Hi guys,
I'm applying to Astronomy/Astrophysics and Experimental Physics in US and Canada (I'm from Southeast Asian) this term and currently I'm not sure what to do.
So my profile has :
- BSc in Electrical Engineering from top school in my country (GPA ~3.5, valedictorian in cohort of 100 students), have done quite a few electrical projects (like solar panel simulation, mesh networking, building power measurement device, ...) and a theory-heavy thesis on signal integrity (secrecy outage analysis) which resulted in a 3rd author IEEE conference paper
- Physics related courses in my BSc: 1 course in Classical Mech, 2 in Thermodynamics, 5 in Electromagnetic 1 in Quantum Physics, 1 in Solid State Devices, I scored maximum grades on all these courses, but my knowledge is getting really rusty.
- 2 years working as Associate Data Scientist and then Research Engineer for one of the biggest private Machine learning firm in my country. I do 5-6 research projects in this time that involves processing crazily big datasets. So I'm quite competent in programming and big data processing techniques.
- Decent GRE (169Q 162V)
- Probably shitty pGRE, just took this Oct and not sure if I can even cross 50%, 2 years working in CS industry does heavy damage to my Physics memory.
- Somehow my program have ties with UIUC and borrowed exactly their syllabus in ECE, we even have professors from UIUC come teach us 2-3 courses every summer not sure if this will play any role
The biggest problem is I have virtually zero research experience in Physics, I did quite a few student capstone projects on electrical systems, but that's as close as it gets. I know that Astrophysics research will involve heavy data processing, is there any way I could leverage my competency in Data Science into my profile? Should I just screw it and apply to CS program where my profile is quite strong? I really love astronomy though, and I'm not really enjoying my work in Data Science
Engineering degree -> Industrial Data science -> Physics/Astrophysics?
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- Posts: 4
- Joined: Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:30 am
Re: Engineering degree -> Industrial Data science -> Physics/Astrophysics?
I am in the same boat as you. I feel, for us, its more about putting down our interest on the SOP very strongly and prove our point there that we can than our background. Congratulations for a fantastic GRE score. But I see PGRE as a very important factor for candidates like us as that is the best way we prove our point.
Best of Luck!!
Best of Luck!!
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- Posts: 143
- Joined: Sat Jun 08, 2019 1:10 pm
Re: Engineering degree -> Industrial Data science -> Physics/Astrophysics?
First of all, astronomy programs aren't nearly as picky about the Physics GRE as physics programs. A lot of them still require it (but not all of them; UIUC might actually be one of them, come to think about it), but astronomy programs, despite having a lot of overlap with physics programs, are still fundamentally different.seeyounext wrote:The biggest problem is I have virtually zero research experience in Physics, I did quite a few student capstone projects on electrical systems, but that's as close as it gets. I know that Astrophysics research will involve heavy data processing, is there any way I could leverage my competency in Data Science into my profile? Should I just screw it and apply to CS program where my profile is quite strong? I really love astronomy though, and I'm not really enjoying my work in Data Science
Secondly, consider looking for professors who do a lot with instrumentation and data analysis. Things like signal processing are huge in astronomy, and techniques like machine learning are having a pretty significant effect on astronomers' abilities to filter their images and pick up patterns that could be significant. I would lean pretty heavily into your experience doing data analysis, and I'm sure if you've got an EE background, you probably have some useful exposure to signal processing.
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- Posts: 4
- Joined: Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:30 am
Re: Engineering degree -> Industrial Data science -> Physics/Astrophysics?
Thank you, I'm working on my SOP but damn trying to make a good point in less than 2 pages is really hard it turns outrahulshaw wrote: ↑Mon Nov 04, 2019 11:18 pmI am in the same boat as you. I feel, for us, its more about putting down our interest on the SOP very strongly and prove our point there that we can than our background. Congratulations for a fantastic GRE score. But I see PGRE as a very important factor for candidates like us as that is the best way we prove our point.
Best of Luck!!
Yeah you're right, I'm also searching and sending e-mails to any Physics Professor who has to deal with lots of data, hope that will helpgeekusprimus wrote: ↑Tue Nov 05, 2019 12:09 am
First of all, astronomy programs aren't nearly as picky about the Physics GRE as physics programs. A lot of them still require it (but not all of them; UIUC might actually be one of them, come to think about it), but astronomy programs, despite having a lot of overlap with physics programs, are still fundamentally different.
Secondly, consider looking for professors who do a lot with instrumentation and data analysis. Things like signal processing are huge in astronomy, and techniques like machine learning are having a pretty significant effect on astronomers' abilities to filter their images and pick up patterns that could be significant. I would lean pretty heavily into your experience doing data analysis, and I'm sure if you've got an EE background, you probably have some useful exposure to signal processing.