Am I aiming too high?

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bluebus
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:00 am

Am I aiming too high?

Post by bluebus » Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:23 am

Hey everyone, I was wondering if I might be aiming too high. My current prof thinks that I stand a reasonable chance with the schools I've chosen, but I'm not so sure. What do you think? I intend to do CME.


Undergrad Institution: One of the top in Asia
Major(s): Physics
GPA in Major: ~3.5
Overall GPA: ~3.5 (2nd upper class honours)
Length of Degree: 4 years
Position in Class: Near top
Type of Student: International Female

GRE Scores :
Q: 168
V: 169
W: 5.0
P: 850 ): (Was expecting at least 950 :/ but somehow nope.)

TOEFL Total: 119

Research Experience:
- 2 months computational stuff
- 1 year material science
- ~2 years remote sensing (more engineering)
- ~3.5 years condensed matter experiment (2 ~5th author papers, 1 1st author PRB)
- Some conferences, presentations etc. along the years

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: School stuff for "academic excellence".

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Have been working as a full-time RA for 1 year+ since graduating. Taught first year lab for 2 semesters, been privately tutoring kids for several years.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: No..

Special Bonus Points: Got an A for grad-level QFT in my third year

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: My prof's English can be quite dismal :/ I'm worried his recommendation might give a bad impression

Applying to Where:
Condensed matter experiment for all.
UC Davis
Chicago
UIUC
Berkeley
Cornell
MIT
Caltech
Harvard
Umich
Stanford
UCSD
CMU
Boulder Colorado

PathIntegrals92
Posts: 190
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2014 12:42 pm

Re: Am I aiming too high?

Post by PathIntegrals92 » Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:53 am

It's harder to get admitted to public schools as an international (especially the UCs), you might want to replace those?

I'm domestic ( applying now also) so I don't really know how you will be judged, but to me you seem like a very competitive applicant! Still, your list is very top heavy. My suggestion is to replace some of the public schools with some not so highly ranked private schools ( that you would be happy to attend).


Not too familiar with CME, but maybe look through the precious applicant profiles. Or maybe some one else give you suggestions too.

Catria
Posts: 354
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2012 4:14 pm

Re: Am I aiming too high?

Post by Catria » Wed Nov 12, 2014 4:43 pm

Rice? Not a reach but not a safety either... unless you hate nanomaterials.

bluebus
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:00 am

Re: Am I aiming too high?

Post by bluebus » Wed Nov 12, 2014 10:42 pm

Thanks for the replies!

PathIntegrals92 - I agree with you about being top-heavy, hence my posting in this forum to ask for advice. I read somewhere else on this website that UC Davis has now stopped "discriminating" against internationals, not sure how true that really is though. Do you happen to have any suggestions for private schools? All the best for your application btw!

Catria - Thanks for the recommendation! I don't know why I never considered Rice, because looking at it now they seem to be pretty in line with what I'm interested in. Out of curiosity, would you say Boulder is a match as well?

PathIntegrals92
Posts: 190
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2014 12:42 pm

Re: Am I aiming too high?

Post by PathIntegrals92 » Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:54 am

How about Boston University?

bluebus
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2014 8:00 am

Re: Am I aiming too high?

Post by bluebus » Sat Nov 15, 2014 2:00 am

You know, I always ignorantly assumed BU was a state school. Thanks for suggesting, I took a look and really like the research they're doing there. Will probably apply.



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