so whereabouts will this take me?

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masonb
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so whereabouts will this take me?

Post by masonb » Tue Dec 07, 2010 3:38 pm

I'm currently attending Georgia Tech. I'm graduating in my third year -- this year -- with about a 3.3 GPA. I got an 800 quantitative, 640 verbal, 900 physics, and some horrible score like 4.5 on analytical writing.

Currently I'm looking at applying to MIT, Stanford, UCSB, with UCSD and GTech as safety schools. Am I aiming too high? Too low? Should I apply to more places?

Totally confused here.

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grae313
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Re: so whereabouts will this take me?

Post by grae313 » Tue Dec 07, 2010 4:08 pm

Do you have research experience?

Have you looked at the profiles threads?

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WhoaNonstop
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Re: so whereabouts will this take me?

Post by WhoaNonstop » Tue Dec 07, 2010 4:59 pm

Without knowing your research experience it is hard to tell. I feel that most of the top end schools look for someone good in every aspect, GPA, Test Scores, Recommendations, and research. Unfortunately, I feel like your GPA would kill your chances unless your research experience is very very strong. It's just the type of cuts they do to weed out applicants and make it manageable for them to pick people. You should look through the applicant profiles to better gauge yourself.

-Riley

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grae313
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Re: so whereabouts will this take me?

Post by grae313 » Tue Dec 07, 2010 6:47 pm

As an added note, 3.3 can mean something very different depending on your school. If GATech grades tough and you are, say, in the top 10% of your class with that GPA, make sure to have your letter writers mention this.

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WhoaNonstop
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Re: so whereabouts will this take me?

Post by WhoaNonstop » Tue Dec 07, 2010 7:02 pm

grae313 wrote:As an added note, 3.3 can mean something very different depending on your school. If GATech grades tough and you are, say, in the top 10% of your class with that GPA, make sure to have your letter writers mention this.
Or if you went to school where I am from 3.92 = knowing how to breath (Therefore you don't have letter writers mention it). :D

-Riley

masonb
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Re: so whereabouts will this take me?

Post by masonb » Tue Dec 07, 2010 11:38 pm

Average class GPA for Quantum II (required for all physics majors) is 2.76.

I got a B. So, no, Georgia Tech doesn't do grade inflation. And Quantum I is worse (but a lot of people drop the major after taking Quantum I, so that's skewed).

As for research I've got six weeks with the Navy at Carderock and a year and a half with a professor here.

I guess one thing that brings me down is that physics majors usually get As in the early classes, but I brought in credits for pretty much all of my university core requirements (all the way through Physics I and II, DiffEq, foreign language, english, history), which would otherwise have brought up my GPA.

I figure they'll be able to figure that out by looking at the transcript itself, though.

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grae313
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Re: so whereabouts will this take me?

Post by grae313 » Wed Dec 08, 2010 1:34 am

Don't worry about your lower division classes if your upper division grades are strong. Don't let the number get you down, schools know it's fairly arbitrary. Make sure your letter writers comment on the average gpa of your class and your class rank if known. If those numbers are impressive your GPA wouldn't be too much of a barrier. 3.0 is usually the only real cutoff.

That said, remember that at top schools you're competing against people with perfect grades, great test scores, and tons of research experience. Apply to several safeties. Top 10 may be reaching but I don't think they are out of the question, and I think the level of your safeties sounds about right. You would probably be well-served to add in one or two more, however, unless you know for sure you have a spot at GTech if worse comes to worst.

veritedefoli
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Re: so whereabouts will this take me?

Post by veritedefoli » Fri Dec 10, 2010 8:48 pm

I think you're aiming somewhat too high.
I did undergrad at Caltech, with a comparable grade distribution and a slightly smarter student body. Our 3.3's with non-amazing research and high gre's (so effectively slightly above middle of physics class) ended up at 20th-50th ph.d. programs.



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