Ideas on where to apply

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adamyos
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2015 5:43 am

Ideas on where to apply

Post by adamyos » Tue Oct 27, 2015 2:17 am

Hello! I am an international applicant for grad school this year and would like your input on where all I could apply and have a fair chance of getting in.
I am interested in theoretical astrophysics, high energy physics, black hole physics, gravitational waves sources astrophysics and numerical relativity.

Following is my profile:

EDUCATION
2010 – 2015: Dual Degree – M.Sc. (Hons.) Physics and B.E. (Hons.) Chemical Engineering
GPA: 7.85/10 (aggregate); 8.61/10 (Physics)
GRE: 330/340 (Verbal: 162/170, Quantitative: 168/170, Analytical Writing: 4.0/6.0)
Physics GRE: 990/990 Percentile: 94 <UPDATED THIS WITH 10/15 SCORE. EARLIER WAS 780/990 (67%)>
TOEFL: 117/120 (Reading: 30/30, Listening: 30/30, Speaking: 28/30, Writing: 29/30)

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Jul 2015 – Present:
Project on Event Horizon Formation around a Singularity: Studied the theory of relativistic stellar collapse (including possible end states), conditions for black hole formation, Kruskal-Szekeres coordinates (J. Hartle notes), null hypersurfaces and null-shell formalism (Eric Poisson). Currently, I am working to compute conditions for possible null paths going out from the singularity for spherically symmetric time-like collapsing dust.

29 Jun 2015 – 10 Jul 2015:
Summer School on GW Astronomy: 2-week summer school at International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), Bangalore, India. Studied:
• GW theory: Calculation of GW flux emitted, post-Newtonian effects such as the perihelion precession of Mercury and other approaches to formulation,
• Experimental aspects of detection: Interaction of GWs with detectors, using laser interferometry, various kinds of noise, feedback control systems and description of LIGO interferometer,
• Astrophysics of GW sources: Astrophysics of neutron stars/black holes and their binary formation and evolution, estimation of binary coalescence rates,
• GW data analysis: Stochastic processes, power spectrum, matched filtering, nested sampling.

Jan 2015 – May 2015:
Thesis on Gravitational Waves in Einstein’s Gravity: Done a semester long study in theory of GWs. Covering basic GTR and GWs. Chapters of Gravitational Waves: Vol. 1 by M. Maggiore, covering topics like TT gauge, detector frame metric, quadrupole and octupole expansions about flat background, expansions in spherical harmonics and symmetric-trace-free (STF) tensors.

Aug 2014 – Dec 2014:
Thesis on Classical Field Theory: Semester long study of the Lagrangian formulation of Classical Field Theory. Covered topics like general derivation of Noether’s theorem and its applications, symmetrized energy-momentum tensor, Lagrangians of perfect fluid dynamics, elastic solids, Maxwell’s EMT with matter interaction.

Jan 2013 – May 2013:
Computer Oriented Project: Project in “Simulating Dynamics of Charged Particle in EM Waves”. Did programming in C++ for the simulations. Understood the basics of numerical simulations and plotting graphs using GNU Plot.

Jan 2013 – Mar 2013:
Paper Presentation: Wrote and presented a review paper on “Working Principles of Laser Plasma Accelerators”. Learned about a new and potentially revolutionary technology that could make powerful and smaller accelerators viable, as alternatives to the traditional linear particle accelerators.

May 2012 – Jul 2012:
Summer Internship, Bhushan Steel Plant: Worked in the chemical laboratory of the Steel Making Shop. Analysed steel samples for appropriate ratio of elements from production-line steel, using titration analysis and other techniques.

OTHER SKILLS/ACTIVITIES
• Well versed with C, C++ (done two semester-long courses in them), MATLAB and Python.
• Taught mathematics to class 10th students twice a week as a part time teacher for two semesters. The language used was English.
• Taught in the first year undergraduates’ physics remedial classes for a semester. The topics included chapters from Introduction to Mechanics, by Kleppner and Kolenkow, and also chapters from Vibrations and Waves, by A.P. French.
Last edited by adamyos on Mon Nov 23, 2015 5:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

Catria
Posts: 354
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2012 4:14 pm

Re: Ideas on where to apply

Post by Catria » Tue Oct 27, 2015 8:55 am

LSU as an anchoring point... and build your way up from there.

adamyos
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2015 5:43 am

Re: Ideas on where to apply

Post by adamyos » Wed Oct 28, 2015 3:12 am

Thanks for your response.

So, you mean to say that I should keep LSU as a bottom Safety school and select other schools which are better than LSU?

thehairupthere
Posts: 49
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2015 1:44 pm

Re: Ideas on where to apply

Post by thehairupthere » Sun Nov 22, 2015 6:49 pm

Not sure if this is too late, but look at LIGO member institutions here https://my.ligo.org/census.php
Everyone working on numerical relativity, probably in the world, will be affiliated with one of those universities.

adamyos
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2015 5:43 am

Re: Ideas on where to apply

Post by adamyos » Sun Nov 22, 2015 11:39 pm

Thank you so much!
It wasn't too late! I am still undecided on a few universities!



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