Prospective questions

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tensorwhat
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:33 pm

Prospective questions

Post by tensorwhat » Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:50 pm

Hi all,

So I have some really basic questions for right now, I'm sure I'll be getting more familiar with everything, but this seems to be the best place to ask questions!


Right, so I will be graduating '10, and am interested in attending a grad program specifically for astroparticle physics / particle astrophysics (one in the same but whatever lol, from now on its just APP) and I'd like some input from anyone familiar. Are many astro/physics departments supporting an APP group? I've done a lot of googling, but I get a lot of results from 2004 hah - it seems the entire field died that year. Well, the only up to date one I've seen seems to be stanford really @ Kavli....


Aside from that, here are my basic questions:

- I'm not confident of my chances anywhere, do I suffer at all from applying to as many programs as possible?
- Should I take the PGRE in april without much studying, then again in october after studying the whole summer? How could this hurt me?
- I see the spread for acceptance dates and wonder if adding a bit to my SOP about how I will be retaking a few classes in my final spring semester will help me at all?


Thanks!

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noojens
Posts: 187
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:59 pm

Re: Prospective questions

Post by noojens » Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:12 pm

Northeastern, Hawaii and Madison come to mind for APP. UW-Milwaukee also has at least one professor (Anchordoqui) and a postdoc working on APP, if you're looking for a safety school to apply to. I'd imagine a lot of the big/reputable programs have APP researchers as well, but normal people can get into the ones I mentioned. :)

1. Apply to a lot of schools; shoot for 8-10 or so with a couple safeties and a couple reach schools.
2. Take it both in April and October. Study as much as you have time for the April exam; maybe you'll do well! And if not, you'll know what you're up against come fall.
3. Couldn't hurt. Don't make too big of a deal of it though - keep your SoP focused on your interests, goals, qualifications, etc.

The above is, of course, depending on your finances. GRE's and application fees can really add up, but it's a worthwhile investment.

Best of luck!

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Helio
Posts: 809
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:11 pm

Re: Prospective questions

Post by Helio » Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:15 am

For Astroparticle you should consider the following:

UWisc-Madison (IceCube), Penn State (IceCube), Ohio State (Pierre Auger), NYU (Pierre Auger)

depending on what you want to do of course. There is also the schools have neutrino physics:

UWash being a big one here besides UWisc-Madison

The field hasn't died.... we are all just waiting for IceCube to go online :P

tensorwhat
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:33 pm

Re: Prospective questions

Post by tensorwhat » Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:31 am

cool, its not too terribly important, but I guess I should state I'm definitely more interested in experimental/computational =D

also, as far as retaking the pgre, what if any is the validity of the cancel/retake process I was reading about on here? People just go in, fill in the cancel bubble, take the test, if they get a bad score they let it cancel, if not they pay the fee and get the score reinstated? lol?

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Helio
Posts: 809
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:11 pm

Re: Prospective questions

Post by Helio » Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:33 am

tensorwhat wrote:cool, its not too terribly important, but I guess I should state I'm definitely more interested in experimental/computational =D

also, as far as retaking the pgre, what if any is the validity of the cancel/retake process I was reading about on here? People just go in, fill in the cancel bubble, take the test, if they get a bad score they let it cancel, if not they pay the fee and get the score reinstated? lol?
basically... afaik... check the ets website for details

Theoretischer
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 5:59 pm

Re: Prospective questions

Post by Theoretischer » Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:36 am

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Last edited by Theoretischer on Sat Feb 21, 2009 3:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

tensorwhat
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:33 pm

Re: Prospective questions

Post by tensorwhat » Fri Feb 20, 2009 1:32 am

hah yeah well look at that, its poorly worded, but I guess that's what it says wowee =]

yeah so, I'm not too prepared if I were to take it now, I do have a good month to pour over a resnick or knight text though. it seems like from most of the discussion, that the test has been getting easier, and if you know the material from your intro classes/1 of the texts above, you should be good for about 80% of a test.

i think along with taking quantum, solid state, optics, my last lab, and a math class, i can work in at least 10 hours a week to study, and do this: http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/undergrad/ugs_gre.php
in crash course mode of course

and i guess i can always just cancel, hah that seems so weird to me for some reason

P.S. - particular attention on that OSU page to this: http://grephysics.yosunism.com/solutions.php

tmc
Posts: 111
Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2008 1:40 pm

Re: Prospective questions

Post by tmc » Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:28 pm

1 month is enough to study for the GRE provided you can devote time to it. Just grad a first-year textbook and work through all the previous 4 tests and you should be able to get a respectable score.

tensorwhat
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:33 pm

Re: Prospective questions

Post by tensorwhat » Fri Feb 20, 2009 1:44 pm

well i just registered, here we go lol - time to hit it!

a side note, i never took physics in high school so this material isnt as deeply ingrained as other people might have it :shock:

nonick
Posts: 123
Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2008 5:16 pm

Re: Prospective questions

Post by nonick » Fri Feb 20, 2009 1:49 pm

tmc wrote:1 month is enough to study for the GRE provided you can devote time to it. Just grad a first-year textbook and work through all the previous 4 tests and you should be able to get a respectable score.
I second that. I spent no more than a month preparing for the PGRE and got a pretty good score. Starting a semester earlier is an overkill.



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