Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Hey guys,

I'm getting tired of wading through all of the physics grad school posts for news on Astronomy/Astrophysics schools. I think it's high time we started our own thread (not that people should stop posting on those threads, I'd just like to get our own little discussion going here).

I've heard so far from Boulder, Arizona and Hawaii and I know that sadpanda has heard from UW Madison. Anyone else?

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This is a very good idea!

I heard back from the University of Washington (Seattle) almost 3 weeks ago (accepted). I have heard nothing from anyone else yet.

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Heard from UHawaii and UWashington, its amazing how much the offers differ in the amount of money between the two schools

I thought Hawaii's was pretty good, so I'm assuming Washington was the bad one.

jzahid, could you give us the delta-$ ??

also, you, KB, and physicsstudent should post your profiles in the profile thread (or at least as much as you are comfortable with and consider updating it after you've decided where to attend)

yeah KB, that is the case. Thanks for starting this thread btw. Hawaii offered somewhere around 30K a year, which is what the i guess all their students get. UW offered me something like 1450 a month, I don't know if this is the standard offer or not.

omg... i wanna go to Hawaii

I've heard from Penn State, Princeton, and Cornell (today), all for astronomy/astrophysics.

Question: Which schools are people still waiting to hear back from?

Also, anyone looking at Planetary Science programs?

I heard back from Princeton astro on 2/1. Harvard is the only other astro place I applied to (the other schools were all for physics), and I haven't heard back from them yet.

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Seattle Vs. Honolulu

According to salary.com, the cost of living is over $6,000/year more, but the increase in stipend covers that and then some. Interesting site--I'll be using that to compare financial offers when (fingers crossed) I have more than one

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Thanks KB to start this thread. Congrat you guys got the offers. I also apply for some astro programs. But the only news I've received so far was the rej from UT-Austin which depresses me a lot.

Yahoo Neighborhoods seems to have more locations than Salary.com, and you can just type in a city name or zip code instead of looking in a drop down menu:
http://realestate.yahoo.com/neighborhoods

Just out of curiosity, is there a webpage with astronomy rankings? I think while I was searching for graduate schools back in my day, I never stumbled upon one. It may be helpful for future folks on the forum.

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shouravv, I heard from Hawaii on Tues night (by phone).

Great advice on places to check for living expenses guys. I've been too busy obsessively checking my e-mail to think about practical concerns like that.

DwightSchrute: I'm still waiting on Madison, Chicago, Berkeley and Harvard. Anyone heard from any of those other than Madison?

Hi DwightSchrute I have applied to the LPL (Univ of Arizona), still waiting to hear back from them (got several fingers, and toes crossed . ).

For anyone who heard from Johns Hopkins, was it email or snail? This wait is killing me.

KB and other astronomy people ought to post your stats in the acceptance/profile thread.

These are the most "straight forward" graduate school rankings that I've seen online. It is based on the NRC rankings from 1995; however, the actual document was created by folks at Berkeley. Take it for what its worth.

http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/publicatio ... s_1995.pdf

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Also I do not know if its really of any use to know the top 10-15 programs in a field. These are typically very familiar names and hard to get into. Personally I choose research over ranking any day. There's no point in applying to a top 10 program if they dont do the research your interested in pursuing.

In 1995 the dot com era was coming into full swing and AOL was the hottest stock around. Harvard, on the other hand, has been an icon of the educational system since before our parents were born. Point being, collegiate reputations are relatively stable and not nearly as volatile as news found in the Wall Street Journal. I'd place a bet that all 10 schools mentioned in the link posted still have highly reputable astronomy programs, even thought the idea of ranking graduate programs in a strict hierarchy is a bit absurd and also noting that there might have been slight movements up or down the charts for a few institutions. To many, knowledge of the top 10 schools isn't very useful because of their overly high standards of admission; However, to those who have received, or will receive, admission offers to schools listed in the top 10 (Princeton, UT Austin, etc.), seeing their institution listed may provide a bit of satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.

The school you go to means more if you go into business than anything else. There connections matter and you'll get them through your rich, snooty peers.

Just wondering, if a school is rejecting you, do they usually notify you or just don't respond to you at all?

thanks

After everything is said and done you should get a letter formally rejecting you. It is, after all, the least they can do. If you don't get anything it probably means you're waitlisted.

true, but if you look at faculty profiles and note where the professors received their Ph.D.'s at nearly any reputable school (say, top 100), you might notice a bit of redundancy. And that redundancy also seems to be a bit correlated with school rankings. Rankings are hardly a definitive source of information, but they're also not just pulled out of a hat.

After everything is said and done you should get a letter formally rejecting you. It is, after all, the least they can do. If you don't get anything it probably means you're waitlisted.

I guess that makes me feel better...

Though, I think the school I am interested in is just lazy in sending out their rejection letters.

It's still too early to tell.

I was accepted to Ohio State astronomy in late January, and got an offer from the University of Arizona last week

Congratulations to everyone on their acceptances and strength to those still waiting! phys007, your list is impressive, I'm waiting to hear from Cornell, too, and would be rather interested in your stats

To be honest, my stats aren't all that impressive, which is why I've been hesitant to post them here (that and I'm a wee bit paranoid). This is just a guess, but I think my strongest portion was my statement of purpose and possibly recommendation letters, which doesn't really come across in a list of GPA and GRE scores. I tried to emphasize that my past research is similar to what other schools are doing, and basically went for a holistic 'fit' rather than a summary of my accomplishments.

I read somewhere (on the internet, so it has to be true) that since women tend to score lower on standardized tests, grad schools looked at overall fit more for them. I feel like that's probably true in my case- the old advice that a SOP can only hurt you if it's terrible but won't help your chances might not be entirely accurate.

i think the SOP is one of the most important things in our field. unless you have perfect grades and gre scores, in which case you'll probably get in most places, the SOP is the only way to highlight your best qualities and this taken in conjunction with your letters of rec which all ties in with your research experience seem to me to be the most important things. this is my second year applying. i've had more success this year and i attribute that to my SOP, which is the only thing that has really changed from last year.

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I have just got a call from a Harvard faculty (astronomy). I am in!
He spoke to me about the program, the visiting weekend, etc....

All the accepted and waitlisted students should be contacted by phone, or email if it is not possible by phone sometime soon.

Best wishes to you all.

ps

Did you post your stats, physicsstudent? Other people may be interested in seeing them.

@tnoviell

It is not that I do not want to share my stats, but I do have objections to posting personal information on the net. I did in a different forum (non-scientific), and I was identified with just little info and the people took it a bit too far!

What I believe is important to other people is that they know Harvard is already notifying people. They should assess their chances based on that. I do believe that admission to graduate school is a personal process that should be approached stratigically, and that one CANNOT asses their chances based on what others did.

I have a friend who got accepted to Harvard a few years ago. Only one A in an upper physics class: the rest just A- and mostly B+s, Bs, and B-s. His GRE physics was dismall: lower 25 percentile. BUT he was an OUTSTANDING researcher. If he put his stats here everybody will think he is crazy by applying.

Good luck everybody!

physicsstudent, it's fine. People here just like seeing them for other purposes, and people from next year may want to make a sort of comparison, as it can be useful for some folks. I'm already in grad school myself so it's not for my own sake, but mainly for the future folk of the forum. But, it's entirely your choice regardless.

@tnoviell

i think i read in one of the posts that you are at Johns Hopkins, have they completed their first wave of acceptances. i dont know if they keep you guys in the loop or not, but I was kinda curious cos none of the ppl who've applied to the astro portion of the dept seem to have heard anything back from the dept yet.

PH - I am in Biophysics, which is its own department. I know nothing of the goings-on in the physics department.

ahhh damn thats too bad, back to refreshing the inbox then.

@physicsstudent

congrats! Does that mean your spot at Washington is now open?

I have a friend who applied for astro at Hopkins and he was accepted about 1-2 weeks ago.

@littlemonster

I am going to visit the two places and then decide which is best. I have not decided yet, BUT I will make sure to let UW know as soon as I do decide not to go there. I will be thrilled to know that the spot will go to you or someone else in the list.

Are you on the waiting list? Did they inform you of that?

Best wishes to you!

ps

@ ps

yep, I got an email a few weeks after the acceptances/rejections went out saying I was at the top of their waitlist, so I've had my fingers crossed that one of the luckier people would open up a spot for me. But you're absolutely correct in visiting both and picking the better fit. I'm really happy for you, you must be having one hell of a day today!

@littlemonster

I still cannot believe I got accepted I am really worried that someone will wake me up from this dream. I did not expect to be accepted to both of my top choices this early!

I WILL keep you in mind. I will let them know my decision ASAP, but when they let you in just remeber me and smile