Graduate School Information
Graduate school and post-grad fellowships are just two of the options physics students pursue after college. Scientific writing, peace corps, engineering and computer science jobs in industry or national labs, grad school in related fields such as seismology and physics education, politics, patent review, high school and community college teaching, law, music, business, medical school, oceanography, publishing, finance, ecology, and teaching abroad are some of the careers that physics alums have chosen.
The Physics Today web site at www.physicstoday.org leads to aip.jobcontrolcenter.com with a link to a book by John Rigden called Landing Your First Job. - April 2005
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Check official websites for Watson, Marshall, Rhodes, Mitchell, Churchill, Gates Cambridge, Fulbright, and Jack Kent Cooke information. Many applications can be completed online or downloaded from these sites. These applications are generally due between early September and October and do not usually require GRE scores.
Information about fellowships to support graduate study and research toward a PhD can be found in the Graduate Research Fellowships section of the guide Applying to Astro/Physics Graduate School below.
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Applying to Astro/Physics Graduate School:
COMPOSED BY LISA LARRIMORE (Swarthmore '02, Cornell PhD '08): 26 APRIL 2002
REVISED BY ANDREW FEFFERMAN (Swarthmore '03, Cornell PhD '10): 11 APRIL 2003
REVISED BY VIVA HOROWITZ (Swarthmore '05, UCSB) AND ROBIN PETRUZIELO (Swarthmore '03, Cornell): 17 APRIL 2005
REVISED BY ROBIN PETRUZIELO: 10 MAY 2005, 23 APRIL 2011
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When I was applying to college, I was surrounded by counselors, teachers, and adults who had been through the process and could tell me exactly what to do. Last summer, I realized that there was no one to do that for me during the graduate school application process. Sure, our professors are helpful, but they have not been to grad school in a while and they are not going to make sure you are doing all the things you need to do. I had to figure many things out on my own, and now I know a bunch of things that I wish I knew a year ago. This handout is my attempt to put some of those things on paper. Note that this is just one person's opinion, not an authoritative guide, so please talk to other people and investigate things on your own.
This is arranged somewhat in the order I did things, which is probably similar to the order you should worry about them. I spent a lot of time at MIT talking to one of the faculty members on the admissions committee about what they look for in an application, so I will include his comments as I proceed.
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Additional resources on planning for grad school include:
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All the graduate schools I applied to (as well as fellowships) required the General GRE. It is a computerized test, so you just go to www.gre.org, find the testing center nearest you, and schedule an appointment to go in and take the test. You can take the test any day, but the spots fill up very fast, so make your appointment well ahead of time. The General GRE currently consists of three sections: Verbal (like the SAT verbal section, but harder), Quantitative (like the SAT math section, but easier), and Analytical Writing.
You will probably want to spend some time reviewing vocabulary and the types of questions they ask, so taking the GRE over the summer (when you don't have classes to worry about) might be a good idea. You can download two real tests from the GRE website that are very helpful for getting used to the computerized format of the test. The MIT faculty member I talked to said that the first thing they do is throw out applications with really low GRE scores. They expect all their students to do very well on the Analytical section, and fairly well on the Verbal, since they want students who can think and communicate.
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The Physics GRE is a written test offered on specific dates (see www.gre.org); I took it in November. You may be able to take the test in December and still get the scores to the grad schools you're applying to on time, but that's cutting it close. Check to be sure that taking it in December is okay with the grad school. The Physics GRE does not test your ability to think, to solve physics problems, or to be a good physics graduate student. It tests whether you have memorized formulas and can recall them quickly. The thing I did to prepare that was most helpful for me was to skim through a first-year physics textbook (for example: Wolfson and Paschoff; Haliday, Resnick, and Walker; etc).
The MIT professor I talked to said that they recognize that students from liberal arts schools do not do as well on the Physics GRE as students from universities (just like all American students do much worse than the more specialized international students), and that this does not mean that liberal arts students will not be successful as graduate students. Do not expect to do as well on the Physics GRE as on the General GRE.
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You will need three or four letters of recommendation for the graduate schools and fellowship programs you apply to. So start thinking about faculty you can ask, and try to give them notice well in advance. If you are not sure whether asking a particular person is a good idea, it is perfectly ok to ask if they would feel comfortable writing a letter for you. You do not have to limit yourself to physics faculty at your college/university, either; you can ask people at other places where you have done research, or professors in related departments, like math. Your letters of recommendation are very important, and you want to ask people who can say something special about you. If a professor you know well is writing for you, feel free to remind him/her about what you enjoyed/exelled at, etc.
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Over winter break, I requested more copies of transcripts with my fall semester grades on them, and I sent one of these to each of the schools and fellowships I applied for. I included a cover letter explaining the "IP" grade for my thesis and elaborating about the things I did in each of those classes.
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Graduate research fellowships give you much more flexibility in choosing a graduate school and in doing what you want there (since you have independent funding, potential research advisors don't need to worry about finding grant money to pay you!). Some (such as NSF and NDSEG) accept applications from not only graduating seniors but graduate students as well.
The NSF offers graduate research fellowships upwards of $29K/year for three years. Talk to faculty members here about whether you should apply, and start your application in advance: it requires four time-consuming essays, and the application is usually due around the same time as the Physics GRE. The good news is, this application requires a lot more work than actual grad school applications, so you'll be prepared. You don't hear back until April, so be patient. (They usually plan to report NSF awardees before 15 April when commitments to grad schools must be made.) And if you don't get one the first time around, you can apply again as a graduate student.
Here are some links providing information about the NSF and other graduate fellowships:
Note that these fellowships all provide funding for your graduate studies toward a PhD. Information about fellowships which permit study abroad for astro/physics research or study or something completely different is available above at the Fellowships and Prizes section. These study abroad fellowship applications are generally due earier (early September or October) than graduate fellowships and do not usually require GRE scores.
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Most physics grad school applications are due from mid-December to mid-January. Most applications are online, and you can find them by going to the school's homepage and looking around.
Deciding where to apply is probably the most difficult step of this process, and the one I can offer the least advice about. Here are a few things you might think about:
You should also remember that your decision is not final. If you go to a school for a year and decide you do not like it, you can always transfer somewhere else: it's a lot easier than transferring between colleges.
You might also consider looking at departments other than physics. At Stanford, the Applied Physics students have access to the same experimental physics professors as the Physics students, but they have fewer requirements, qualifying exams, etc. Or you may find that geophysics or earth and planetary sciences are interesting fields and be able to apply in them.
To find more information about specific schools, you can visit their websites or look up unbiased information in the references given in the section Links to Outside Information above.
You have to decide which schools you are applying to in enough time to give your recommenders advance notice, but the only time-consuming parts of the applications are writing your personal statement and contacting individual professors. Both of these involve deciding what field you are going to apply in; all schools will ask to have some sense of your interests, though this is rarely a binding decision. I decided to apply in Condensed Matter Experiment.
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All applications require a personal statement, or "Statement of Purpose," somewhere in the 500-1000 word range.
The MIT professor I talked to said that statement of purpose was rarely the deciding factor in an application, and that it was more often used to keep someone out than to get someone in. They want to see that you can write well, so ask a friend to look it over. Demonstrate that you know what research is (by writing about previous research experiences and possible plans for the future) and that you have been involved in your school. If you know exactly what you want to do, this is your chance to talk about it. If there is something that makes you unique, write about that: the MIT guy said that one student was finishing a M.A. in music from the New England Conservatory, and that he was admitted because he would add something different to the grad student community.
Even if you do not know exactly what you want to do, you should sound like you have some direction. Which brings up the question of applying as an experimentalist or as a theoretician...
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It is easier to get accepted to grad school in experiment than in theory. I talked for a while with Bob Laughlin, the Nobel-prize winning condensed matter theorist at Stanford, about the difference between theory and experiment. He said that at any grad school, there is much less funding for theory, and there are fewer job opportunities afterwards. "The days of being paid to think about physics are going away." He said that a lot of people think the future of physics is biophysics, but that there is really not much physics there, and that he thinks the future of physics is in making things, in nanoscience. He suggested thinking about what you want to do after you graduate. "I decided that I wanted to discover something really new. And I did. If your goal is to discover something, maybe the risks of theory are worth it. But if you just want to be a solid member of the academy with a good position, experiment is a much easier way to that."
So there are two questions to consider: What do you actually want to do in graduate school, and what do you want to say that you want to do on your application? The MIT professor I talked to, who was a condensed matter experimentalist, said, "This is one of the easiest areas to get accepted to, so if you knew how to play the game, you would apply to this area and then transfer out later." Whatever you decide to apply in, make sure it reflects your record. If you have spent the past three summers working with theorists and advanced laboratory was your worst class at Swarthmore, graduate schools are not going to believe that you are really passionate about physics experiment. They want students who have experience in experimental labs.
I worked for two summers doing computational physics and one summer in an experimental optics lab at NIST. I talked about the latter in my personal statement to show my interest in experiments, and I talked about the former to show my interest in condensed matter physics.
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Contacting Individual Professors
If there are specific professors you want to work with, you should definitely email them before you apply and let them know you are interested and ask about their research. Many of the grad school applications have a place for you to write the names of any professors you have contacted.
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Hearing Back from Grad Schools
Expect to hear back from grad schools at varying times. I received my first acceptance in mid-January and did not receive my last acceptance until mid-March. Most schools are required to notify you of their decision by April 1. Schools do not send out all their acceptances and rejections at once; they send out acceptances as soon as they have decided on a particular student, so the first letters you receive will likely contain good news and fellowship offers. Once a school decides to accept you, they will probably have professors and students call or email you to tell you about what a wonderful program it is. Besides being flattering, these are great chances to ask questions you have about the schools (see below).
Once you are accepted, you will want to know how much money the school is offering you. Some schools will support you through part time TAs (teaching assistantships) or RAs (research assistantships). Others may offer you fellowships, which are usually larger amounts of money that you do not have to work for. It is not the case that receiving a fellowship is vastly superior to receiving a TA. Some graduate students appreciate the opportunity to solidify basic physics by teaching it to undergrads. If you are deciding between a school that has offered you a TA and one that has offered you a fellowship, the financial offer might not be the most important factor in your decision. Also, it's important to take into account the cost of living in the area where the grad school is located when comparing financial offers from the schools you are accepted to.
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Once you are accepted, graduate schools will invite you to visit and pay for (some of) your travel expenses. If you have been accepted to a lot of schools, you will have to narrow down your list, since it is hard to get away from Swarthmore for more than about three trips. Most schools have an organized open house, and if the open houses fit into your schedule, I heartily recommend them. They require much less work from you, since otherwise you will have to schedule all your own meetings with professors or tours of labs, they involve much more yummy free food, and they give you the opportunity to meet your future classmates. I've included below some of the questions that I found it helpful to ask while visiting.
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Questions to Ask Current Grad Students
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Questions to Ask Faculty/Prospective Advisors
(It is generally a bad idea to go to graduate school because you want to work with one particular person, especially if he/she is a new faculty member who does not yet have tenure. Make sure there are a variety of professors whose work interests you.)
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Cost of Applying to Grad School
Cost of student applying to grad school in 2004-5
6/17 $115 GRE General
11/13 $165 for November Physics GRE (including standby fee)
12/14 $90 for Harvard Application
12/15 $100 for Stanford Application
12/20 $126 to ETS to send GRE scores to 8 universities
12/28 $16.21 resume paper
12/28 $60 UC Santa Barbara Application fee
12/30 $45 U Wisconsin application fee
12/31 $17.18 FedEx application to Wisconsin
1/1 $60 Cornell U application fee
1/8 $60 U Michigan application fee
1/8 $40 U Illinois application fee
1/11 $50 Colorado application fee
1/11 $7.70 Post office: mailing Michigan and Illinois
1/22 $36 ETS to send GRE scores to Maryland and Stony Brook
1/23 $50 to U Maryland College Park application fee
Total to ETS for GRES: $442 (would have been $395 if I had acted sooner)
Total Application fees: $555
Other (postage, resume paper): $48.59
TOTAL: $1045.59
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USNews Grad School advice (not just rankings), plus methodology behind the USNews rankings.
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Comments for revision and addition are appreciated. Please email Robin Smith Petruzielo (rsmith -at -physics-dot-cornell-dotedu).
Website updated 4/23/2011 by Robin Smith Petruzielo.