Evaluate my profile please. In deep soup

[cweeter]

Hi everyone,
I am a 4th year student and will apply for Fall 2009. Kindly evaluate my position and tell me if I should take the Subject GRE again or not.

Course: Integrated MSc (Physics), IIT Kharagpur
CGPA:6.6/10
Subject GRE : 830
Haven't appeared for general GRE and TOEFL yet.
Publications:
I have a publication as one of the three authors of CERN notes.
Projects:
1. Signal and Background separation in the ttH channel of ATLAS in LHC, (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory,Oxford)
2.Wavelet Analysis of Satellite Signals ( Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, University of Calcutta)
3. Particle Detectors in a High Energy Collider. (Harish Chandra Research Institute)
4. Analysis of growth and kinetics of nano-structured material using
Atomic Force Microscopy (Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur)
5. Diffusive Wave Spectroscopy on emulsions (Raman Research Institute )
Seminars:
Two seminars in CERN, One in Oxford, One in Durham.
I will be interning in CERN as a UCLA supported student coming summer.
I am worried about my CGPA and Subject GRE score . What should be the universities that I can aim for? My interest is in Particle Physics.
Please help!
Thanks

[vicente]

What is the average GPA in your program? Be sure to mention it so that admissions committees won't try to convert it to a percentage - 66%, which is equialent to a D in many American schools.

830 isn't too bad of a subject score. It's not high for an international student, bu I doubt it will get you filtered out anywhere.

[VT]

One of my Profs student( international student from Europe) was accepted at MIT with a GRE score of 850 in condensed matter theory program!!
There is no such thing called 900 cut off any where!!

[VT]

Also, i think IIT is far more competitive than MIT,
IIT has Indian Rupee, MIT has US dollar, this is the only difference!

[grae313]

900 is not a cutoff at MIT, they just look at the applications w/ 900 or above first. At least that's what I've heard.

[VT]

I do not think it works it that way. Suppose if we have GRE score of 700 or above and apply early and complete our application early then I think it is always true that the admissions committees review our complete application first!! This is how it works for early applicants ( couple of my frens with scores in the range of 700 applied early and their applications are on review now MIT and elsewhere)

For the rest of the applicants, I think it makes sense to review the applications with GRE score of 900 or above first.

[cancelled20080417]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..................

Well, VT, thats plausible! I don know.

[quizivex]

No I heard it works like this. The strongest applications who are certain they want to attend MIT more than any other school apply very early, that is before December. The admissions committee examines those apps before the holidays and secretly offers some early acceptances that those students are asked not to discuss, and those students won't bother applying anywhere else.

But anyone who applies afterward, say mid December, does not get their's read until January. What they do is as each application becomes complete, with all required materials and forms, they're printed out and placed in one of two piles in the room where decisions are made, one for students with GPA > 3.75 and GRE > 900, and one for everyone else. On a set date in early January, they start skimming the first pile and may offer a few early acceptances, but in reality, since the applicants who applied the latest will have their app packet closer to the top, it's best to apply as close to 12/31 as possible, without going over. If you miss this mysterious unwritten deadline, your application won't get read until later in the month.

They then use the system of cutoffs and reductions explained by RG in another post on this forum, with 3 groups of 4 people examining each pile, making group decisions and then admitting students who got votes from all three, and afterward discussing together why the students who got 2 votes were denied by the third, perhaps getting the third group to change their mind and admitting those students.

Applications by students who missed these cutoffs are reviewed in late Febuary if there are still spots left. Once all decisions are made, they light a bonfire in a back Alley of Boston, burning all the rejected applications, after they sent those students a generic rejection e-mail...

Actually everytihng I just said was made up. All of it. Unless we hear first hand, let's just face it that we do not know how and when decisions are made, we just will never know the specific details of the admissions process... All we can do is get our materials in as early as possible and hope for the best. We should already have tried to get the highest GPA/GRE, best recs as possible, so whatever silly system they use shouldnt' concern us. Face it, there are no abrupt cutoffs. Even if they look at applicatins with certain qualities first, your app with 890 GRE and 3.74 GPA will still get looked at closely!

[Maxwells_Demon]

Cool.

I've heard of the GPA > 3.75 cutoff before. This may or may not be true, however... But if it was true, let's say, then which GPA are you/we talking about? Physics GPA or overall GPA?

-Maxwell's Demon

[quizivex]

My entire post was made up. For schools that do use cutoffs in some part of their review process, whether they use physics GPA, physics/math GPA or overall GPA varies by school.

[VT]

Does any body here know the grad schools that do not charge application fee( including internatioanal spplicants)? I would appreciate it very much if any of you could list the name of some of those schools here on this forum.

[cancelled20080417]

WASH U
U of Minnesota
Ohio State

[vicente]

University of Oregon

They tell you to submit your materials directly to the department. If they like you, then you will have to submit a real application, but they will pay the fee.

[cweeter]

I am planning to spend this semester trying to make a list of all universities that I should target with the kind of profile I have. can anyone please come forward with suggestions?
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks.

[grae313]

The best I can suggest is to first find someone who knows how to convert your GPA to the american system (4.0), then spend some time at http://www.gradschoolshopper.com and compare your stats to the averages listed there for admitted students. As an international student, you'll want to preferably be somewhat higher than the average, as the expectations are higher for you than they are for domestic students. Ask your professors and the people you do research with for suggestions. You can always email or call a department and ask them what sorts of scores are competitive for international applicants.

[shouravv]

VT:

PSU Astronomy and Vanderbilt Physics doesn't have application fee.


cweeter:

Since you are finishing your Masters, have a whole year in hand, and seem to believe that you can do better in P. GRE, then why not give it another shot in Oct 2008?

As for which schools to apply to, you must by now / by the end of this summer know a number of people at CERN, UK, and UCLA. Ask them about it. Plus, look into the departmental websites for specific professors you might be interested to work with, and then email them. Making a school list is a time consuming hard work, but is definitely worth it.

[cweeter]

I have finally (well almost) decided to aim high.
What are my chances if my list looks something like:

MIT
Harvard
Caltech
Cornell
Chicago
Washington
UCSD
UCLA
JHU


My project list got an increment of one, I am currently working on top related events in teh ATLAS, at the Institute of Physics, University of Bonn, as a summer research student.

Am I thinking too highly of myself?