Penn State
Rutgers State
University of Minnesota
University of Rochester
Texas A&M
University of Arizona
University of Virginia
New York University
Brown University
Georgia Tech
Stony Brook
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Texas-Austin
Ohio State University
Michigan State
Carnegie Mellon
Northwestern
Basically, I wanted to know if anyone could tell which of these schools would be schools I have a good chance of getting into and which would be "safe schools" and which would be more difficult for me to get into. Again, I have not taken the physics gre and don't really know how well I'll end up doing.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
My over all gpa is 3.3, my physics gpa is 3.6; I'm expecting my physics grades to rise to A- average by the time I graduate. Specificially, half my physics major grades were A or A-, the other half B+'s. Quantum mechanics was the one advanced physics course that brought me down for my major gpa, plus I had an unusually hard combe of classes. I had one quarter where I was doing quantum, E/M and biochemistry and research one quarter, another where I was doing quantum, E/M, upper level microbiology, a fourth class and research in one quarter. In fact, all quarters where I did not get all A's in my physics classes were quarters where I was taking physics concurrently with upper level chemistry and microbiology classes. Partially because of this, partially becuase I have a tougher time staying mentally organized than others, and for other reasons my physics gpa is not quite where I wanted it to be. Obviously, I am pretty disappointed with my physics grades, esp quantum, and do feel I had the ability to do a lot better. It was at Ohio State University undergrad, which i do believe is recognized for being increasingly tough in physics and other areas.
As for research, again I am unfortunately not very strong in that area either. I started research during my autumn of my junior, and plan on continuing the smae project through my senior year with a possible publication/recommendation from a very highly repsected professor in his field of particle physics.
Now, I would like to think I'm not completely out of touch with reality. I'm aware that fro me getting into a school like stanford, MIT, Caltech, Princeton, Columbia, Berkeley, etc would basically be like winning the lottery, regardless of how well I do on my physics gre. However, the grad studies chair in physics said, when i asked him abvout my grades, he said,
"Your grads look good. Based on these grades I would say you would have a
good chance of being accepted into a strong physics graduate program of
the level of OSU or possibly higher...your grades look very good".
I would hope thaty serves as good news, but I don't really know. I was wondering if anyone could help me determine, as dependent on my physics gre score, my chances of getting into these types of schools:
Rice University
Penn State
Rutgers State
University of Minnesota
University of Rochester
Texas A&M
University of Arizona
University of Virginia
New York University
Brown University
Georgia Tech
Stony Brook
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Texas-Austin
Ohio State University
Michigan State
Carnegie Mellon
Northwestern
Basically, I wanted to know if anyone could tell which of these schools would be schools I have a good chance of getting into and which would be "safe schools" and which would be more difficult for me to get into. Again, I have not taken the physics gre and don't really know how well I'll end up doing.
Thanks for any help you can provide.