Physics GRE Discussion Forums

I received the financial aid offer in the mail last Friday.

hey hchemist,
you were in LA for candidates day two weeks ago ?
I was there too .. I'm the guy from Canada.

I was there too .. I'm the guy from Canada

Hey~~

I'm the guy from San Diego (there were two though )

How is it going? Any chance we meet again at UW? Anyway, I haven't heard anything back from UCLA since our visit. We should definitely keep in touch.

It's going pretty well apart form the fact that it's freezing out here.
I just heard back from UCLA; I'm in with $26k stipend. This is pretty amazing.

I still haven't heard anything from UWM.. I think I messed up my application by applying to the MS program (in Canada you have to do a masters before you can get into a PhD program) I'll see what I can do about that.

Anyway, we should definitely keep in touch.

Has anyone heard anything from Chicago ?

@ deimos

Look on the profile thread... some people have heard from U chicago.

Strange, I just wrote a paragraph but it's gone. So this is my second attempt to your reply and I will make it short. First of all, congrat! 26k is spectacular! I myself was very impressed with your research background and knew you would definitely be the one would get in to the program. My girl friend just got into UCLA mechanical engineering program so now I really want to hear back from them. Wish me luck.

If I remember well, your research background is pretty amazing too. You should hear back from them very soon. The fact that you are already in California will definitely help you. Don't worry too much.. Hopefully, we'll see each other soon!

hchemist: Have you heard back from UTH or UCLA since the interviews? Also, have you received any financial aid offer from UW-Madison? I haven't heard back from any of these schools yet, so I don't really know what to expect. It's pretty frustrating knowing that others have already heard back from the schools I applied to way before me, although it's my fault in the first place for going on these forums. =/ What do you think they could have in store for me???

Sorry, for late reply. But I decided not to give out any further information until I hear from Chicago. Few of my friends warned me of the possibility that the departments are monitoring this website as well. Whether it is true or not, I take such advice. After all, there are only handful of medical physics applicants.

What do you mean by monitoring? Do you mean they might be accepting or rejecting you based on where you've gotten in already? That doesn't seem fair, but I guess you can't stop them from accessing a public forum.

Do you think I should email UW and ask why I haven't gotten a response yet? On their website it says they would send out decisions by February 28, so I hope they didn't forget about me...

hchemist,

Your friends are full of ***. No one is monitoring this website. No one has the time or desire to go through hundreds of threads trying to identify students talking about their programs.

I had a good chuckle imagining people full of asterisks just now.

GTPHYS91 wrote:hchemist,

Your friends are full of ***. No one is monitoring this website. No one has the time or desire to go through hundreds of threads trying to identify students talking about their programs.

That is what I thought too GTPHYS91, but I guess it doesn't hurt to play it safe for now. By the way, have you made any final decisions on where you want to go yet? Earlier you said you were thinking about UPenn, but any new updates?

Your friends are full of ***. No one is monitoring this website. No one has the time or desire to go through hundreds of threads trying to identify students talking about their programs.

I hope this is true. But your above statement is only an assertion. As I said, my friend is only concerned about the very possibility. So he is not full of ***.

It doesn't hurt to be careful.

But by no means, feel free to do what you like...

victory118,

I did end up committing to Penn for several reasons. It is technically a master's program, so full funding (tuition plus $18,000 stipend) was limited to three students. I was fortunate enough to get the funding, but it's contingent on me choosing radiation oncology as a specialization (versus nuclear medicine or radiology) and working with the other two students on a proton accelerator project. I was essentially rejected at Duke (applied as Ph.D., offered *possible* position as master's student), and the funding was virtually nonexistent. Penn only gave me until the end of February to decide, so I didn't have time to see the Wisconsin open house or get a financial offer from them. Basically, by the time I had to decide on Penn, Penn seemed like the best place financially. I visited their program before I made the decision. It is essentially run through the physics department. Graduate quantum mechanics and electricity and magnetism are required courses, which is kind of unique for a medical physics program. I liked this strong physics orientation. Also, anyone accepted into the medical physics program can do a Ph.D. in physics with a medical physics option. I liked how they are offering clinical residencies to select graduate students once they finish the program. They are building a proton therapy center on campus that will be finished by the end of the summer, too. The director of the program got her Ph.D. from Georgia Tech, which is where I go, and she is board certified, so I felt like she knew what she was doing.

So I guess that means I am out of the running for Chicago. Good luck to anyone who still has a shot!

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God dam it throw the space party right now!
btw, congrats!

RG!

When the *** DID YOU GET BACK?

twistor wrote:I feel this is worth breaking my silence for -- I just got into the University of Chicago

*** YEAH!!! I'm so happy for you

Nice work twistor.

@twistor

unbelievably stylish, congrats congrats!

Thanks everyone

I got back few days back!


Thanx is not gud enough, throw the damn party

No reason to throw a party. This doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to accept their offer. But I am happy that I got in.

Fermiboy,

There seems to be a doppleganger, fermiguy, lurking around. I think you should kill him and absorb his life force so you can remain an immortal, and so nobody gets confused in thinking that you two are really the same person.

Congrats twistor.
I just got an email from Chicago as well; they want me to visit at the end of march..

Any chance of meeting some of you guys in Madison this weekend ?

I challenged fermiguy to a death duel and he accepted. He told me to meet him in the Tevatron. May the net force be with me.

deimos,

No.

So what did everyone think of UW's medical physics open house?

I actually quite enjoyed it. My interest is imaging so funding is not as much of an issue as for therapy. It is very likely that I'll end up there.
What about you, what did you think ?

Deimos, do you know if it is generally the case that imaging gets more funding than therapy? I always there thought there was more funding in the latter, but I am not really sure.

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victory118,

I think the deal with Wisconsin is that none of the radiation therapy students are graduating this year so there are no openings. Also, the department allows students from outside the medical physics department (e.g. bioengineering, neuroscience) to have RA positions in medical physics labs so that takes up jobs as well.

Twistor, did you end up applying to Purdue? I know you were originally planning on applying there, so I was just wondering.

I did but I ended up withdrawing my application a few weeks ago. After I heard they weren't offering much in the way of financial aid I didn't see the point.

From now on I'm only talking to other medical physicists. The rest of the people on this forum are nuts.

I work in medical technologies, but applied for CM experiment. Can we still chat? Or did I just get ***-listed as well?

hpharty wrote:I work in medical technologies, but applied for CM experiment. Can we still chat? Or did I just get ***-listed as well?

Ehhhhh.... close enough

So where did everyone decide to go, and how did you like Chicago?