Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Might as well get this thread started. Can someone sticky this?

Just decided to go to UCSC astronomy & astrophysics. I'm really excited!

Have decided to join Penn State in particle astrophysics group and I'm very excited

I'm stuck between Nuclear Physics at Yale and UIUC.

Yale has more money, a new locale (for me), more hands-on potential, and of course -- it has the name.

UIUC has a much more casual, more beautiful locale (better than New Haven), it's closer to home for me (been far away for the past 5 years), it has research more aimed towards my interests, the faculty seem much warmer, and it's got Blue Waters petascale supercomputer (I lean computational physics).

I dunno, to me, UIUC just doesn't have that *umph* with the name. Like it's a cop-out or something. Then again, I'm an IL high school graduate, and choosing UIUC for undergrad kind of was a cop-out back when.

Thoughts?

bryanwitha_y wrote:I'm stuck between Nuclear Physics at Yale and UIUC.

Yale has more money, a new locale (for me), more hands-on potential, and of course -- it has the name.

UIUC has a much more casual, more beautiful locale (better than New Haven), it's closer to home for me (been far away for the past 5 years), it has research more aimed towards my interests, the faculty seem much warmer, and it's got Blue Waters petascale supercomputer (I lean computational physics).

I dunno, to me, UIUC just doesn't have that *umph* with the name. Like it's a cop-out or something. Then again, I'm an IL high school graduate, and choosing UIUC for undergrad kind of was a cop-out back when.

Thoughts?

Depends on what physics you want to do, but if it's CM anything, UIUC kicks Yale's ass so hard it isn't even funny. Yale isn't that great in physics.

UIUC over here.

grae313 wrote:Depends on what physics you want to do, but if it's CM anything, UIUC kicks Yale's ass so hard it isn't even funny. Yale isn't that great in physics.

Alas, I wish CM interested me, however I'm more into HEP's ugly niece - Medium Energy Physics. In that category, Yale is a bit higher ranked than UIUC (#5 and #8 respectively in US News rankings).

karan wrote:Have decided to join Penn State in particle astrophysics group and I'm very excited

good choice, I am not going to join that group

My choice - UMD Condensed Matter

UNC-Chapel Hill Theory

spershog wrote:My choice - UMD Condensed Matter

Mine is UMD AMO. Did I see you at the open house btw?

I decided on Boston University for CME!

Astronomy at University of Washington!!

University of New Hampshire! I just got back from visiting and it was amazing!!!

we have a winner.... University of Wisconsin Madison here I come

Helio wrote:we have a winner.... University of Wisconsin Madison here I come

So how did you decide in the end?

elzoido238 wrote:

Helio wrote:we have a winner.... University of Wisconsin Madison here I come

So how did you decide in the end?

research mostly, the money was an issue, but as long as I can live of it and post doc chances are better then why worry about 50k in 5 years

the faculty actually also were interested in me as student... got 2 emails/phone calls + info that another person is really interested in working with me

And UWisc-Madison it is! (IceCube & stuff)

Helio

Helio wrote:
research mostly, the money was an issue, but as long as I can live of it and post doc chances are better then why worry about 50k in 5 years

the faculty actually also were interested in me as student... got 2 emails/phone calls + info that another person is really interested in working with me

congrats on your decision Helio. Guess we're not going to the same school in the end.
but why do you say 50k in 5 yrs? Isn't UT 22K is per year? So that would amount to about 18K per academic year (9 months) ?

Ren wrote:Helio

Helio wrote:
research mostly, the money was an issue, but as long as I can live of it and post doc chances are better then why worry about 50k in 5 years

the faculty actually also were interested in me as student... got 2 emails/phone calls + info that another person is really interested in working with me

congrats on your decision Helio. Guess we're not going to the same school in the end.
but why do you say 50k in 5 yrs? Isn't UT 22K is per year? So that would amount to about 18K per academic year (9 months) ?

22k per 9 months and then summer which is another 6k, so in the roughly 10k difference

I thought they said 22K per year in the letter. And the stipend for last year is 17,700 per academic year according to this.

Ren wrote:I thought they said 22K per year in the letter. And the stipend for last year is 17,700 per academic year according to this.

I dunno it says " The Astronomy Department pays graduate students from $22,000 to 28,000 to first year" here http://www.as.utexas.edu/astronomy/educ ... onomy.html

The email says 22k per 12 months, but I am guessing that is only if you TA during the 9-month academic year because they don't know what you will do in the summer. My host said i would get paid somewhere around 1600 a month that with taxes etc. comes out 22, but I am was going by their estimate on that website.

Helio wrote:

elzoido238 wrote:

Helio wrote:we have a winner.... University of Wisconsin Madison here I come

So how did you decide in the end?

research mostly, the money was an issue, but as long as I can live of it and post doc chances are better then why worry about 50k in 5 years

the faculty actually also were interested in me as student... got 2 emails/phone calls + info that another person is really interested in working with me

Glad to hear you didn't use the coin!

So, what was everyone's reasoning behind their final decision? I'm sure this kind of information is most valuable to current and future undecided's.

I picked Boston University. Really good experimental HEP group with a good mix of young professors who care about their students, and more senior professors who can write sweet letters. Also have good theorists, who I can work closely with on LHC. Also offered a fellowship for the first year. Also Boston is a safe, young, vibrant city.

dsperka wrote:I picked Boston University. Really good experimental HEP group with a good mix of young professors who care about their students, and more senior professors who can write sweet letters. Also have good theorists, who I can work closely with on LHC. Also offered a fellowship for the first year. Also Boston is a safe, young, vibrant city.

I guess I'll be seeing you there dsperka!

I'm really excited about living in Boston as well. It's an amazing city.

G01 wrote:

dsperka wrote:I picked Boston University. Really good experimental HEP group with a good mix of young professors who care about their students, and more senior professors who can write sweet letters. Also have good theorists, who I can work closely with on LHC. Also offered a fellowship for the first year. Also Boston is a safe, young, vibrant city.

I guess I'll be seeing you there dsperka!

I'm really excited about living in Boston as well. It's an amazing city.

Yes, and we will take it back from the Harvard and MIT kids.

You do realize that both MIT and Harvard are not in Boston, they are in Cambridge.

But I agree, I am sad that I will be leaving Boston.

I am going to University of Michigan! (I notified UMass all of you crazy people so don't worry). To the credit of UMass I had an AWESOME visiting weekend, it just came down to research interest. Wow, I never thought I'd actually make a decision. I just thought I'd worry about it all weekend.

dustdevil wrote:I am going to University of Michigan!

And I'll be leaving the University of Michigan!!!! Good riddance Ann Arbor!!!

Yeah I'm terrified. Houston, TX -> Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I may have the biggest system shock ever.

It's official -- UIUC is the school for me.

I'm sure this decision won't haunt me for the rest of my life

bryanwitha_y wrote:I'm sure this decision won't haunt me for the rest of my life

Don't worry. We'll make sure it does...

I've decided to go to MIT. Anybody else on here headed there next year?

Going to Rice...

guess i ll be going to Oxford, since I have no other choice

babazula wrote:guess i ll be going to Oxford, since I have no other choice

You make it sound as if it was a terrible school

Argonic wrote:

babazula wrote:guess i ll be going to Oxford, since I have no other choice

You make it sound as if it was a terrible school

It's not a terrible school of course, but i wanted to do my PhD in the US since I believe I spent too much time in England

astrofan wrote:You do realize that both MIT and Harvard are not in Boston, they are in Cambridge.

But I agree, I am sad that I will be leaving Boston.

It is relevant that

Distance from MIT to Harvard 1.5 Miles
MIT to Boston University 1.0 Mile
Boston University to Harvard (1+1.5^2)^0,5

woooooo Michigan!

Admissions gauntlet finished.

Texas A&M
Here I come

Phew

UCSC physics -- good surf and outdoor stuff!

I ended up choosing U of Oregon over Penn State and U of Virginia. Cant wait to start!

Berkeley!

anerac wrote:UCSC physics -- good surf and outdoor stuff!

Banana slugs 4 life.

sterculus wrote:I've decided to go to MIT. Anybody else on here headed there next year?

Hi future classmate! There was a lot people in the open house that wanted to come to MIT, but I don't know how many from this forum. Btw, I couldn't find you there
C u in a couple of months

Going to Ohio State. Go Buckeyes!

robertson wrote:Hi future classmate! There was a lot people in the open house that wanted to come to MIT, but I don't know how many from this forum. Btw, I couldn't find you there
C u in a couple of months

Yeah, the open house was pretty big. See you in the fall!

Brown!
PS: did you guys receive any further information after submitting the reply card?

UCSB here. Maybe I'll actually have time to get a tan in-between TAing and classes!

Here's some info on the decisions of others that may interest people heading to Wisc.

Word is that, as of last week, Wisc had 41 commitments. No word on the final count. That is nuts. My (admittedly undersized) class was 23. I sense that many fewer engineers will have TA jobs in physics next year....