industrial engineering undergrad to physics help

[instrument.santosh]

hey guys

[microacg]

I think you should focus on the items are are used for physics grad school admission.

Letters of Recommendation: preferably should be mostly from people who can speak to your ability to do research and come up with new physics.

Research Experience: research in physics is extremely helpful regardless of what degree you just got.

Coursework: try to take as much physics as you can even if you aren't a physics major

GRE/PGRE: start working on these early so you have chances to retake and work on what was more difficult due to your unusual background

Undergrad Grades: keep the gpa as high as possible

TOEFL: make working on your English a goal if you want to attend an institution that speaks English; from your post it seems either your English isn't that good yet or your typing is very lazy. Make sure neither is apparent when you communicate with and apply to schools (preferably by improving your English).

Statement of Purpose: be prepared to make a good case for why you are making the switch

Hopefully other people who know more about transitions to physics can make more specific comments.

[instrument.santosh]

thanks a lot for the reply !...again seeing your point , letter of recommendation again i guess would be a problem since i am a non phy major student !... but still thanks for the reply !

[StewieVader]

You haven't told us when you're gonna graduate. Anyways to answer your queries:
1) GPAs are very important for graduate school admission. Even though your major is in a different field, a low GPA is definitely not going to look good on your profile. Try and get it above 8.5+ if possible. Making excuses that you were interested in learning physics is not a valid excuse for messing up your undergrad GPA. Trust me that number is going to stick to you for a long time whether you like it or not.

2) Regarding research experience, try looking for summer projects at IISc/TIFR or other research institutions in India. They'll give you a taste of real physics research and also get you some strong recommendations if you do well there. But to build up a strong profile you should preferably spend every summer possible at some research institution or the other. There are some official internship programs too but they do have a GPA cutoff.

3) PGRE: Get it out of the way as soon as possible, hopefully by third year itself. The concepts are pretty simple and can easily be mastered in a couple of months at most. Trust me, this would save you a lot of time in your final year.