Physics GRE Discussion Forums

gone!

"a professor has stated he wants me back and he has told me to put in my letter of intent that he wants me and has money for me. "



THIS sounds really funny, dude!

Any ways, enough with the humor,
If a Prof. at Berkley "wants you", then you are in! I suggest not to waste money applying to other schools. You can limit urself to 2 or 3 other schools, just in case!
good luck!
I will c u in Berkley, next yr!

I agree with RG, the main reason why UCs don't admit many international students is because they aren't given money by California or the U.S. NSF to support the student. But in this case your prof is willing to put down his own research money to see you back there.

Make sure you apply to Berkeley, and maybe a couple of schools outside the top 10 (and NOT another UC!).

He isn't an international.

If you know that you are getting into Berkeley - your list sounds fine. Your GPA is low, but your GRE is reasonable and you sound like everything else is stellar. I expect it just depends whose hands your app falls into - if they are scared off by your GPA, then you won't get in, and if that person doesn't care much about that - they will see your stellar reqs/research and you will get in.

To be honest - your top choice is the place where a professor can easily get you in. So why do you even care about your other chances?

Hi everyone, thanks for the responses.

The reason why I'm slightly worried is because I'm not sure how Berkeley admissions work. From what I've been told, it's strictly numbers based with professors outside the admissions committee getting almost little to no input (although I have heard that exceptions can be made). Does anyone know if this is true?

At any rate, I'd rather make sure at the end of the year I am going to Graduate School, no matter what.

And yes, I am a Californian.

You might be right: with the high GRE averages at cal, it might be true that they stress numbers.

I have heard from my advisor that some schools talk to professors - and if that professor says "I want this student in my lab", he will be accepted. I don't know which schools this was, but my advisor used to be a faculty member at Cal, so maybe he was speaking from experience?

That anecdote probably means nothing, but hopefully it'll make you worry less.

I know at least at Stanford, if a professor wants you in, you are in. You fill out an application as a formality, but it doesn't matter what you put on it as long as you meet the Graduate Schools minimum requirements. I personally know of a girl doing research at Stanford *after* the application deadline, a bigshot professor told her to go to the office and fill out an ap. The desk person said "sorry, the deadline is past," the student said, "but professor so-and-so told me to fill out an application." "Oh! Well here you go..."

Of course that's a private institution and Berkeley is public, but seriously, he wants you in and has money for you, your application is not perfect but pretty darn good. I wouldn't stress, apply to a few others just in case.

You might as well apply to some other UC's like UCSB, UCLA, and UCSD, you have a good chance of getting at least one of them with your stats.

the average GRE scores for these schools are not that high. As long as you have 700+ they're not going to reject you because of it.

except don't apply to UCSB or UCLA or Cornell because I hear those schools suck. They are just terrible, really...

grae, you are funny! hahahah

No wonder Stanford's average GRE is 80+ points below those of the other top 5 schools... they let so many people in the back door.

Cornell is an excellent school.

NO! Cornell is a TERRIBLE school!!! Don't apply there!