Physics GRE Discussion Forums

I got a phone call from an MIT cond matter theorist. Acceptance w/ fellowship.

Congratulations! Hopefully you were more articulate over than phone than I was...

damn i'm jealous of you two. congrats to you both!

@twistor: you should talk to more people. If you're disappointed with C++, C and Matlab programming that are common in imaging science. Ask therapeutic physicist, they will ask if you can program in Fortran. All most all available clinical dose calculation and planning is done in this language, era of dinosaur.

But really, I don't see how experience in programming through graduate research is going to hurt your job prospect if not increase it.

why it seems like everyone who got into physics so far are condensed matter? Does anyone else feel that?

Of course astrophy dept too, but they only have small number of applications to look.

some of the very first acceptances were HEP

Has anyone heard back from a top 10 school besides UCSB that applied for HEP (either experiment or theory)?

@geomar, xdebugger

if you don't mind saying, what was the fellowship offer at MIT? and is that TA+fellowship? and Cornell for that matter, geomar?

Thanks. Congrats to you too, geomar.
I don't know if I was articulate on the phone. At least I didn't stumble. When I saw the strange caller id I had the feeling that something might turn up. I didn't say much on the phone. Just asked about the visit and stuff.
Actually on my app my first choice was particle theory and then cond matter theory. My guess is that the guy who called me was just the last person who reviewed my app.

MIT was a 1 year fellowship. I don't know any more details - the package is in the mail.
Cornell was 9 month fellowship and a 1 year TA offer. (They also give out 2 years of 9months fellow + 1 year TA, which is what I believe gcensr posted he got)

I am under the impression sure funding via RAships are pretty standard once you are in a lab, at least for experiment. Theorists might have to TA more often.

@twistor: you should talk to more people. If you're disappointed with C++, C and Matlab programming that are common in imaging science. Ask therapeutic physicist, they will ask if you can program in Fortran. All most all available clinical dose calculation and planning is done in this language, era of dinosaur.

But really, I don't see how experience in programming through graduate research is going to hurt your job prospect if not increase it.

I'm not disappointed that I have to do some programming. I'm disappointed that it is becoming more and more central to what we do. I think it should remain secondary, not primary.

Twistor, but what is really your idea of a physicist's life? I mean even thou back in the day, people have to plot a lot of graph, did a lot of measurement for experiments. It is just now, things are more precise and advanced, we use compute to take data and do analysis. I think that programing for experimentalist is like calculating for theorist. Even though when you do your physics HW, you spend a lot of time trying to solve algebra or Diff Eq and that has no physics in the process.

I just heard back from University of Washington by email. It's a TA plus a $2500 fellowship (and health insurance, apparently).

Their visiting weekend is March 7-8. Pretty good timing for me, actually. I'm from Portland and that's at the start of my week of spring break, so they'll pay for me to fly home.

Bad news is that I'm not entirely sure now that I want to go to grad school in physics. I'm taking this student run class this semester on mathematical biology and there is a lot of really interesting math and physics-like applications in biology. I find model building for these systems just as interesting if not more so than a lot of systems studied by physicists. It's also a less mature field, so in some sense it may be "easier" to make a mark (that's not a primary concern). So I'm wondering now if perhaps I should have applied to grad school in a field like applied math instead. The one reason I didn't want to apply to math grad school is because I can't stand the thought of taking grad class in theoretical math like analysis or algebra... I can do it and do well in those classes, but I just don't see the point.

got admission to u wash, seattle as well, but no offer letter/fellowship info yet.

also received a prospectives "open house" invite from Johns hopkins -- but no offer of admission yet...what does that mean? am i admitted or no?

From Hopkins it means you need to interview, and then after the interview weekend they send out admission letters.

wow, even for physics? I thought only medical/biophysics had interviews...must have missed that info when applying.

Someone from my school went to Hopkins for physics, I believe he went through the same procedure as I did for Biophysics. Hopkins typically doesn't accept students w/o an interview.

Y$EEEEEEEAAASHHHSSSS I got an email from UW today! TA + fellowship (5k)

Congratulations. That's great.

Man, am I the only one who hasn't heard anything yet?

So, UW does have money lying around....

Congratulations grae!

Wow, 3rd page already. This is the most loquacious thread I've seen.

CONNNNN GRATSSSSSSSSSSSS GRAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Thanks RRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!

and everyone else!

C'Grats Grae

Congrats!

I've been checking UWM status all day for nothing T_T

yay grae!

... But now it's done to one program where it's not bloody obvious that I'm not a top choice.

Congrats, grae, hopefully your stress has been somewhat alleviated.

yes, i'm still anxious to hear from everyone else, but it is extremely relieving to know I can at least go to UW.

Indeed. Your legacy in physics shall continue one way or another.

I have to disagree with what was said a few posts back about needing an interview to be accepted to Hopkins. Unless they are terrible at wording their letters, I don't think this is the case. I am definitely not their top applicant either.

hpharty, I'm only judging from experience. I had to interview for Biophysics (all applicants do), and I'm fairly confident I remember someone from my undergrad school saying they had to interview for the Physics department.

Like geomar and xdebugger (forgive me if I missed anyone - and congrats!), I recently received a phone call from a Prof. at MIT letting me know that I was accepted to the physics department with a fellowship - I'm interested in experimental condensed matter.

sweet! Congrats man!
Are you going to visit? I am going for sure.

Condensed matter again! Why most early admit are condensed matter. I don't see any high energy theory/exp got admitted into MIT or UCSB yet?

I spent almost an hour yesterday trying to figure out if there was a big HEP conference somewhere that was delaying admissions. Maybe all the smart kids applied to condensed matter and that's why they're hearing back first.

I agree with both of you that High Energy theory acceptances seem to be few and far between, thus far. The obvious answer would be that there is less of a need for graduate students in this field at present. Or maybe we are just the dumb kids.

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but I have heard from Indiana and Ohio State for high energy theory. Of course, those are my backups and are not in the top 10. Maybe the top schools are holding back on us so they can try to find even more money for us since we're such great students... But really, who knows. Maybe this forum just has a bias towards condensed matter.

doom wrote:Maybe this forum just has a bias towards condensed matter.

I suspect CM is even bigger these days and has a more funding.

My friend got into MIT for exp. particle today!

woooster wrote:My friend got into MIT for exp. particle today!

Tell him to post his profile!!!

I don't think he uses internet that much

Wooster, how did your friend hear from MIT?

from mail.

I have not heard anything from MIT. It kinda sucks and I feel bad for not hearing anything from a place I am 100% certain of going to it.

Don't worry, RG, you still have a damn good chance. Didn't you just get accepted at 14 schools? I'm sure it's because you're international it's just taking longer to process or something...

grae313:

Thanks for the information. It seems to be a pretty accurate depiction of what we see in these forums.

twistor, so far I have only four acceptances. I applied to 15 places.
I will tell you a story. I really do not like UCSB and UCSD research in CMT.

Ohio state has really the type of research that I am looking for. But I do not want to live in the midwest.

I am not sad, I am damn happy with Cornell

I am going to Cornell, if I do not get MIT. Period. I would go to Ohio state if it were not in the midwest, coz I love their research and Wilson is at Ohio state.

If only The Ohio State were located at Santa Barbara, California.........

Fun factoid: 40 people have been invited to University of Washington's visiting weekend. All domestic.

hahaha I was snooping in that email too I like how everyone there either has a .edu or a gmail email address except me! and there are some impressive undergrad institutions in there!

hahaha I was snooping in that email too Smile I like how everyone there either has a .edu or a gmail email address except me! and there are some impressive undergrad institutions in there!

I didn't apply to UW, but it sounds like the sender forgot to BCC the recipients! You guys should organize and play some sort of practical joke on the department! Like, for instance, everyone could agree to tell every professor they meet that they're really only interested in the philosophical implications of quantum theory. That'd give them a good scare!