Schools offers

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pzakhary
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:20 pm

Schools offers

Post by pzakhary » Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:29 pm

Do all US schools conduct interviews for PhD applicants before extending an offer? No one contacted me for anything till now? Is that okay?

Also, i am having a week Physics GRE "630" and not so bad General GRE Q 164. Do i have a chance in any of those?

I am applying to
MIT... Physics
Harvard... Astro
UT Austin... Astro
Uni. Of Washington... Astro
Northwestern... Physics
Vanderbilt... Astro
Case Western... Physics
Rochester... Astro
Wisconsin, Madison... Astro
Notre Dame... Astro
Wyoming... Astro
McMaster... Astro
Queen's... Astro

TakeruK
Posts: 941
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:05 pm

Re: Schools offers

Post by TakeruK » Wed Jan 31, 2018 3:13 pm

Not all US schools in Physics do not conduct interviews. Some do, but definitely not "all" and although I don't know for sure, my expectation is that most schools actually do not have interviews.

You can check for your school and program at TheGradCafe's results database: http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php People will post the date they learned the result and/or interview requests. Although this is just anecdote so not 100% reliable but you can use it as a gauge of when you might expect to hear back from some schools. Be sure to add your results when you know too so that you can help future years.

lanhoa
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2017 2:40 am

Re: Schools offers

Post by lanhoa » Mon Feb 05, 2018 4:54 pm

Anyone hears back from University of Southern California? I had an interview 2 weeks ago but haven't known the result yet. Feeling nervous

JellyJam
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2018 4:41 pm

Re: Schools offers

Post by JellyJam » Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:06 pm

In general, most US physics programs do not conduct interviews before offering admission. Generally, if a school does contact you about an interview, it is more of an informal discussion with a potential PI about possibly joining his or her lab.

As for your question about your scores, it depends greatly on your individual demographics. If you are an American citizen, a low PGRE score doesn't necessarily disqualify you from being admitted from a program (though it certainly doesn't help). If you are not a US citizen, a low PGRE likely means that you will be wholeheartedly rejected from the majority of programs. Unfortunately, the standards are far higher for international candidates.

Another note of importance, in general the PGRE is far more important for physics grad school than it is for astronomy grad school. As such, if your other credentials are up to par, it is certainly possible that you can still be admitted to high quality astronomy programs with a mediocre PGRE score.

TakeruK
Posts: 941
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:05 pm

Re: Schools offers

Post by TakeruK » Wed Feb 07, 2018 2:19 am

I got into several top tier astro programs with 640 and 690 Physics GRE scores, taken 2 years apart.



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