Graduate School Information

This contains extensive information from student's experiences with Astro/Physics Graduate School (many thanks to the authors, we are all in your debt for this wealth of insider information):

COMPOSED BY LISA LARRIMORE 26 APRIL 2002
REVISED BY ANDREW FEFFERMAN 11 APRIL 2003
REVISED BY VIVA HOROWITZ AND ROBIN SMITH 17 APRIL 2005
REVISED BY ROBIN SMITH 10 MAY 2005 and 31 MARCH 2006

Contents

Introduction
Links to Outside Information
The General GRE Test
The Physics GRE Subject Test
Letters of Recommendation
Transcripts
Graduate Research Fellowships
Graduate School Applications
The Personal Statement
Experiment vs. Theory
Contacting Individual Professors
Hearing Back from Graduate Schools
Visiting Graduate Schools
Questions to Ask Current Grad Students
Questions to Ask Faculty/Prospective Advisors
Cost of Applying to Grad School
More Links

Introduction

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.

Links to Outside Information

• D. F. Bloom, J. D. Karp and N. Cohen. The Ph.D. Process: A Student's Guide to Graduate School in the Sciences (1998).
• Planning for Graduate Studies in Physics and Related Fields, a booklet published by the American Association of Physics Teachers.
• The book 2006 Graduate Programs in Physics, Astronomy, and Related Fields is published annually and can be found at Cornell's Physical Sciences Library.
• PhDs.org: Science, Math, and Engineering Career Resources
• GradSchoolShopper.com: guide to graduate programs in physics and related fields

The General GRE Test

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 exam will cost you about $115. 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.

The Physics GRE Subject Test

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 exam costs $130. The physics department sometimes organizes a lunchtime review session in the fall, which is very helpful. 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 Physics 101/102 type textbook (for example: Wolfson and Paschoff, Haliday and Resnick, 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.

Letters of Recommendation

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 Cornell physics faculty, 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 one of your seminar professors is writing for you, feel free to remind him/ her about aspects of seminar you really enjoyed, things you did presentations about, etc.

Transcripts

You will need to request transcripts be sent to accompany your application to each grad school. Depending on the application deadlines, you may need to send transcripts before your fall grads are reported. 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 elaborating about the things I did in each of those classes.

Graduate Research Fellowships

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 $21,500/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:

• NSF GRFP: http://www.orau.org/nsf/nsffel.htm due sometime in November
• Department of Defense NDSEG: http://www.asee.org/ndseg/html/
• preface.htm due in January
• Hertz Foundation: http://www.hertzfndn.org/ due early in November
• National Physical Science Consortium: http://www.npsc.org/ due in November
• AT&T Labs Fellowship Program (ALFP): http://www.research.att.com/
• academic/ALFPapp.html due in January
• Fusion Energy Sciences Fellowship: http://www.orau.gov/orise/edu/DOE/FES/fesfelhome.htm
• Homeland Security: http://www.orau.gov/dhsed/ due in February
• More links: http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/grad/fellowships/fellowships.html

Note that these fellowships all provide funding for your graduate studies toward a PhD. Fellowships which permit study abroad for astro/physics research/study or something completely different include Watson, Marshall, Rhodes, Mitchell, Churchill, Gates Cambridge, and Fulbright. These study abroad fellowship applications are generally due earier (early September or October) than graduate fellowships and do not usually require GRE scores.

Graduate School Applications

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:

• Do you know what subfield of physics you want to study? If so, talk to professors about what schools are good in that area. If not, apply to schools that are good at a lot of things.
• Do you definitely want to go to grad school next year? If so, apply to enough schools to give you a decent number to choose from (professors have a pretty good sense of what places you might get accepted, but it's still a crap shoot). If you have your heart set on a particular school but don't need to go there immediately, you can apply again next year if you don't get in the first time.
• Is there a particular region of the country or setting (city/suburban/ rural) you want to be in? Remember, you are going to live in this place for the next 5-7 years.
• 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.

The Personal Statement

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 or a WA 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 (as a clinician, sysadmin, tutor, etc.). 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...

Experiment vs. Theory

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.

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.

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.

Visiting Graduate Schools

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 may be hard to get away from school 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.

Questions to Ask Current Grad Students

General: Do you like it here? Why did you decide to come here? What surprised you most about being here? What do you like least? What are my responsibilities as a first year? How did you decide to apply to grad school?

Academics: How many courses are required? How many do students usually take? What are the classes like? Do the faculty seem interested in their classes? What's the average class size? Do students work in groups and learn from one another?

Requirements: What are the requirements for graduating? What kind of qualifying exams are there? How many chances do you have to take them?

Research: When and how do you choose your advisor? How difficult is it to switch advisors? Do students have trouble working with a research group they want to? What is the average time to obtain a Ph.D.?

Money: Is the stipend enough to live on? Is housing expensive? What kind of housing can most students afford? Is the health care provided by the university adequate? Do students ever have trouble finding financial support during their time here? How much time do you spend working as a TA?

Social life: What do you do when you're not doing physics? Do you have time to do the things you want? Do you like it here? Do you have time to take breaks and eat lunch? Does everybody work every weekend? How are the restaurants? Can I pursue (insert hobbies here)? What about campus safety? What's the weather like?

For women: Is there a women's support group? Have you ever felt uncomfortable as a woman in this department? What's the male/female ratio among graduate students? Among faculty members? Are the women friends with each other?

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.)

I have read some general information about your work, but I was wondering if you could tell me more about it. (People love to talk about what they do.)

• Where do you see your research heading in the next five years?
• How many students do you currently supervise?
• Do you plan to accept new students next year?
• Do you anticipate taking a sabbatical or retiring or moving in the next five years?
• How long do your students usually take to complete their Ph.D.s?

Cost of Applying to Grad School for a Student 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

More Links

• USNews Grad Advice, not just rankings: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/grhome.htm
• and if you really want rankings... USNews from 2002, by subdiscipline: http://newton.ex.ac.uk/aip/physnews.423.html
• USNews from 2000, overall physics: http://sun.stanford.edu/~gizon/usnews_physics_00.html
• and the methodology behind the USNews rankings: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/about/06phdsci_meth_brief.php

Comments for revision and addition are appreciated. Please email Robin Smith (rsmith-at-physics.cornell.edu).