I need you help (unv selection)

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saksit
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2008 4:46 am

I need you help (unv selection)

Post by saksit » Fri Nov 21, 2008 5:58 am

hi guys; i'm new here. This is my profile.
international, Thailand ( a small country in south east asia )

toefl ibt: 100/120

gre: Q 760
V 370
W 2.5
P ... I took 8 nov test and answered about 70-80 questions. I probebly get around 700s or low 800 hopefully.

The V and W is terrible. I'm wondering if the they would have a big affect on my app. . however, i don't want to retake it.

research exp : none except my senior project and a little bit of plasma jet research ( kind of wasting time there since i didn't have much chance to do much things)

I want to do theoritical physics ( particles, fields, gravitation, string )

Here's some unv in my mind; psu, cmu, case wastern, rochester ,uni of oregon and osu (all has free app. except the last one) just only sending the ets packages would be 60$/unv which is quite a lot for me but would be worth doing if i can get in. Aonther thing is that i would ask for TA/RA ( no financial support from my country). Do you guys have any name of safety unv for me?

Anybody has any suggestion? I know my profile is suck. Feel free to comment me. :|

And all the best for you people.

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secander2!
Posts: 264
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:25 pm

Re: I need you help (unv selection)

Post by secander2! » Fri Nov 21, 2008 7:53 am

Hi saksit! Like you said, being an international with low scores and little research means you're definitely up against quite a challenge!!! I'd guess that the places you mentioned are feasible, but they don't seem like they're sure safeties; definitely apply to them though!!!

In general it seems like there's a pretty strong correlation between selectivity and ranking. I'd recommend looking at the NRC or US News rankings and find some more schools which fit your interests. Grad school shopper usually lists some statistics on average GRE/TOEFL/PGRE and acceptance rates which could help you deciding where to apply.

Maybe somebody else would know better, but I'm not sure if there are really any schools which I could recommend as "sure safeties" because I would think that there is always the unfortunate possibility that the committee at a school, which should normally be in your range, could look at your Verbal GRE and think "this guy can't even speak english, let's admit this domestic with a 400 PGRE instead". My bet is that you'll need to apply to a broad range and just hope for the best. Good luck!!!

stardust
Posts: 109
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:15 pm

Re: I need you help (unv selection)

Post by stardust » Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:30 am

Someone will come up with the argument that you should be rejected based on
the verbal because you need to give talks and write papers (and read papers in
English) and eventually write grant proposals. But, I've seen one professor who liked to hire Chinese students only from Tsinghua U. bring them in and send them for English classes the minute they arrive in his lab, as requirement. You might want to offer that up front. If you
said something like, I know I need improvement in English and writing and I plan
to take English as a Second Language classes the minute I arrive, any advisor
might not react against you just over verbal stuff. It is important. The other option is
to find an advisor who speaks your native tongue. Then, they know they will at least
be able to work with you. The other advice maybe a place like NYU or CUNY in NYC
because there are 75 different languages at least spoken in NYC, so perfect English
is probably never guaranteed in a major city, but if you went to a place like Indiana you
would stand out more although you would be forced to learn English quicker in the
homogeneous places.

Hypernova
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:12 pm

Re: I need you help (unv selection)

Post by Hypernova » Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:08 pm

You know what..I am Thai! I do suspect that you maybe a certain friend of mine. I am getting my B.S. here in the US though. Others great people here are already giving you very good advise. I too encourage you to go for it. PM me if you like, we can talk more.



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