Taking the GRE in England

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mirage
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:25 pm

Taking the GRE in England

Post by mirage » Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:51 pm

It looks like there are only two subject test centres: Canterbury and Leeds - and at Canterbury it is at Warnborough U, which I've never even heard of. Has anyone had experience taking the test at either of these centres? As a London student, Leeds is rather far - but Warnborough sounds like such a strange place to take the test at. Any suggestions?

Imperate
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:01 am

Re: Taking the GRE in England

Post by Imperate » Sat Aug 02, 2008 5:19 pm

Hey mirage, good to see someone else from england taking the GRE, I was beginning to think I was the only one.....
I'm taking PGRE test in Leeds this Oct

mirage
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:25 pm

Re: Taking the GRE in England

Post by mirage » Sun Aug 03, 2008 3:05 pm

Imperate wrote:Hey mirage, good to see someone else from england taking the GRE, I was beginning to think I was the only one.....
I'm taking PGRE test in Leeds this Oct
Hello Imperate! So are you taking it in Leeds because it's closer to your uni or because you share my suspicion of the Warnborough test centre?

Imperate
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:01 am

Re: Taking the GRE in England

Post by Imperate » Sun Aug 03, 2008 3:40 pm

Yeah, fortunately Leeds is actually closer for me, but I have to admit I've never heard of Warnborough :? .......I'm sure it will be fine though!

What field of physics are you going to be studying, if you don't mind me asking? Have you heard any success stories of UK grads getting accepted into US programmes at all? I can't seem to find any reasons on the dept websites that admissions criteria are higher for an international student to be accepted, but I can't help but wondering ...
(I was originally thinking of applying for Australian Unis, but upon having a discussion via email with a few Professors over there they told me that without Australian Citizenship I would need to win an international scholarship (of which there aren't that many nationwide each year), and realistically a candidate for such a scholarship would need something like a 90% average. One professor told me most of these end up going to Indian/Chinese students who had "freakishly" high scores, hah.

mirage
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:25 pm

Re: Taking the GRE in England

Post by mirage » Sun Aug 03, 2008 5:07 pm

I actually did my undergrad in the U.S. (in England for my master's degree), so I don't know whether admissions criteria are vastly different for international students. My guess is that it's probably somewhat more difficult - but that this may be largely owing to financial reasons rather than purely academic quotas. I.e. any federal funds most likely can only be used on U.S. citizens/permanent residents (but maybe some federal funds are also available to internationals, I'm not sure), so the departments are more limited in their capacity to offer financial aid to international students (you may know this already, but U.S. departments assume that if they accept a PhD student they also carry full responsibility for financing him/her), so they may accept fewer. Possibly one way of increasing your chances is by securing PhD financial support (fellowship) for yourself from an external source (e.g. a UK organization, a Fulbright-type commission, etc.) in time to notify the universities about it. I really don't know whether this would help at all, but it's something to think about.
btw, I'm applying for particle theory. What about you?

Imperate
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:01 am

Re: Taking the GRE in England

Post by Imperate » Sun Aug 03, 2008 5:38 pm

mirage wrote:I actually did my undergrad in the U.S. (in England for my master's degree), so I don't know whether admissions criteria are vastly different for international students. My guess is that it's probably somewhat more difficult - but that this may be largely owing to financial reasons rather than purely academic quotas. I.e. any federal funds most likely can only be used on U.S. citizens/permanent residents (but maybe some federal funds are also available to internationals, I'm not sure), so the departments are more limited in their capacity to offer financial aid to international students (you may know this already, but U.S. departments assume that if they accept a PhD student they also carry full responsibility for financing him/her), so they may accept fewer. Possibly one way of increasing your chances is by securing PhD financial support (fellowship) for yourself from an external source (e.g. a UK organization, a Fulbright-type commission, etc.) in time to notify the universities about it. I really don't know whether this would help at all, but it's something to think about.
btw, I'm applying for particle theory. What about you?
I'm applying to particle theory also!...mainly schools in California

Well this is exactly what I am worried about really, in case it turns out that funding is quite limited for an international student, therefore obviously drastically boosting competition for the limited international places. I think I will email a few professors/PG coordinators soon, and see what they have to say.
I haven't looked into fullbright/other external scholarships yet, but that might be an idea actually.

mirage
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:25 pm

Re: Taking the GRE in England

Post by mirage » Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:47 am

Imperate wrote: I'm applying to particle theory also!...mainly schools in California
Yeah - CA has some great departments in HEP theory, but any particular reason why you're applying mainly there?

Imperate
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:01 am

Re: Taking the GRE in England

Post by Imperate » Mon Aug 04, 2008 12:24 pm

mirage wrote:Yeah - CA has some great departments in HEP theory, but any particular reason why you're applying mainly there?
Well like you say, good departments for HEP theory...Caltech/Stanford/Berkeley/UCSB (although I don't know if I'll be accepted to any of these!) But also for non physics related reasons aswell; would love to live in a foreign country for a few years (hence why I was originally intending to apply for Aus unis also), and as I'm limited to the english language I thought US. I've never been to California, lol, but it looks like a very nice place to live for a few years, sun/sea/beaches/mountains etc. I am also going apply to a couple in NY, seems like they also have some great depts, and again living in NY looks like it would be a lot of fun.



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