Where Can I go with this GPA

Hi all,

Last year I graduated from a tier 2 school with a Double Major in Mathematics and Physics, and a masters in mathematics. My undergrad Math gpa is a 3.9, undergrad physics is a 3.7, and my graduate gpa is a 3.8. My last semester was my worst, and it brought my physics GPA down slightly and mauled my graduate gpa. I have a decent medical reason for this.

On the practice PGRE my score was 840, and on the General my practice was 700 verbal and 800 math. I would like to go to one of the state schools like Ann Arbor or Wisconsin Madison. Do I have a chance of getting into any of these schools?

I have done some research, but I was not published.

Your scores and GPA are fine -- they won't keep you out of any school. But there is no combination of GPA and test scores that "gets you in" guaranteed anywhere. That depends a lot more on the entire package and your letters of recommendation and research experience are just as (if not more) important. You definitely have a good shot at the schools you mentioned assuming you can get a good letter of recommendation from the person you did research with.

In lieu of what Grae said, you can work at McDonald's. That's about it.

You can get in anywhere if you take a picture as rad as I have and send it in with your application. =)

-Riley

On a number of occasions I've stopped myself from asking the following question but it just seems so appropriate right now that I have to go through with it.

Do you ever worry that a prospective grad school will stumble across your account on the forum, see your picture and think, "Yeah, let's not offer that guy a spot."

As an admissions director, I have certainly seen plenty of posts by applicants (that I recognize because they list our school and have very distinguishing data). And some of them definitely have interesting avatars. But under NO circumstances would anything said on this forum play any role whatsoever in whether or not they are admitted---I don't mention it to other committee members and am quite good at compartmentalizing. In fact, I don't go out of my way to connect posters with applicants -- it's occasionally obvious, but I do my best to ignore it. I suspect most admissions directors do the same.


Oh, and if Riley or happyquark were to apply to my institution, their avatars (if they mattered at all) would definitely be a plus

Is it getting hot in here?!

Let's try an experiment:

Step 1: Post Picture



Step 2: Wait for acceptance letters.

-Riley

Dude, not cool!

With a picture that epic, every school is going to reject us in hopes that you'll do research at their university! How are any of us supposed to compete with that?

What can I say...

You better check my applicant information and make sure you don't go through with applications to the same schools.

-Riley