Undergrad Institution: St Andrews University (Scotland!) Fairly good for physics
Major(s): Theoretical Physics and Mathematics
Minor(s):
GPA in Major: Doing some conversions it seems to be 3.91
Overall GPA: 1st class (3.87)
Length of Degree: 4 years, but it's a Masters i'll have a the end.
Position in Class: Not the top but not too far off hopefully.
Type of Student: International white male
GRE Scores (revised):
Q: 168 (97%)
V: 166 (96%)
W: 4.5 (73%)
P: 800 (74%) Very disappointed with this
Research Experience: One REU at Montana State University working on solar physics, one summer in St Andrews working on condensed matter theory. Both times my worked seemed to be more than satisfactory. No publications though, wasn't really feasible with what I was doing in the time frame (I tell myself).
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Just deans list 2 out of 3 years
Pertinent Activities or Jobs: I have no idea what sps, ta etc mean so i'll assume not.
Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: Nothing physics related really.
Special Bonus Points: The professor I worked with at MSU did has PhD at one of the places i'm applying. Will have taken 6 Graduate level courses and a masters project if that helps?
Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I have taken more credits than I needed to and at a higher level.
Applying to Where: Mostly for CMT apart from Montana State
Stanford -
RejectionCornell -
Rejection 02/12University of Washington -
RejectionUniversirty of Michigan -
Rejection 02/12University of Colorado Boulder -
RejectionPrinceton -
RejectionMontana State University (for solar) -
Acceptance Declined
Harvard -
RejectionBerkeley -
RejectionMIT -
RejectionUniversity of Wisconsin Madison -
Acceptance 01/24 University of Chicago -
RejectionGotta say, I'm fairly pessimistic after receiving my Physics GRE score, can definitely see myself getting rejected by pretty much everywhere.
Edit - So as expected rejected from almost everywhere. Fairly disappointed, but my PGRE really is just too low. I would advise anyone if possible to try and sit it twice, however confident you are. I thought i'd get 950+ (aiming for 990) and I have no idea how I didn't given how confident I was after the test but hey it happened.