I am thinking about if I should apply more safety schools in case that I get rejected by all of these schools. Here is my profile.
Undergrad Institution: Best Public School in USA
Major(s): Physics
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: 4.00
Overall GPA: 4.00
Length of Degree: 4 (Transfer from community college)
Position in Class: Very top
Type of Student: US Permanent Resident Asian Male, will become U.S. citizen before enrolling graduate school
GRE Scores :
Q: 170 98%
V: 157 74%
W: 3 15% (This sucks)
P: 990 94%
TOEFL Total: (if applicable, otherwise delete this)
Research Experience: 1 REU in nuclear theory, one publication in Physical Recview C. 1.5 year in experimental high energy nuclear physics. Exptect to submit another publication..
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Lots of scholarship and hopefully one fellowship
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Tutor and lab aide at my community college
Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:
Special Bonus Points: Score 12 points in Putnam Competition
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:
Applying to Where:
UC Berkeley - Physics - Hep-ex
UCLA - Physics - Hep-ex
MIT - Physics - Hep-ex
Caltech - Physics - Hep-ex
Princeton - Physics - Hep-ex
Yale - Physics - Hep-ex
Stanford - Physics - Hep-ex
UC Davis - Physics - Hep-ex
Notre Dame - Physics - Hep-ex
Rice - Physics - Hep-ex
Do you think I need more safety schools?
Do you think I need more safety schools?
Last edited by MYOMAO on Wed Dec 23, 2015 2:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Do you think I need more safety schools?
A couple questions for you:
With that being said, being paranoid, I've applied to a few safety schools (Texas A&M, UC Davis, Michigan) where I've been told that I should be admitted and competitive for a fellowship.
- How are your letters?
Have you talked with any faculty at any of these schools?
How closely related is your research to the things you want to do in grad school?
With that being said, being paranoid, I've applied to a few safety schools (Texas A&M, UC Davis, Michigan) where I've been told that I should be admitted and competitive for a fellowship.
Re: Do you think I need more safety schools?
Hi cwr,
I think my letters are good. One from an REU advisor, one from a research advisor who was the spokesman in our collaboration, and one from a staff scientist who believe i am his favorite student.
UCLA, UC Davis, and Yale are my collaboration members
I talked to Professors at Stanford, Princeton (hep-th), Caltech and MIT. They said they welcomed me to join their group but not in the admission committee.
UCLA and UC Davis said they would recommend me in the admission committee.
Yale has no response.
Berkeley I think I should be hopefully able to get in because the department knows me quite well.
I think my letters are good. One from an REU advisor, one from a research advisor who was the spokesman in our collaboration, and one from a staff scientist who believe i am his favorite student.
UCLA, UC Davis, and Yale are my collaboration members
I talked to Professors at Stanford, Princeton (hep-th), Caltech and MIT. They said they welcomed me to join their group but not in the admission committee.
UCLA and UC Davis said they would recommend me in the admission committee.
Yale has no response.
Berkeley I think I should be hopefully able to get in because the department knows me quite well.
Re: Do you think I need more safety schools?
I'm curious, why do you say that it "sucks" to be a US permanent resident asian male? As a US permanent resident, you are treated as a domestic student as the department will only be charged extra for your tuition the way an international student would. Also, a large number of your schools listed do not charge a different rate for international student tuition.
In addition, Asian males already have an advantage in admissions (I am also an Asian male but a Canadian so I am an international student). We (Asian males) are generally over-represented in our field (http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/sei/edTool/data/ ... ce-07.html). Of course, it's much more complicated than this single plot. For example, Asian-Americans are still a minority group in both the field and the country and one thing I've noticed is that I can very often count all of the Asian scientists in my field giving talks at a conference with my two hands---e.g. at the recent big conference for my field, out of ~110 speakers, there were 7 Asian men and 1 Asian woman speaker (and this was an international conference where many of the Asian speakers came from outside of the US and also lumps all ethnicities within Asia together).
I don't want to get too far off topic here, but I just want to point out that I don't think your response to "Type of student" would put you at any disadvantage (so I don't think it "sucks"). I personally feel that this 'standard' profile form needs to be updated (it's almost 10 years old now) because it makes simplifications and distorts some factors about admissions, especially those related to diversity. For example, I feel it promotes the harmful and incorrect view that it's somehow "easier" to get into graduate school if you are an under-represented minority or a woman. Aside from being false, it also adds to the microaggressions that our women/minority colleagues experience in the community, and basically causes harm to academia, in my opinion. It would be similar to someone saying that your PGRE 990 is worth less because you are of Asian descent!
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Anyways, back to your original question. My opinion is no, you do not need more safety schools. A safety school is supposed to be one where you are basically certain that you'll get in (>95%). I'm not in your subfield so I don't know which of the schools you list are safety schools. However, my answer to almost everyone who asks if they need "more" is generally no, because my philosophy is that you only need 1, maybe 2 safety schools. Since you know that you will get into a safety school (otherwise it's not a safety school), you can pick ahead of time which schools interest you the most. Don't apply to a safety school that you are not sure about just because you want to ensure you get accepted into it!
That is, I don't think the goal of an application season is to get as many acceptances as possible. In fact, unless you are already applying to the best schools for you (in terms of fit etc.), I think if you get into more than half of your schools, it may mean that you didn't aim high enough! It's worth much more, to get into 2 of your top choices and not much else, than to get into a large number of schools that you are less interested in.
So, unless you only have one safety school and you're not sure if you will really like that school once you visit, don't add any more. If you are not happy with your current safety school, maybe consider switching it with another safety school that you would prefer to attend instead. But don't apply to something like 3 or 4 safety schools---surely even at this stage you could identify which 1 or 2 safety school you would prefer to be at, assuming you get into all safety schools (which, again, is the definition of such a school).
This is my own opinion on applying to grad school which works for me. I'm not saying that everyone must follow this, just sharing my thoughts to help you find what you want to do
In addition, Asian males already have an advantage in admissions (I am also an Asian male but a Canadian so I am an international student). We (Asian males) are generally over-represented in our field (http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/sei/edTool/data/ ... ce-07.html). Of course, it's much more complicated than this single plot. For example, Asian-Americans are still a minority group in both the field and the country and one thing I've noticed is that I can very often count all of the Asian scientists in my field giving talks at a conference with my two hands---e.g. at the recent big conference for my field, out of ~110 speakers, there were 7 Asian men and 1 Asian woman speaker (and this was an international conference where many of the Asian speakers came from outside of the US and also lumps all ethnicities within Asia together).
I don't want to get too far off topic here, but I just want to point out that I don't think your response to "Type of student" would put you at any disadvantage (so I don't think it "sucks"). I personally feel that this 'standard' profile form needs to be updated (it's almost 10 years old now) because it makes simplifications and distorts some factors about admissions, especially those related to diversity. For example, I feel it promotes the harmful and incorrect view that it's somehow "easier" to get into graduate school if you are an under-represented minority or a woman. Aside from being false, it also adds to the microaggressions that our women/minority colleagues experience in the community, and basically causes harm to academia, in my opinion. It would be similar to someone saying that your PGRE 990 is worth less because you are of Asian descent!
---
Anyways, back to your original question. My opinion is no, you do not need more safety schools. A safety school is supposed to be one where you are basically certain that you'll get in (>95%). I'm not in your subfield so I don't know which of the schools you list are safety schools. However, my answer to almost everyone who asks if they need "more" is generally no, because my philosophy is that you only need 1, maybe 2 safety schools. Since you know that you will get into a safety school (otherwise it's not a safety school), you can pick ahead of time which schools interest you the most. Don't apply to a safety school that you are not sure about just because you want to ensure you get accepted into it!
That is, I don't think the goal of an application season is to get as many acceptances as possible. In fact, unless you are already applying to the best schools for you (in terms of fit etc.), I think if you get into more than half of your schools, it may mean that you didn't aim high enough! It's worth much more, to get into 2 of your top choices and not much else, than to get into a large number of schools that you are less interested in.
So, unless you only have one safety school and you're not sure if you will really like that school once you visit, don't add any more. If you are not happy with your current safety school, maybe consider switching it with another safety school that you would prefer to attend instead. But don't apply to something like 3 or 4 safety schools---surely even at this stage you could identify which 1 or 2 safety school you would prefer to be at, assuming you get into all safety schools (which, again, is the definition of such a school).
This is my own opinion on applying to grad school which works for me. I'm not saying that everyone must follow this, just sharing my thoughts to help you find what you want to do
Re: Do you think I need more safety schools?
Hi Takeruk,
Thank you very much! I think I will change my profile a little bit.
Thank you very much! I think I will change my profile a little bit.