Electrical Engineer -> Working -> Want to be physicist

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mukuldh
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 1:09 am

Electrical Engineer -> Working -> Want to be physicist

Post by mukuldh » Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:27 am

Hi Everyone,

Education Qualification: Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering (Not so good university with average marks ~3.4/4)
(International Student) Indian

Work Ex: Working as a graduate trainee in Magneti Marelli (Good work ex in industry-as intern- NTPC & Power Grid)

Physics Experience: Non (Been active participant till High School)

Academic Achievement: Research work done in field of Electrical Engineering. (No Paper Published yet)

Other Achievements: College Club founder and President, Active Participant in all college level events (Won Many)

Exams Taken: GRE 305 (q-161, 144) TOEFL: 94 (Will these be good enough? or should i retake)

No PGRE given yet, I want to do MS in High Energy Physics.

Kindly advice me to effective steps to be taken.

TakeruK
Posts: 941
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:05 pm

Re: Electrical Engineer -> Working -> Want to be physicist

Post by TakeruK » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:19 am

What do you mean by "active participant"?

I think you should retake the GRE to raise your Verbal score. 144 is only the 22nd percentile, I think it would help if you were at least above 50th percentile, which is currently a score of about 151.

Your TOEFL score might be okay. For a score of 94, I think if you have each section above 20 then it would be better than if you scored really high in some sections but have really low scores in others.

You definitely need to take the PGRE and score well.

I think your main weakness in your application would be that you need to show that you will be prepared for the Physics coursework. Your main competition will be people with a bachelor's degree in Physics. If you don't have Physics courses in your EE degree, you would need to demonstrate this knowledge/background in some other way. Doing well in the PGRE could help, but if you can enroll in physics night classes or something, it could help. However, I don't know where you are working right now and whether or not you can enroll in classes without being a degree student.

mukuldh
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 1:09 am

Re: Electrical Engineer -> Working -> Want to be physicist

Post by mukuldh » Thu Jul 17, 2014 2:38 am

thanks for reply..

Active Participation means, I have several inter and intra college level competition like of robotics, quiz, presentations, etc. among them mostly have been in top 3!

About GRE, I was planning the same. But in TOEFL, in only reading section I have score below 20, i.e. 18, rest above 22.

Yes, I will be giving PGRE in October. But I cant enrol or take any physics courses as such in such a short period of time. Will search for some open courses if they would be available.

I had in my engineering degree a course of physics which included relativity, interference/diffraction, polarization, electromagnetism and superconductivity as major topics.

The research work done in my engineering degree is done on extensive study of magnetism and magnetic field interactions. Will that be somehow helpful!
Also, I don't have any recommendation that would assist for my application as such.

What should I do? I want to do MS and PhD!

TakeruK
Posts: 941
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:05 pm

Re: Electrical Engineer -> Working -> Want to be physicist

Post by TakeruK » Thu Jul 17, 2014 4:25 am

Okay, it sounds like you do have some Physics coursework but it won't be close to an actual Physics degree. However, I think if you do very well on the PGRE, it can show that you were able to self-teach yourself a lot of the fundamentals.

It also seems like your TOEFL scores will meet most minimums and generally do show basic competency in English! A higher GRE V score would definitely help support this.

So, in my opinion, I feel that the part of your application that these schools will worry about the most is whether or not you will be prepared enough in Physics to do well in their graduate courses.

You are applying this fall/winter, so you're right, there's not much else you can do except prepare for the PGRE and do as best as you can. I think applying to both MS and PhD programs would be a good idea. Since you don't have a Physics BS/BSc, I think you will have more chances at a Physics MS (which would help you get into Physics PhD programs).

Depending on how much time/effort/money you are able to put into your grad school goals, it might be a good idea to start Physics courses anyways this Fall, just in case you do not get into any schools this year. Then, you will have a whole year of courses if you plan to reapply in 2015. These courses might also help you do better in the PGRE if it turns out you need to retake it or something too.

mukuldh
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 1:09 am

Re: Electrical Engineer -> Working -> Want to be physicist

Post by mukuldh » Tue Dec 02, 2014 10:46 am

The PGRE result is out and I scored much lower than I expected. My exam went well but score is quite low comparatively.

PGRE: 620 (33%ile)

Just to be clear:
I have no good recommendation in Physics.
I have no work ex in Physics
I have no papers published.

I don't know what to do now, but I am sure about becoming a Physicist!
Course to apply in: High Energy Physics.

Should I apply in the following colleges:

U Chicago
U Kansas
U Mass Amherst
UC santa barbara
U MD Coll Park
U Michigan

If not, kindly suggest some acceptable universities to apply in with these scores only!
I can not re-take any test.

PathIntegrals92
Posts: 190
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2014 12:42 pm

Re: Electrical Engineer -> Working -> Want to be physicist

Post by PathIntegrals92 » Tue Dec 02, 2014 11:06 am

TakeruK wrote:U Chicago
U Kansas
U Mass Amherst
UC santa barbara
U MD Coll Park
U Michigan

If not, kindly suggest some acceptable universities to apply in with these scores only!
I can not re-take any test.
You should probably remove UMichigan, UCSB, Uchicago, UMD College Park. These schools are in the top 10/20 and it would very difficult with your scores/you being an international student.

Check out University of New Mexico and University of Oregon.

mukuldh
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 1:09 am

Re: Electrical Engineer -> Working -> Want to be physicist

Post by mukuldh » Thu Dec 04, 2014 2:30 am

I edited my list, kindly comment for suggestions,

- Case Western Reserve University
- Northwestern university
- University of Central Florida
- Florida International University
- Michigan State University
- U Wisconsin
- U Kansas
- Notre Dame
- U Massachusetts Amherst
- University of Oregon
- University of Minnesota twin cities

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RonaldoMcDonaldo
Posts: 35
Joined: Sat Nov 29, 2014 12:20 am

Re: Electrical Engineer -> Working -> Want to be physicist

Post by RonaldoMcDonaldo » Thu Dec 04, 2014 5:17 am

mukuldh wrote:I edited my list, kindly comment for suggestions,

- Case Western Reserve University
- Northwestern university
- University of Central Florida
- Florida International University
- Michigan State University
- U Wisconsin
- U Kansas
- Notre Dame
- U Massachusetts Amherst
- University of Oregon
- University of Minnesota twin cities
You almost certainly have no shot at Northwestern, Michigan, Wisconsin, Amherst, Oregon or Minnesota. Case Western, Notre Dame and Kansas will be tough for you.

The hard truth is that you should probably only apply to safety schools. Look at big state schools with almost no reputation in physics and schools with a very bad US News ranking. Look at places like Virginia Tech, Montana State, UT San Antonio, University of Nebraska, etc.



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