Post
by maxwell200 » Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:12 am
To quizivex,
I think seeing the *perfect people* on this forum can give basically anyone looking at top 10 schools heart palcipations. However, as far as g really good schools that go that ar enot quite *elite* like Harvard, Princeton, Caltech or MIT go, there seems to be evidence there is hope for you at least, though who knows about anyone else.
I mean, I was told by the grad admissions committiees for 3 schools I looked at, UMinnesota, UWisconsin-Madison and Johns Hopkins, that the AVERAGE undergrad gpa for students admitted last year was 3.4, 3.59 and 3.65, respectively. Theoretically, if it was much higher, like 3.9 or so, I can't imagine why they would not just come out and say it so they can show off their status. The average subject gre score for these schools was in the 730 to 750 range, and that probably includes internationals who always skew the results. And even here, students have said they were given offers from the likes of Michigan, Yale or even UC Berkeley with physics gre socres of 3-% or lower. Clearly, it is false that *only* 3.9+, 900+ students apply to schools of this caliber. As far as research goes, well we all knew going into it we were in trouble if we did not have strong solid researhc experience by now. I don't have a clue if my research is strong enough in fact.
A couple things that skew the average profile here are that the type of students for whom a school like Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin or Johns Hopkins is a "safety" school are more likely to post than say, someone for whom these schools are a match or even a reach. Also, we do seem to get many students from, say, tiny liberal arts schools with 2000 to 4000 students or unknown state schools, or for various reasons need a 3.8 or higher to get looked at by PhD programs at all. This probably skews the profiles even more so than they already were for this forum. It was even worse last year; out of every 10 or so students who were admitted to good schools who posted here, at least 8 were 4.0, 900 gre students with research experience with Nobel Prize nominees or something ridiculous.
As far as that gre score of yours goes, well, in my shcools we get about 50 phsyics majors a year who graduate, and over the past 10 years we've had a grand total of 3 students who've ever even gotten above 800, only 1 who got above 900. So I do suspect someone with your score forma state school will be considered an impressive rarity.
I know you've said it before, but are you *only* applying to 10 ten schools? Maybe you have good resaon to be seating right now if you did, but maybe not. Who knows I guess.