What range of schools should I be looking at?
Posted: Tue May 11, 2010 5:32 pm
Hi all,
I'm a rising Duke junior thinking about grad school. When I graduate, I will probably have a 3.5 gpa, 4 years of research (but probably no publication, I didn't do much the first few years) in HEP, and a projected 850+ on the PGRE (I do well on standardized tests).
My dream school is UCSB because of it's presence on two top 10 lists...top 10 physics grad schools and playboy top 10 party schools
Anyways, with those kinds of stats, do you think I could aim for the 10-30 range in terms of ranked physics programs?
I'm not really sure how good or bad a 3.5 is from a tough school like Duke. All I know is that, supposedly, a 3.8 from this place gets you into the top 10 pretty quickly.
But I know that in terms of prestige, numbers 10-20 are nowhere close to the big boys in the single digits...am I looking in the right place? 10-30?
I plan to go into HEP or Biophysics/nonlinear dynamics.
Also one other thing that I'm not sure will make a big difference, I might take two years off between Duke and grad school to do peace corps, teaching physics somewhere. With any luck I can leverage that and grab a fellowship...which should make me more attractive to grad schools (though I doubt I can get the fellowship).
I'm a rising Duke junior thinking about grad school. When I graduate, I will probably have a 3.5 gpa, 4 years of research (but probably no publication, I didn't do much the first few years) in HEP, and a projected 850+ on the PGRE (I do well on standardized tests).
My dream school is UCSB because of it's presence on two top 10 lists...top 10 physics grad schools and playboy top 10 party schools
Anyways, with those kinds of stats, do you think I could aim for the 10-30 range in terms of ranked physics programs?
I'm not really sure how good or bad a 3.5 is from a tough school like Duke. All I know is that, supposedly, a 3.8 from this place gets you into the top 10 pretty quickly.
But I know that in terms of prestige, numbers 10-20 are nowhere close to the big boys in the single digits...am I looking in the right place? 10-30?
I plan to go into HEP or Biophysics/nonlinear dynamics.
Also one other thing that I'm not sure will make a big difference, I might take two years off between Duke and grad school to do peace corps, teaching physics somewhere. With any luck I can leverage that and grab a fellowship...which should make me more attractive to grad schools (though I doubt I can get the fellowship).