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IU Bloomington Vs. GA Tech Vs. UF Vs. William & Mary

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 4:14 pm
by LeafyGreen
Hi all! I'm stuck in a great place to be: I have to make a choice between all of these schools. However, it isn't an easy one. I've got my own factors to consider, but I was wondering if anyone had anything to say about these programs in terms of quality of research, location, friendliness in the department, time to graduate, etc. Thanks in advance :)

Re: IU Bloomington Vs. GA Tech Vs. UF Vs. William & Mary

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:09 pm
by postmodern physicist
Which subfield(s) did you apply for?

Re: IU Bloomington Vs. GA Tech Vs. UF Vs. William & Mary

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 10:14 pm
by LeafyGreen
Well, that's a bit complicated, as I'm not exactly sure what I want to do. I'm interested in nuclear, condensed matter Experiment/Theory, data analysis in general

Re: IU Bloomington Vs. GA Tech Vs. UF Vs. William & Mary

Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2016 3:48 am
by postmodern physicist
Then Indiana Bloomington might be better choice for you.

Re: IU Bloomington Vs. GA Tech Vs. UF Vs. William & Mary

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 1:24 am
by curiousdirac
postmodern physicist wrote:Then Indiana Bloomington might be better choice for you.
Why so? I am also deciding on two of those, but also have Syracuse, Va Tech, UT Austin. Similarly undecided about CM exp vs. hep/nuc exp. Getting down to crunch time.... ugh. I worry that Austin and IU are too big and use incoming students as TA commodities. Syracuse too? Less sure. My visit was pretty positive there and at william and mary.

Re: IU Bloomington Vs. GA Tech Vs. UF Vs. William & Mary

Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 10:48 am
by Catria
curiousdirac wrote:
postmodern physicist wrote:Then Indiana Bloomington might be better choice for you.
Why so? I am also deciding on two of those, but also have Syracuse, Va Tech, UT Austin. Similarly undecided about CM exp vs. hep/nuc exp. Getting down to crunch time.... ugh. I worry that Austin and IU are too big and use incoming students as TA commodities. Syracuse too? Less sure. My visit was pretty positive there and at william and mary.
In physics, departments where grad students are used as TA commodities usually have a marked discrepancy between TA money and research money.

https://www.aip.org/gpb/pdf_files/071.pdf

Re: IU Bloomington Vs. GA Tech Vs. UF Vs. William & Mary

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 1:02 am
by curiousdirac
Catria wrote:
curiousdirac wrote:
postmodern physicist wrote:Then Indiana Bloomington might be better choice for you.
Why so? I am also deciding on two of those, but also have Syracuse, Va Tech, UT Austin. Similarly undecided about CM exp vs. hep/nuc exp. Getting down to crunch time.... ugh. I worry that Austin and IU are too big and use incoming students as TA commodities. Syracuse too? Less sure. My visit was pretty positive there and at william and mary.
In physics, departments where grad students are used as TA commodities usually have a marked discrepancy between TA money and research money.

https://www.aip.org/gpb/pdf_files/071.pdf
Sorry, don't understand. Are you being general or is this IU?? Please let me know!

Re: IU Bloomington Vs. GA Tech Vs. UF Vs. William & Mary

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 9:16 am
by Catria
Just saying that IU-Bloomington's physics graduate program is a little too small to support the notion of using students as TA commodities.

Re: IU Bloomington Vs. GA Tech Vs. UF Vs. William & Mary

Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2016 7:23 pm
by LeafyGreen
I ended up choosing IU for their research options. Thanks to everyone who posted.