Discussion of 2008 Profiles/Results

  • This has become our largest and most active forum because the physics GRE is just one aspect of getting accepted into a graduate physics program.
  • There are applications, personal statements, letters of recommendation, visiting schools, anxiety of waiting for acceptances, deciding between schools, finding out where others are going, etc.

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butsurigakusha
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Post by butsurigakusha » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:14 pm

You wouldn't make me panic. I've moved past. I've already decided on a backup career choice. So I'm cool with whatever happens.

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zxcv
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Post by zxcv » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:08 pm

butsurigakusha, what's your backup plan? I figure it's always good for aspiring physicists to have one in case the academic job market has poor prospects. I hear that finance and consulting are lucrative options, and of course there's always software...

RG, no shame in taking the free trip there... even if I get into Berkeley, Stanford and Caltech (haha, fat chance) I'd still look at Santa Barbara... sometimes location balances strict quality of the physics.
Last edited by zxcv on Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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butsurigakusha
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Post by butsurigakusha » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:11 pm

Ski instructor. It's not a very realistic plan, but it sure would be cool.

I guess I don't really have a back up "plan", if by plan you mean something that is thought out and reasonable.

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dlenmn
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Post by dlenmn » Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:13 pm

I hear that McDonalds is hiring... (The application is free too!)

VT
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Post by VT » Thu Jan 31, 2008 1:12 pm

Hey, geomar and RG and all other people who have been accepted to Cornell, could you guys please tell us when is the open house or recruitment weekend or graduate preview weekend for Cornell?

Also for UCSD, RG and nvanmeter can you guys please tell us when their open house is?

Thanks.

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dlenmn
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Post by dlenmn » Thu Jan 31, 2008 1:28 pm

@ neoslovakia

Congrats on U Penn. Could you post the date you learned of the acceptance?

neoslovakia
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Post by neoslovakia » Thu Jan 31, 2008 3:20 pm

Thanks, I just got the call last night. After finally hearing back from a school I can now visit this forum again without having a nervous breakdown.

hpharty
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Post by hpharty » Thu Jan 31, 2008 3:30 pm

Congrats neoslovakia!

I would love to hear back from Penn soon.

I don't know why I said that, of course I would, all of us would.

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butsurigakusha
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Post by butsurigakusha » Thu Jan 31, 2008 4:12 pm

I just found an option I could use as a backup plan:

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/ ... 1020080130

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grae313
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Post by grae313 » Thu Jan 31, 2008 5:03 pm

lol

I'm picturing you like the guy in your avatar and it's just not working for me

nvanmeter
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Post by nvanmeter » Fri Feb 01, 2008 12:17 am

wow what's up with this? at the beginning of the week there were tons of acceptances and now all is quiet again. what a tease... but there's still one day of the week left and i'm keeping my fingers crossed

hpharty
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Post by hpharty » Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:35 am

I feel like they save them for the end of the week so that we don't all go out and get housed on a monday or tuesday night and fail out of college (or work in my case). I doubt this is happening, but the thought is helping me keep my act together at work today.

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twistor
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Post by twistor » Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:05 pm

Now that it's February maybe they'll get on the ball.

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twistor
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Post by twistor » Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:07 pm

This is my 300th post. This means:

1) I have poor time management skills and waste a lot of time on this forum

2) I spend too much time in front of a computer

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grae313
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Post by grae313 » Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:27 pm

hooray! we gots da sticky!

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grae313
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Post by grae313 » Wed Feb 06, 2008 4:37 pm

THANKS MUCH to all the new posters in the 2008 profiles thread!! Keep 'em coming!

tnoviell
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Post by tnoviell » Wed Feb 06, 2008 5:20 pm

"I am really curious to know if we can do theoretical biophysics thro CM in grad school. Does anybody here know about this option? appreciate any info. Tnoviell, you are in biophysics, would you mind sharing your experience?"

RG, I'm not sure. At Hopkins Biophysics is its own department, and not affliated with Physics. Possibly at some others school where Biophysics is a subfield in the physics department, it's a possibility. I would say, RG, that if you got your Ph.D in CM, afterwards you could switch to theoretical biophysics.

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quizivex
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Post by quizivex » Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:15 pm

Yahoo... our master (Grant) has rewarded us by giving our profile thread an invincibility shield...

Keep on posting!!!! 8)

doom
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Post by doom » Thu Feb 07, 2008 1:32 am

Well, the dreaded day has arrived... when people start hearing back from a school that I want to go to (Washington), and I have heard nothing.

It seems like there's a mix of people hearing through email or by snail mail. Some people didn't post that on the profiles thread. Could you please include that info? (grae, this means you ;) )

If it's by mail, I can hope that my acceptance is still in transit somewhere... :?

schandre
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Post by schandre » Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:55 am

Well, the dreaded day has arrived... when people start hearing back from a school that I want to go to (Washington), and I have heard nothing.
I share your pain doom, but I see you were accepted at one of the places I applied to and still haven't heard from (Indiana).

VT
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Post by VT » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:24 pm

hey doom, have not you gotten your snail mail from The Ohio State yet ?

Has any body heard from The Ohio State? It looks like no body applied to this school because it is a state school.

Congratulation to allof your guys who have been accepted to big schools and good luck to the rest and myself. :(

doom
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Post by doom » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:59 pm

@schandre:
Sorry, I hope I didn't make you feel bad. That was not my intention. I hope your letter from IU is in the mail! Really, I probably should've posted that comment in the "shalacked again" thread.

(By the way, it's spelled "shellacked." ;) )

@VT:

No, I have not gotten my snail mail from Ohio State yet. However, they have been in contact with me to let me know that they are applying for fellowship support for me. However, they only contacted me because there was a mix-up with my official GRE scores, so don't worry that they haven't contacted you, you might still be in the running for a fellowship!

Man, I really need to get a new mailbox key! There's a big fat envelope in there, and I'm trying really hard not to imagine what college insignia might be on the front of it. My roommates are probably sick of me asking to borrow their keys. Grrrr....

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grae313
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Post by grae313 » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:09 pm

doom wrote:(By the way, it's spelled "shellacked." :wink: )
*ahem*cough*ahem* I beg to differ, good sir.

According to the reputable Urban Dictionary:

Shellacked:

1. The state of being drunk
I was so shellacked last night that I lost count of how many beers I drank

2. When you steal something from someone and it's the last of that person's property.
I stumbled upon the rest of Janice's Oreo's. I was so stoned and there were only 8 left so I shellacked them.

Shalacked

1.the victim of being lit up or hit beyond belief.
the dumbass who tried to bumrush the stage was shalacked by security

doom
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Post by doom » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:14 pm

How about the more reputable dictionary.com?

No results found for shalacked.

shellacked:
5. Slang.
a. to defeat; trounce.
b. to thrash soundly.

or:

# Slang

1. To strike repeatedly and severely; batter.
2. To defeat decisively.

Hmmm, maybe the posters on urbandictionary.com just didn't know how to spell the word they were trying to define? Yep, that's probably it.

All in good fun, though. :)

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grae313
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Post by grae313 » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:23 pm

BLASPHEMY!

urban dictionary is the most reputable dictionary out there...

maybe the old fuddy-duddies who run dictionary.com don't know how to spell shalacked. didja ever think of that? (OK you win :) )

doom
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Post by doom » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:24 pm

Haha, I think it's a rule that all entries on urbandictionary must have at least one misspelling.

schandre
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Post by schandre » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:38 pm

@ doom

I felt bad not by the fact that you were accepted, but because they already start sending admissions and I still haven't heard from them.
Congratulations! I hope I also hear from somewhere soon, even if not from my top choices.

phys007
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Post by phys007 » Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:59 pm

I got snail mail from Ohio State a couple of days ago- it was a general information packet, along with fellowship information. Dated 1/25 of January, but there was a small mix-up about fellowships for me, so I think they just had it waiting to get sent out.

VT
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Post by VT » Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:02 pm

I think I got into Madison! Hurray..

cancelled20080417
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Post by cancelled20080417 » Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:28 pm

Congrats VT, Madison is a great place.

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twistor
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Post by twistor » Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:31 pm

Congratulations! February is getting started and the acceptances are beginning to roll in...

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quizivex
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Post by quizivex » Fri Feb 08, 2008 2:54 pm

@ davidchen

Yo, what are you doing? Didn't we make it clear that we don't want irrelevant comments on the profile thread? Please delete it and repost it on another thread.


As for the rest of you who have made empty posts (i_iphys and lumineferousaether etc...) I hope you've done this to "reserve" a spot and are planning to post your profile soon. Note that a list of acceptances without a profile is not helpful for future classes and that's why we made the profile thread.

If that's all you're planning to post, please delete it and post it on the Discussion of 2008 thread. It'll still be helpful for us to know what schools have made offers and when...

Anybody who posts anything on the profile thread should have the same respect for the forum that the other 25 or so users who posted their profiles in adherence to the format requested at the top of the page. Stop with the nonsense.

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twistor
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Post by twistor » Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:32 pm

Tell 'em, quiz.

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grae313
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Post by grae313 » Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:36 pm

quiz, I deleted his post.

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twistor
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Post by twistor » Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:46 pm

How is it that you can delete other people's posts?

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quizivex
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Post by quizivex » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:40 pm

Thanks grae313, I'm glad you have the ability to moderate. That way we won't need to ask Grant to protect the thread from rubbage posts by people who are disrespectful and/or can't read directions.

After the whole admission process is over and people have chosen where to go, we should lock the thread! :)

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twistor
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Post by twistor » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:50 pm

I think the real question is:

"Why doesn't twistor possess these god-like attributes?"

Well

Why not?

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quizivex
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Post by quizivex » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:56 pm

twistor is a god of wind and wrath. He could cause massive destruction to the threads if given any special powers. He could blow all the words around and all of the posts would be scrambled (except for garden's... if his post were scrambled it would probably make more sense than it did before).

Edit: I'm closing in on 300... 8) By the way, congrats to RG and grae313 for joining the 300 club with twistor...

Hmm how can I make 10 more posts??? Maybe if I actually start getting acceptances for once!! Or maybe someone should start another dispute with me so we can argue until I get to 300.

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twistor
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Post by twistor » Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:20 pm

Try posting non sequitors.

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twistor
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Post by twistor » Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:43 pm

twistor is a god of wind and wrath. He could cause massive destruction to the threads if given any special powers. He could blow all the words around and all of the posts would be scrambled
I can't help it, I am what I am.

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grae313
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Post by grae313 » Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:30 am

quiz, actually I suggested to grant that he make an archive of sorts to hold each year's thread, or perhaps merge them somehow. He hinted that he had something up his sleeve... I think he might be working on a way to incorporate people's profiles into this site, sort of like some of the other sites for sharing profiles, but we won't have to go anywhere 8)

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twistor
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Post by twistor » Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:42 am

Verrrrrrry interesting....

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quizivex
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Post by quizivex » Sat Feb 09, 2008 6:52 pm

Thanks for posting, PH... but what happened to the boldness?

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PH
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Post by PH » Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:50 pm

hope its better now quizivex. obviously need to learn to copy and paste better :)

deyton
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Post by deyton » Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:53 pm

I posted my profile. It's not relevant to most of you since the only three American schools I applied to are major reaches, but it will probably be good for my fellow Canadians.

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dlenmn
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Post by dlenmn » Sat Feb 09, 2008 10:06 pm

@ deyton

Perimeter Institute, eh? Fotini Markopoulou recently gave a talk here on quantum gravity -- including a formulation she's working on based on graph theory (Quantum Graphity... har har har). They do some cool stuff there.

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grae313
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Post by grae313 » Sat Feb 09, 2008 10:12 pm

wow, hintonburgdisaster, 800 GRE Verbal!! impressive

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quizivex
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Post by quizivex » Sat Feb 09, 2008 10:12 pm

Thanks everyone for the new profiles

@ hintonburgdisaster

Wow, you *** raped the verbal. Congrats.


@ deyton

Yeah, there have been a lot of canadians on here so your profile will be very useful to them.


@ KB

Glad to see another female that wasn't scared away by RG and me... welcome :)


Edit: Looks like grae313 and I both posted our comments about hintonburgdisaster's verbal at the same time!

tnoviell
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Post by tnoviell » Sat Feb 09, 2008 10:26 pm

I did so crappy on verbal - I can't imagine an 800 on it. I find things to be so subjective in that department, but that could be because I'm left handed, so I'm genetically messed up.

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grae313
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Post by grae313 » Sat Feb 09, 2008 10:28 pm

12345678910 JINX!!!!!


hintonburgdisaster, I'm curious, what percentile was that?



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