2013 Open House Information

  • 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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quantum_fan
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2013 Open House Information

Post by quantum_fan » Sat Feb 02, 2013 11:03 pm

As in previous years (2012, 2011) it seems like a good idea to start compiling known information on open houses. In particular, this might be helpful in deciding whether or not to commit to attending an open house while still waiting to hear back from other schools. Add info as you get it!

University of Washington (physics) - March 8/9
University of Wisconsin (physics) - February 28 - March 3 and March 14 - 17
Last edited by quantum_fan on Sun Feb 03, 2013 1:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Skullgrid
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Skullgrid » Sun Feb 03, 2013 12:35 am

I would also add which department at each school, because not everyone here is going to a physics department.

Cornell (Physics) - March 8/9

physics_girl
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by physics_girl » Sun Feb 03, 2013 1:12 am

Michigan State - Feb 21-23 or March 14-16

quantum_fan
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by quantum_fan » Sun Feb 03, 2013 1:13 am

Skullgrid wrote:I would also add which department at each school, because not everyone here is going to a physics department.
Good call.

mattlight
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by mattlight » Sun Feb 03, 2013 1:29 pm

Purdue Physics - March 1&2

Scotthew
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Scotthew » Sun Feb 03, 2013 7:51 pm

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Last edited by Scotthew on Sun Apr 02, 2017 11:29 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Tom Joad
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Tom Joad » Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:31 pm

Berkeley's (physics) open house is apparently April 10-11, but I pulled that off their website...no mention of it from them yet, but maybe it will come with the funding information. Anyway, that seems incredibly late to me, seeing as how we have to decide by April 15 where we want to go.

AprilMay4
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by AprilMay4 » Tue Feb 05, 2013 11:29 pm

Ohio State University - March 7 & 8

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Andromeda
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Andromeda » Wed Feb 06, 2013 7:58 am

I know you all totally care, but:

University of Amsterdam (physics+ astronomy) Feb 13-14
University of Leiden (physics + astronomy) Feb 11-12

Students do interviews as well while here, 1/3 are finally accepted who are flown in.

First time Amsterdam is bringing in their students to interview like this, and I didn't realize it but they pay for plane tickets regardless of where you are in the world (physics does the same, but I'm not certain if they have the same ). I'm totally recommending adventurous folks apply next year because even if you're not accepted in the end geez, free trip to the Netherlands and probably the only dinner with a canal boat tour included. :wink:

ThatTallGirl
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by ThatTallGirl » Wed Feb 06, 2013 4:03 pm

Notre Dame Physics-March 7-9

brambles
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by brambles » Wed Feb 13, 2013 12:22 am

UCSB Physics April 5

AprilMay4
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by AprilMay4 » Wed Feb 13, 2013 12:24 am

The UC Davis open house is March 1 & 2

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Tom Joad
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Tom Joad » Wed Feb 13, 2013 9:57 am

Penn State (physics): March 22-23

Godot
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Godot » Wed Feb 13, 2013 1:22 pm

UPenn (physics): April 4-5
Last edited by Godot on Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Tom Joad
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Tom Joad » Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:07 pm

Colorado Boulder (physics): March 7-9 or March 21-23.

wsxcv
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by wsxcv » Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:29 pm

MIT: april 3-5

StewieVader
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by StewieVader » Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:43 pm

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Last edited by StewieVader on Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Tom Joad
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Tom Joad » Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:49 pm

StewieVader wrote:@Tom: I didn't get any information about the open house for Colorado. Did you get any further emails from them?
I only got one email from them with 4 pdf attachments. One of them had schedule and description of recruitment weekend and another was a form to sign up for it. Are you an international student?

StewieVader
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by StewieVader » Sat Feb 16, 2013 1:01 am

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Last edited by StewieVader on Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

mundhada
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by mundhada » Sat Feb 16, 2013 1:13 am

What does open house mean? Like, does it confirm acceptance? Yale has not made any other details available yet!

Godot
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Godot » Sat Feb 16, 2013 2:01 am

Princeton: April 7-8
UIUC: March 8-9
Confirmation on Berkeley: April 10-11

(all physics)
Last edited by Godot on Sat Feb 16, 2013 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Tom Joad
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Tom Joad » Sat Feb 16, 2013 10:14 am

StewieVader wrote:Yes, I'm an international student. I got only 2 attachments in my mail.
If you are interesting in visiting, I'd email them to ask about it. They might not have mentioned it to you because they have only limited funding to pay for long distance travel and/or may not reimburse international students, though this is purely speculation on my part.
mundhada wrote:What does open house mean? Like, does it confirm acceptance? Yale has not made any other details available yet!
It's just a couple days set aside for admitted (usually) prospective graduate students to visit the campus, meet other graduate students and professors, and help decide which school to attend by April 15. I'm not quite understanding your second question. Are you saying that you've been admitted to Yale but they didn't mention an open house?

mundhada
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by mundhada » Sat Feb 16, 2013 11:55 am

Tom Joad wrote: It's just a couple days set aside for admitted (usually) prospective graduate students to visit the campus, meet other graduate students and professors, and help decide which school to attend by April 15. I'm not quite understanding your second question. Are you saying that you've been admitted to Yale but they didn't mention an open house?
No! I got an Open House invitation but not the acceptance letter or any other such detail.

esopterodactyl
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by esopterodactyl » Sat Feb 16, 2013 1:28 pm

mundhada wrote: No! I got an Open House invitation but not the acceptance letter or any other such detail.
For Yale, it means you've been accepted. Congratulations

Ivan Fyodorovich
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Ivan Fyodorovich » Sun Feb 17, 2013 9:55 pm

On a semi-related note, does anyone know if there are any good threads concerning what types of things to ask about while at open houses, regardless of whether the questions are directed to professors or grad students?

cwcomplex
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by cwcomplex » Mon Feb 18, 2013 12:44 am

Harvard (Physics) Apr 1-2 (right before MIT!)

Youalreadyknowdoe
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Youalreadyknowdoe » Mon Feb 18, 2013 5:23 am

Feb 1st - Rice (early acceptances weekend, i believe there is another later in March)
Feb 22nd - Johns Hopkins
March 15th - Michigan
March 25th - Columbia
March 26th - NYU
March 29th - Boston U
April 2nd - UCSD
April 4-5th - UCLA

I was wondering if any one had heard through the grapevine when Maryland - College Park's Open house is... Someone said that the should be sending out their acceptances around Wednesday, Feb 20th but I'm anxious. :roll:

quantum_fan
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by quantum_fan » Mon Feb 18, 2013 2:05 pm

I don't have any information about this year, but last year's topic shows March 30th, and the year before that was April 8th, so I'd expect them to have one of the later open houses, especially since they haven't sent out even early acceptances yet.

bschroe
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by bschroe » Wed Feb 20, 2013 8:32 pm

Texas A&M: April 4-7.

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Tom Joad
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Tom Joad » Fri Feb 22, 2013 4:25 pm

Caltech (physics): March 28-29

Lenx1624
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Lenx1624 » Sat Feb 23, 2013 11:27 am

UT Austin- Feb 13-15
Michigan State- Feb 22-23 and March __-__
Ohio State- March 7-8
Carnegie Mellon- March 22
Dartmouth- March 29
UCLA- April 4-5
Maryland- April 5-6
Last edited by Lenx1624 on Fri Mar 01, 2013 1:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

sjg
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by sjg » Tue Feb 26, 2013 4:50 am

University of Arizona: April 4-7

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Tom Joad
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Tom Joad » Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:29 pm

Youalreadyknowdoe wrote: I was wondering if any one had heard through the grapevine when Maryland - College Park's Open house is... Someone said that the should be sending out their acceptances around Wednesday, Feb 20th but I'm anxious. :roll:
It's April 5th and 6th for Maryland (physics).

relativeflux
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by relativeflux » Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:12 am

Has anyone heard when the Columbia Astro open house will be held?

dau
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by dau » Fri Mar 01, 2013 4:27 pm

Rutgers (physics): March 29

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Tom Joad
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Tom Joad » Fri Mar 01, 2013 8:14 pm

Stanford (physics): April 8 & 9

babitza
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by babitza » Sat Mar 02, 2013 12:13 am

Just got into UC Santa Cruz! No info in their email about an open house though. Does anyone know if they actually have an open house? (I wouldn't be particularly surprised if they didn't).....

quantum_fan
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by quantum_fan » Sun Mar 10, 2013 12:31 am

Can someone give additional details for UCSD? I haven't heard back from them yet, but I'm still somewhat optimistic I'll get in? If so, I might try to fly from UCSD to Maryland instead of going back home in between. In particular, I'm interested in which nights they are covering hotels for, and which days there are events on. Are events on the 2nd and 3rd with three nights covered?

Ivan Fyodorovich
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Ivan Fyodorovich » Sun Mar 10, 2013 1:24 am

For east coast UCSD covers flights up to $350 from east coast, $250 for west coast, $150 for northern California. Hotel nights only for April 1 and April 2. I'm accepted at Maryland too, which covers $400 for flights, so I'm probably going to end up doing some sort of mix for reimbursements I guess, plus I have places I can stay at San Diego for free if needed to cover April 3. It's frustrating also not hearing back from UCSB yet since they will have an overlap with Maryland, yet tickets need to be purchased early enough for it not to be too expensive. Seems like UCSB is only on April 5, so in the event I'm accepted I might even be able to just miss the evening part of Maryland and have a round trip thing between SD and SB that day in order to catch flight to Maryland. This would require planning on missing first evening of Maryland's open house in advance though...

I find it odd that these higher ranked institutions are reimbursing less for flights than OSU, Wisconsin-Madison, and Minnesota-Twin Cities. Seems indicative of worrisome funding, but I don't know.

Hope this helps you.

On those notes, does anyone have any more detailed information about UCSB's open house just in case?

quantum_fan
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by quantum_fan » Tue Mar 12, 2013 12:41 am

Thanks for the info. It looks like combining these trips will come out cheaper than flying home for two days, assuming there are some cheap hotels. Unfortunately, this would mean missing the entire first week of spring quarter... ugh.

Ivan Fyodorovich
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Ivan Fyodorovich » Tue Mar 12, 2013 1:35 am

Yep, and they're willing to split the cost on the flight between the two. I'd suggest looking at southwest.com for their online deals, which can sometimes cut half off the prices from what I could tell when I was purchasing my tickets. It sounds like they're almost out of reservations for UCSD open house though.

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Tom Joad
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Tom Joad » Tue Mar 12, 2013 5:49 pm

Ivan Fyodorovich wrote: On those notes, does anyone have any more detailed information about UCSB's open house just in case?
The festivities start at 5 PM on Thursday, April 4th with dinner and other such things for the next few hours. The next day has typical program presentations in the morning and then an afternoon with freedom to visit professors, attend seminars, etc. Nothing on Saturday. They provide up to $300 travel reimbursement.

Ivan Fyodorovich
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Ivan Fyodorovich » Tue Mar 12, 2013 6:00 pm

Alright, thanks. Out of curiosity, if you're going to both Maryland and UCSB's open houses, how are you handling the overlap?

scientist.jack
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by scientist.jack » Tue Mar 12, 2013 7:10 pm

Some lesser ranked schools:

Northeastern University (Physics) - Saturday, March 23rd
Northeastern University (most other science/engineering programs, nearly university wide) - Friday, March 15th
University of New Hampshire (Physics) - Friday, March 15th and Friday, April 5th

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Tom Joad
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Tom Joad » Wed Mar 13, 2013 8:52 am

Ivan Fyodorovich wrote:Alright, thanks. Out of curiosity, if you're going to both Maryland and UCSB's open houses, how are you handling the overlap?
I still haven't decided on visiting Maryland, but if I do it will not be on the visiting day. I've already booked my flight to Santa Barbara, and UMD seems accommodating for people who want to visit on alternative days.

cwcomplex
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by cwcomplex » Sat Mar 30, 2013 6:56 pm

For those who are planning to visit Stanford, have you heard back about this year's open house schedule?

deathinacan
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by deathinacan » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:34 am

Has anyone heard about the open house schedule from Arizona?

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Tom Joad
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Re: 2013 Open House Information

Post by Tom Joad » Sun Mar 31, 2013 5:10 pm

cwcomplex wrote:For those who are planning to visit Stanford, have you heard back about this year's open house schedule?
Not at all. The last thing I got was the frequently asked question thing on March 15.



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