Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Hi, I've just submitted a conference paper but it will only be available in print after about six months. However after six months most of the selection process has been completed so I won't make it in time for the selection committee to see that "I have published sth". The same is true for my other research projects. Some papers will be submitted, but I don't know when they'll become public.

So, would this hurt my graduate school application if I have submitted a few papers but they're not yet available in print?

Thanks

Nah, it should be fine. They won't want to actually look at your publications, so as long as they're accepted, listing them as "in print" is probably just as good as having them already out.

What grae said.

to be safe, put a copy in the admissions folder (it's written, right)? Also, if it's gone through at least some peer review (and doesn't violate conference rules), post it on the arxiv.

I don't think it would be an issue if it's published later instead of now etc, but I would print it out and send a copy to the schools you're applying to. They're interested in your potential as a researcher, so anyone interested in you will want to read it over and see what you've been doing and that's rather hard to do for an as-yet unpublished paper.

Andromeda wrote:I don't think it would be an issue if it's published later instead of now etc, but I would print it out and send a copy to the schools you're applying to. They're interested in your potential as a researcher, so anyone interested in you will want to read it over and see what you've been doing and that's rather hard to do for an as-yet unpublished paper.

I was under the impression that this is something that is not generally advised. I'm pretty sure I've read on at least one admissions page that they don't want you to do this and they don't have time to read extraneous application material. They don't even want links to your papers. They figure that anything worth saying about your research is in your SoP. If you talk about it in your SoP, the admissions committee still gets an idea of what you've been up to, but they don't have to bother with reading extra stuff. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that an admissions committee would only take time to read your paper if they were already interested in accepting you anyway based on the rest of your application.

Make sure that if you want to send your paper with your applications that it is something that the department likes and will take into consideration, some departments may like it while others may just get annoyed.

Minovsky wrote:

Andromeda wrote:I don't think it would be an issue if it's published later instead of now etc, but I would print it out and send a copy to the schools you're applying to. They're interested in your potential as a researcher, so anyone interested in you will want to read it over and see what you've been doing and that's rather hard to do for an as-yet unpublished paper.

I was under the impression that this is something that is not generally advised. I'm pretty sure I've read on at least one admissions page that they don't want you to do this and they don't have time to read extraneous application material. They don't even want links to your papers. They figure that anything worth saying about your research is in your SoP. If you talk about it in your SoP, the admissions committee still gets an idea of what you've been up to, but they don't have to bother with reading extra stuff. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that an admissions committee would only take time to read your paper if they were already interested in accepting you anyway based on the rest of your application.

Make sure that if you want to send your paper with your applications that it is something that the department likes and will take into consideration, some departments may like it while others may just get annoyed.

I wouldn't send a long paper---we have a lot of stuff to read and it clutters things up. In fact, many applications are mostly electronic, and a secretary might have to scan it (as they do for transcripts)--a few years ago, we looked at paper copies of everything, but that is changing fast.

One suggestion would be to send a single page (which could be hardcopy or electronic) with an abstract and (at the bottom) a link to the full article. That won't clutter things up much, and still allow almost instant access.

implicit in admissionprof's statement is every grad applicant should have a web presence (site, blog, something) dedicated to selling yourself to grad school. People do check these things, so it's worth having. Some applications even leave space for a website, and I know at least a few professors checked mine (as they mentioned things on it when I visited).

bfollinprm wrote:implicit in admissionprof's statement is every grad applicant should have a web presence (site, blog, something) dedicated to selling yourself to grad school. People do check these things, so it's worth having. Some applications even leave space for a website, and I know at least a few professors checked mine (as they mentioned things on it when I visited).

Well one department I looked at did explicitly state that they don't look at any extra material such as papers and personal websites, but that was only one department and I don't even remember which one it was (it may not have even been a physics dept. since I'm looking up engineering and math depts. as well). Its nice to know that it is possible in some cases to use such things to give a little boost to your application.

What's bad form is putting something like "see website for more information" or "as you can see in my paper" in the SoP, CV, etc. Don't assume the admissions committee will look at anything other than the things they explicitly ask for. Otherwise, the extra stuff is seen as a way to circumvent page requirements, not as optional additional info in case of questions. So be careful about that--make sure your application is self-contained, and any information outside of the required documents just supports the statements you already made in the application (by providing a link for a paper to prove it exists, for instance).

Even those that say they wont look at anything: think about how these meetings must go. A bunch of people sitting in a room, going over an application. Someone mentions you have a paper, and another member of the committee voices his/her concern about the quality of the work in the paper. If you provided a link to the paper, don't you think your advocates on the committee are going to try to use that link to assuage the concerns of the other members?

admissionprof wrote:

Minovsky wrote:

Andromeda wrote:I don't think it would be an issue if it's published later instead of now etc, but I would print it out and send a copy to the schools you're applying to. They're interested in your potential as a researcher, so anyone interested in you will want to read it over and see what you've been doing and that's rather hard to do for an as-yet unpublished paper.

I was under the impression that this is something that is not generally advised. I'm pretty sure I've read on at least one admissions page that they don't want you to do this and they don't have time to read extraneous application material. They don't even want links to your papers. They figure that anything worth saying about your research is in your SoP. If you talk about it in your SoP, the admissions committee still gets an idea of what you've been up to, but they don't have to bother with reading extra stuff. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that an admissions committee would only take time to read your paper if they were already interested in accepting you anyway based on the rest of your application.

Make sure that if you want to send your paper with your applications that it is something that the department likes and will take into consideration, some departments may like it while others may just get annoyed.

I wouldn't send a long paper---we have a lot of stuff to read and it clutters things up. In fact, many applications are mostly electronic, and a secretary might have to scan it (as they do for transcripts)--a few years ago, we looked at paper copies of everything, but that is changing fast.

One suggestion would be to send a single page (which could be hardcopy or electronic) with an abstract and (at the bottom) a link to the full article. That won't clutter things up much, and still allow almost instant access.

Pretty much this- I was advised by my professors to include a summary/abstract when I applied on the grounds that if they don't want to look at it they won't, but if you're on the border it might make the difference. There might be one or two schools that are exceptions but in general I don't think that's the rule.

That said, I wouldn't do something like send along your thesis because yes, that would be annoying and a touch presumptuous.

Thanks for all your replies.

So I shall make a homepage and put my manuscripts there.

What about papers that are in preparation? Do you think drafts of manuscripts would look unimportant and do not stand out as much as students who've already got sth published?

I'm a little puzzled though. It seems that a lot of our forum members have got some publications before they apply for graduate school. What I know is it takes six months to a year for a paper to be reviewed and published. Assuming someone has finished some great research by end of his Junior summer (which should be the case for most people?), he still needs the whole Senior Fall semester to finalize the paper because he has other classes to take.

So where comes those publications as listed in the profiles of our forum members? I'm puzzled.... they have a few, not just one publication. My own experience tells me that it takes a long time to get some serious results out. I have submitted a conference paper and a journal paper is in preparation.