A bit of encouragement

  • This has become our largest and most active forum because the physics GRE is just one aspect of getting accepted into a graduate physics program.
  • There are applications, personal statements, letters of recommendation, visiting schools, anxiety of waiting for acceptances, deciding between schools, finding out where others are going, etc.

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liljoey
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Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 2:16 am

A bit of encouragement

Post by liljoey » Fri Jan 30, 2009 4:56 pm

To anyone who may be worried about their applications:

I've been accepted to UW Madison and Florida State for high energy theory, and my gpa is only a 3.1 and my PGRE was only 620. There's hope!

Don't let this silly board with all it's incessant analysis of what good scores are, how to write a good essay, and all the other mind-boggling, confidence-crushing statistics get you down. You'll be fine! :)

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PhysicsPdx
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2008 6:59 pm

Re: A bit of encouragement

Post by PhysicsPdx » Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:51 pm

Thank you for the encouragement!

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Helio
Posts: 809
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:11 pm

Re: A bit of encouragement

Post by Helio » Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:14 pm

Congrats to you.... against all odds it seems

bosem
Posts: 52
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 12:07 am

Re: A bit of encouragement

Post by bosem » Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:37 pm

@liljoey
Thank you... I am just praying that, I get in somewhere. Thanks for giving me some hope!

cato88
Posts: 420
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:46 am

Re: A bit of encouragement

Post by cato88 » Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:44 pm

Double dare you to post to physicsforum

pqortic
Posts: 398
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2008 9:24 am

Re: A bit of encouragement

Post by pqortic » Sat Jan 31, 2009 6:35 am

I hope it happens to me either. if so I will encourage you better than ever.

tokamak
Posts: 25
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2007 4:40 pm

Re: A bit of encouragement

Post by tokamak » Sat Jan 31, 2009 7:23 am

@liljoey

you don't have a couple of first author physical rev. letter publications, do you??.....

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quizivex
Posts: 1031
Joined: Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:13 am

Re: A bit of encouragement

Post by quizivex » Sat Jan 31, 2009 3:58 pm

It was nice of liljoey to give some encouragement, but I think this post may answer your question.
liljoey wrote:I'm really passionate about pursuing a Ph.D. in particle physics/cosmology phenomenology. I come from an Ivy league school, have some good research experience (including a particle physics pheno internship this summer), I think my recommendations will be pretty good, I've taken a very rigorous set of courses, and I've taken/am taking some classes in particle physics (texts: Griffiths Particle book, Georgi's Lie Algebras). I'm also a girl.

Here's the problem: I have pretty bad problems with text anxiety (and anxiety in general), which have really hurt my GPA and made me bomb my Phys GRE (GPA 3.1, PGRE only 620 - eek!). I've never talked to anyone about my anxiety issues, though, preferring to work through them myself, so I don't think I can discuss these as an extenuating circumstance on my application without seeming whiny and like I'm making excuses. (Am I wrong here? Is there a way to do it so that it won't hurt my application?)



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