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Do I have any chances to get in into a top school?

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2018 2:55 am
by Olanic
I am an international applicant for hep-th with the following profile:

GRE General: V 160 Q 170 W 3.5
GRE Physics: 930 (the results came only today and are the reason I am asking this question)
TOEFL: 106 (R 30, L 30, S 22, W 24)
GPA: 4.0
research experience: about 2 years with no publication yet
advanced coursework: advanced QFT, advanced GR, SUSY, SUGRA and a course on Gauge/Gravity duality this spring
any accomplishments that could help: was a member of a team that got good result in the International Theoretical Physics Olympiad; took part in several schools/conferences on theoretical and mathematical physics
student type: white international male

As far as I know, the admissions into hep-th are incredibly competitive. I didn't get any publication and wanted to make up for this with perfect GRE Physics scores, coursework and letters of recommendation with statement of purpose. However, in the exam I poorly managed my time and hence got not really what I wanted.

Now, if you please, could you say if I have any chance to get to a school like Princeton or Caltech with such profile or is it gonna be a dead end? If no, could someone in Rutgers or Chicago be interested in me?

All the best,
Nick

Re: Do I have any chances to get in into a top school?

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2018 7:17 am
by squark123
I'm pretty sure top graduate schools get tons of applicants with credentials very similar to yours. Moreover, they get applicants with strong publications and so forth. I think that you should be exceptional in some way in order to get in.