Returning to Physics

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prajor
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:58 pm

Returning to Physics

Post by prajor » Thu Sep 17, 2009 8:31 pm

Folks, After a long time I am planning to get back to Physics - Was out of touch for about 11 years, during which I was in IT field. I have some questions that might see very basic (pl. bear with me) regarding GRE

1. Do I need to take the General GRE test before Physics ?

2. For registration itself IETS asks for schools to which the scores need to be sent. How can I select the schools - Is there a guideline to select best and most probable schools ?

3. Would admission into these schools (typically) require to showcase anything to show your interest in Physics (like papers, blogs etc ? ). What is it that these schools look for while admitting the students other than GRE score ?

4. Planning to give the Nov test, have about 1 month, 10 days - dedicated, hopefully no distractions - would this be sufficient to get decent score ? Do you recommend a plan or has someone posted anything that you know of.

Thanks much for your help in advance !

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grae313
Posts: 2296
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 8:46 pm

Re: Returning to Physics

Post by grae313 » Thu Sep 17, 2009 11:57 pm

Look around this forum a bit. There is a lot of information here, and you can find the answers to most of your questions easily.

If you are wondering what it takes to get into a physics graduate program, first look at the websites of a few programs and read what they ask of their applicants, then take a look at the stickied profile threads in the graduate student forums to see what kind of applicants got into which schools.

1. Take them in whatever order you wish.

2. The schools you send your scores to are the schools you want to apply to. Only you can choose these. Do a lot of research and reading, look at a lot of school websites and read about research groups at each school and start making a list of where you think you want to apply. You can change your mind later.

3. See above.

4. Depends. Take one of the practice tests. They are on this website.

prajor
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:58 pm

Re: Returning to Physics

Post by prajor » Tue Sep 22, 2009 12:47 pm

Thanks !

physics_auth
Posts: 163
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2009 7:24 pm

Re: Returning to Physics

Post by physics_auth » Tue Sep 22, 2009 1:55 pm

prajor wrote:Thanks !
If you think to return to a branch of Theoretical physics, I would advise you think it more carefully. Things are not as "exotic" as they seem ... . Each decade that passes the complexity of physical problems increases "exponentially"... .



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