Physics GRE Discussion Forums

RG: I forgot to say congrats!

geomar: Thx!

In other news: So, I saw that RG got into UCSD. I'm applying to UCSD. I spent all of my Physics of Particle Beams and Lasers class (50 minutes) checking UCSD's website and my e-mail on my iPod touch. In class. Not good. Everybody's been telling me to stop obsessing, and this was the straw that broke the camel's back.

So I'm done, I'm leaving the forum for now. I'll show up and post acceptances and rejections, I guess, because it would be rude of me to leave you all hanging, lol.

But I can't be ruining the present when it won't affect the future one iota. It didn't do any good (or bad) for RG, and it didn't make him get his results any sooner, and he was freaking out just like I was. So I'm going to try something else, because doing the same thing and expecting different results is a good mark of insanity. Good luck to everybody! Have fun.

Finally I got something! Accepted to U. of Oregon today via email.

Out of curiosity, for people who have gotten acceptances already, when did you submit your applications? (Weeks in advance? Right at the buzzer?) That info might be useful for calibrating ones sense of when one should expect to hear from schools.

Congrats to Fermi and everyone else who made it!

I submitted by applications toward the end of November.

I've got too many acceptances and not enough rejections. Should have applied to another reach school like UIUC.

Not enough rejections?!

@dlenmn

Actually, for me Oregon was the 2nd to last school I submitted to (around Jan 3) and the first that I heard from. I haven't heard anything from my Dec. apps: Cornell, UCSB, and Stanford. I submitted those around the 1st of Dec. I tried to submit all my apps at least two weeks before their deadlines.

@dlenmn

I applied to UW the day before the application was due. I sent my transcripts two weeks after the deadline (deadline December 31.) I knew I was in at the end of that very week. Astro at UW tried really hard to get some acceptences out EARLY; they did.

For most schools they wait a week or after the deadline and they start reading the applications comparatively; I believe that the fact that someone sent an application a month in advance has very little relevence, if any at all!

physicsstudent

Just to check: UCSD was 'supposed' to send us info if they didn't receive all of our supplemental material if we submitted an app, right? Hehe, second guessing makes life so delightful.

agonizomai - Yes, that is the case. They did in fact email me to tell me they were missing my official physics GRE score a few weeks ago.

@ vicente

Congratulations on IU! I am waiting to hear from them, too, although it is a backup for me. What area did you apply in? I am applying in high energy theory.

Congrats to all you guys (especially RG, lol)!

zxcv - Thanks.

Congrats to everyone who has heard back already.

By using rough order of magnitude estimates and rounding of pi to 3 I calculate that everyone will get in somewhere.

It is so frustrating when top applicatns hear from dream schools and the low scorers have to seat back and wait until the fun game is over.

What a grim fate this is

Well, at least I'm going to grad school now. Davis was my "safety" although I'd be happy to go there. Amazingly, I only applied exactly 2 weeks ago.

just got davis too, - zxcv, what kind of funding do you get?

vroomfondel - They offered me a half time TA, plus a UC Davis Graduate Fellowship ($5000). How about you?

same deal...interesting that you want to do QC theory: I'm looking at QC experiment

Who's doing QC theory at Davis? I looked for schools with QC theory research, I looked at all the UCs since they are close to my home state, and I did not make that connection.

I don't know anyone doing QC theory at Davis, at least in the physics department. I applied there because I'm not set on doing quantum computing, and they have a decent physics program (especially in some areas).

The trouble with my research interests in quantum computing is that people study it in all sorts of departments other than physics, but I'm not really qualified or interested in that other discipline in general, so I don't apply to those programs. For instance, at Berkeley there's lots of exciting quantum computing theory research going on, but the main people doing it are in the departments of computer science and chemistry (go figure). I wonder how that is taken into consideration for admissions.

I saw a QC Theory group at Berkeley in Chemistry, but I noticed the group had physics grad students so I applied there. I didn't talk about QC Theory in my UCB statement however, only CMT. I almost applied to Davis as well, because they have a huge program in CMT. In the end I chose Arizona over Davis as my last backup because of Arizona's research in theoretical optics, which is related to QC in some ways.

Kind of reminds me of the movie Real Genius, with Val Kilmer. Anyone seen it?

No kidding, that was my fear exactly. Although who knows what I'd do to get into Pacific Tech .

How'd you guys/girls hear back from davis? Email? Snailmail? Oracle?

I guess that would be oracle, you are absolutely correct jdhooghe!

I heard from Davis by email -- they claim I should be receiving a snail mail packet soon. BTW, the visiting weekend is Feb 29 - Mar 1.

Urgh, that means I wasn't in the first round

When a school starts giving invitations, do they usually all go out on the same day? I see a person has been accepted to U of Washington, which I also applied to. If I haven't been accepted yet, does that mean I wasn't in the first round picks, or that they are making acceptances over time?

I like to think that they wait a couple of weeks to give invitations to the truly top applicants, just to give us a bit of a scare.

@buddyo

You mentioned the person who got accepted to UW, and I believe that is me. Well, just to clarify: I applied to astronomy, not physics.

In UW, there are rounds of acceptences. The very first ones offered admission are labled as "immediate admission". These are the applicants the department realizes would have chances to be accepted at very good schools, so the department extends an early offer in an attempt to recruit them. However, there is a group labled for rejection, which I believe get informed relatively early. There is also a list of people the department will really want to admit but still the admissions committee people have to wait a bit so that thet do not overcommit the resources. Not being offered early admission is not necessarily bad news.

I was actually extremely surprised I got accepted that early. None of the other schools made offers or rejections to me yet, and that is quite understandable...it is still the beginning of Feb.

Good luck!

@physicsstudent: " The very first ones offered admission are labled as "immediate admission". These are the applicants the department realizes would have chances to be accepted at very good schools, so the department extends an early offer in an attempt to recruit them."

This kinda make sense, but doesn't really make sense on the other hand. How do you know this? Do they tell you or it is your guess?

Look, if the "non top department" realize that the person would have chances to be accepted at very good schools, do they really think he will come? Plus, if one is top student, would he say yes to the school right away without waiting for the "very good schools"? So far, except Cornell, there isn't any top schools offer yet!

Not to offend anyone. It just doesn't make sense to me, say If the very good student, like you say, gets early accepted to ohio state, and would he not wait for MIT?

@woooster

It is simpler than that: there is a link in one of the threads in this forum and a member of the admission committee at UW astronomy is the one who said the things I was simply paraphrashing.

Harvard and MIT and the like are in no rush to notify applicants. However, UW, and actually even Berkeley, which are very good schools are known to do this: they offer early admission, and try to get you visit early, and use fellowships and the like to recruit. By showing how much they want you they try to get your sympathy. They figured they have a lesser chance if they send you their acceptence in the midst of other offers from other schools.

Also, the person at UW said that this helps them a bit gauge how many first round admits are truly interested. This helps them in making second round offers.

It's not true, School like Berkeley have so many ~700 application, it takes time for them to organize before looking. You can't early accept some very good applicant without at least quickly look at other application. No one has got accepted to berkeley yet.

The open house for berkeley last year is ~early April, they can't get you to visit early. All the recruiting info. is in the open house. Plus they share the period of open house with school like stanford and caltech so that they can share the cost for students to visit. Harvard and MIT do the same thing too.

I just think if someone is top student form like harvard, there is really no point for his safety schools to give him early acceptance. So, I suspect they also decide this based on what kind of students come to the school in the past. Then out of those, the best one get early offer. This is just my guess.

*I am sorry, I think now I think by very good schools, you don't mean top 5. So, I think what you say make sense, so I just want to add my last point.

@woooster

When I mentioned Berkeley I had political science in my mind. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine mentioned to me that he got a very early acceptence at early and he listed the reason I spoke about in my earlier post.

As for UW astronomy I am sure this is what it is about. That what a member in the committee wrote. I have no clue how it works in other places.

By very good schools I do not mean just top 5. For me UW astro is a very good school, and I did not apply to it as a safety. I applied to other "top 5" schools or whatever you call them. I graduated from a "top 5" and it is there I learned that prestige is not all that really matters.

I've been 'recommended for admission' by the Princeton astrophysics department! Got an email about it today.

sweet! now hurry up and post your profile in the 2008 profile thread! even if you don't want to include everything yet, you should include a few things and edit it to complete it after all your acceptances are in!!

re: a couple posts above, xdebugger also got admitted to UW physics

Harvard and MIT and the like are in no rush to notify applicants. However, UW, and actually even Berkeley, which are very good schools are known to do this: they offer early admission, and try to get you visit early, and use fellowships and the like to recruit. By showing how much they want you they try to get your sympathy. They figured they have a lesser chance if they send you their acceptence in the midst of other offers from other schools.

Also, the person at UW said that this helps them a bit gauge how many first round admits are truly interested. This helps them in making second round offers.

UW keeps reminding me that they are offering me admittance. This is in spite of the fact that I keep reminding them that they have not made a solid offer to fund me. They keep assuring me they have a very good track record of finding funding, but without anything substantial it's up in the air.

it baffles me how vague some of the offers are... people keep reporting letters that say things like...

"You have been recommended for admission..."

"Our visiting student days are March xx-yy. Please come visit."

without explicitly guaranteeing they are admitted. WTF!!!


Twistor is closing in on 300... i wonder if RG or grae313 can pull off the upset...

Good idea Twistor. That's good advice to everyone on this forum. Don't accept any offer of admission until they give you a bottom line on funding.

I just want to get offers of admission!

It's karma, I tell you. MIT is mad that I made up getting an early admission.

Wait, you don't put Berkeley in the same category as Harvard and MIT as a top-flight physics school? Are you crazy??

Here's to a short weekend and lots of admits waiting in the mailbox on Monday, just like at the beginning of this week!

@ phys007:

i got that email from princeton astrophysics today too! congrats, and see you there for visiting days...

...

With so many Profs around ...

drken and phys007,
A BIG CONGRATULATIONS to you guys for PRINCETON acceptances!

AppPhy, congrats man( or woman) for CALTECH!!

Hello. I'm the admissions chair at a top 50 (but not top 20) physics graduate school. I wonder if you are aware that some admissions professors do read this forum from time to time. It's quite interesting. Of course, some people do list the schools that they've been accepted to, and the stats are enough for admissions people to identify them---but it doesn't really matter much (I wouldn't try to identify anyone).

Don't be discouraged if you haven't heard from place X yet. I think every place puts every application into groups. For us, it's "accept immediately", "hold for a while", "reject". The problem is that if you want, say, 20 students in the entering class, and every applicant gets accepted by 4-5 places, then you would need to admit 80 or more. But then if you happen to get 40% acceptance rate, you get over 32 people (and at $20-$25K a pop, that's very expensive). So we always admit (if we want 20 people) only about 40, and then add more as the season goes on. So don't worry.

Some places send letters, some e-mail, and some make personal phone calls. Some have "admitted students days" , and some invite students one-by-one (usually smaller schools can do one-by-one, especially user-friendly institutions).

One desperate plea. If you get accepted into a place that is definitely higher on your list than place X, please e-mail place X and either decline (if you've been accepted) or withdraw (if you haven't heard). It then lets place X, often, make another offer right away, perhaps to someone on this forum. Believe me, we won't feel bad, and will appreciate hearing. There's nothing more frustrating than to have lots of good students on the waiting list, and having people who have been accepted holding lots of offers. And it's even worse to spend hundreds of dollars to pay for their visit when they don't really plan to come anyway. So please be courteous to your fellow students. Of course, you may not be certain which of two or more places you prefer until you visit....

Enjoy the rest of the season.

I wonder if this previous post is legit? The writing is very good which makes me think it's real. Or someone has way too much time on their hands parodying a professor.

This post has me a little worried about posting my profile.

But don't worry about posting your profile. I can't imagine anyone taking the trouble to figure out who someone is, and then combing for information about where else they've been accepted. When you're dealing with dozens or hundreds of applicants, it just isn't that big a deal. I suspect there are only a few admissions people that even know about the site. But they certainly could look if they wanted to.

Ok, thanks. Sorry for questioning your validity, we get a lot of pranksters and jokes on the this board.

Thanks for the insider information, hopefully it will help some of us calm down.