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Ideas on where to apply

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 2:17 am
by adamyos
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.

Re: Ideas on where to apply

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 8:55 am
by Catria
LSU as an anchoring point... and build your way up from there.

Re: Ideas on where to apply

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 3:12 am
by adamyos
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?

Re: Ideas on where to apply

Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 6:49 pm
by thehairupthere
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.

Re: Ideas on where to apply

Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 11:39 pm
by adamyos
Thank you so much!
It wasn't too late! I am still undecided on a few universities!