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Applying to Grad School

Page history last edited by Dr. Makenzie B. Lystrup 13 years, 2 months ago

 

Good general advice and resources from Astronomer Jane Rigby

 

How to choose grad schools

Before you launch into your search, ask yourself two very basic questions

   - Why do I want to go to grad school?

   - Do I need some time off?

Think carefully about these questions. There are some good documents below about this. Let's assume you've thought very carefully and you do want to apply to grad school. How do you come up with a list of programs to apply to?

 

Making a long list

What do you want to do? Experiment vs. theory? Maybe you know very specifically the sub field you're interested. Maybe you know generally the area of research, or maybe you know you want to do astronomy but really aren't tied to anything. Knowing what your research interests are and the level of specificity will help you with your search. Do some research online and start coming up with schools. Ask your professors and research advisors what schools would be good to look at for your level of specificity. Don't forget to consider quality of life issues!

 

Making a short(er) list

Set up meetings with professors and your research advisors. Bring your long list, your transcript, and your CV.. Sit down and show them these materials and get their opinions of the appropriateness of schools. Don't take one person's opinion exclusively -- talk honestly with a few people to help narrow your list. Find out crucial information about these departments, either from the website or by calling up their graduate administrative assistant: What are the typical GREs and GPAs of admitted students (they will never, ever give you a cutoff number, just ask for average or typical numbers)? What is the average time to graduate? How many RAs vs. TAs? What is the percent of admitted students who eventually graduate? Female/male ratio of grad students and professors? What are the qualifying exams, etc. to advance to candidacy? How are research advisors chosen? What's the cost of living? What is the social life like? The congeniality of students? Email grad students in the department to find the answers to the last few questions. Check http://www.gradschoolshopper.com.

 

 

Making a final list

After considering all your research from the steps above, you should have a good idea of your final list. Contact some professors at these departments. If you're interested in potentially working with someone, contact them. Do your homework, though! Tell them that you've read XYZ about their work and either ask some questions about it or ask them to tell you more about it. Other questions to ask: Where do you see your research heading in the next 5 years? How many students do you supervise right now? Do you plan to take on any new students in the next year or two? Do you plan to retire or take a sabbatical in the next 5 years. How long do your students take to graduate? Check http://www.gradschoolshopper.com again.

 

Keep looking at http://www.gradschoolshopper.com

This site from the American Institute of Physics lets you search for graduate programs by state, school, or field. You'll have access to important information about the program. 

 

 

Advice for APS students

 

Mike Shull,  Professor & Grad Admissions Chair, prepared some answers to the question of what types of physics and math courses should a person take to get into grad school. His recommendations are of course specific to the Boulder APS department, but are really applicable to any astro grad program. Here are his words:

 

To:     Propective Graduate Students (APS)

From:   Mike Shull,  Professor & Grad Admissions Chair

Subj:   Undergraduate physics/math background

So many students have asked about this issue, that I decided write up a single, standard response.  Our graduate program in Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences involves a rigorous set of coursework (11 courses and 4 seminars), many of which expect students to enter with a strong math and physics background.  If your background is in Engineering, that's great experience, but you also need to pick up the math/physics to succeed here.

 

We like to see the following undergrad upper-level courses:

   - Classical (Analytical) Mechanics

   - Electromagnetism 1 & 2

   - Quantum Mechanics 1 & 2

   - Thermal Physics and/or Stat Mechanics

   - Physics Labs (typically 2-3 years).

In addition, many students benefit from taking undergraduate physics electives (these are optional, not required):

   - Condensed Matter (solid-state) physics

   - Modern Physics (atomic, nuclear, particle)

   - Relativity & Cosmology

For mathematics, we prefer that students have taken:

   - Calculus 1,2,3 (through vector & multivariate calculus)

   - Ordinary Differential Equations

   - Matrix Theory and Linear Algebra

Strongly encouraged:

   - Intro to Partial Differential Equations

   - Transform methods (Fourier, Laplace)

   - Complex Variables

   - Mathematical Physics (wave, diffusion equations, etc)

 

 

So you think you want to go to grad school...

...but how do you know where to go? What field are you interested in? Ask the CU professors in that field what schools have good programs. If you've done research in the field, ask people in the research lab. Professors and researchers know what schools are best in their fields, use them as a resource! Get several opinions. Once you have a (relatively) long list of schools, start doing some research on your own.

 

Once you've made a list of schools you are interested in, go meet with some professors and bring a copy of your transcript and your CV. Ask them to give you an honest opinion of your chances at those schools. Again, get a few opinions. It's best to have a few honest appraisals so you know what are your 'longshots' and your 'safety schools'.

 

SoYouWantToGoToGradSchool.pdf is an informal, short piece and ThinkingOfGradSchool.pdf is a pretty comprehensive presentation for considering grad school -- lots of quantitative info. Some of the numbers are a bit old, but the information is still relevant. 

 

CU Boulder's Career Services website has a good deal of information: http://careerservices.colorado.edu/

 

The American Association of Physics Teachers has a website with some good information for physics related fields: http://www.aapt.org/Resources/gradstudtoc.cfm

 

A grad student at Cornell shares her experience of applying to grad school: http://pages.physics.cornell.edu/~larrimore/gradschool.html

 

University of Texas at Austin has a resource website for applying to grad school in astronomy: http://www.as.utexas.edu/astronomy/education/applytips.html  

 

Questions to ask when visiting or corresponding with a school

A list of questions to ask a department: http://www.astro.indiana.edu/grad_questions.shtml

 

Current grad students can be a great source of information about a department and a program. You can find grad students and their email addresses by looking in the department directory or in the webpages of specific research groups. Send them an email saying that you're thinking of applying and then ask them a couple of specific questions. Try emailing a good number of students -- they might not all respond. However, you're sure to get a response from a few.

 

the January 2005 issue of STATUS, including a good list of questions to ask when considering grad schools.

 

About to start grad school? Read these!

A PhD is Not Enough! A Guide to Survival in Science, Feibelman

This short book was published in 1993, but it still has great information in it. If you're going to be starting grad school soo definitely read this book.

 

Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D., Peters

Good, practical advice that you should read when you start, or about to start, grad school.

 

Put Your Science to Work: The Take-Charge Career Guide for Scientists, Fiske

This is also a great to book for those in physics related fields for those who want a career in research science. It's another really good one if you are, or are about to become, a grad student. 

 


Disclaimer: The material on this website is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under the AAPF program. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the fellows and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

 

 

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