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Grad Applications — Rough and Ready Advice

Hey there Smithies,

Just met a bunch of alums and current students last weekend at the symposium for the recently passed Professor Piotr Decowski. I’ve since gotten some fantastic questions about applying to graduate school in physics, and they have thus inspired this post. I’m not going to polish this now – I’m a grad student, life is busy – but for the sake of getting the information out as soon as possible, I’ll write what I can right now.

Disclaimer: I applied to graduate schools last year after taking ~4 years off of physics. I pulled advice from whatever corners I could, and one of my recent advisers was on the admissions committee for both Caltech and Columbia (so, naturally, I did everything he told me). I had great success, and I know that it’s because I worked very hard on my applications. But it was also so exciting! I learned about incredible research, met wonderful professors, and visited amazing universities. I also learned a lot about myself and what’s important to me for my career/life. I’m currently in my first year of graduate school in physics at Princeton University.

So, some advice:

(1) Do not sell yourself short: apply to a whole range of schools from top to safety (but only if you really will go there). You’ll notice I’m just assuming that you know  you really want to go to graduate school for physics. If that’s so, choose a whole range of schools, but every single one needs to have research that’s exciting to you. (I’d like to note here that I applied to 10 schools in total. Two in the top 5, 1 in the top 40 – but that had a professor I was sincerely interested in working with – and the rest in ~the top 20.)

(2) Cater each application to each school: for example, and very importantly, each essay needs to list (and even focus on) professors and research in that institution that you’d like to work with and why.

(2b) Additionally, in your application you must specify whether you want to do experiment or theory. Sometimes people tell you you don’t have to, but I’m going to tell you that you have to – at least in order to be as competitive as possible. In physics, when an application comes in, universities sort them between theory and experiment, and they never really know what to do with those who don’t specify. It’s an anomalous third pile. A good rule of thumb I’ve heard is, “if you are on the fence, choose experiment.” But whatever you choose, run with it. Express conviction.

(3) Visit as many schools as you can and meet with the professors whose research you’re interested in, before you even turn in your apps. This will do wonders for both: (a) having up-to-date knowledge of what they’re working on (to put in your essay, as well as just knowing for your own sake what they’re actually working on currently), (b) gaining knowledge on the field you’re interested — you’re not an expert (yet) so ask questions! they expect it and want it, (c) very importantly, this will attach a face with your application when the professor has it in front of them — and they will definitely think, “she was so interested in my work and coming here that she even took the time to visit!”

(3b) Email professors! even if you can’t visit (or if you can of course!), let them know you’re applying and extremely interested in their work, as them if they have time to Skype with you. Something Professor Felder once told me: “their emails are all public for good reason!” For you! How I did it: I sent professors a short email stating my interest in their research (be as specific as possible) and asking for a follow up meeting (over Skype or in person if I could make it happen) so I could ask questions, then I attached my CV. I know that they did not all look at my CV – they’re so busy – but it’s there for them just in case.

(3c) Also, in case this isn’t obvious, ALWAYS get back to professors (or really anyone associated with the university) ASAP.

(4) Search the arXiv to get a sense of what whichever professor is working on. This will give you a much better sense of their current work than their personal website. those things can be ridiculously old and archaic.

Before meeting with a professor:
(1) Brush up on their work by looking at their website and current papers (tip: often glancing at the abstract, intro, and conclusion is enough)
(2) Brush up on your work! Re-read your own CV and past work you’ve done so that when they ask you about it, you can dive right in to it with authority.
(3) Prepare questions to ask them for when things go silent for a moment, as they invariably will. Some good ones I always asked:
– I looked on your personal website and took a glance at what you have on the arXiv, but what are you working on currently?
– Timeline of projects/upcoming projects
– Are you planning to take more grad students in to your group (probably the answer is yes if they’ve agreed to meet with you)
– Do you recommend any papers to help me get better acquainted with your work? (this is a great one — a few profs sent me some GREAT papers that really gave me pretty good background in to their work and my field in general)

The Essay:

For now, I’ll just give you the general format of mine. Keep in mind that I was applying for cosmology experiment.

(1) Introduction: Some people write a story. I gave a sentence on when I first became interested in cosmology, then a quick recap of all the things I’ve done, and how those signify my commitment to observational cosmology (specifically CMB cosmology). And end it with something like “I want to go to X university because there are vibrant groups and research at the forefront of observational cosmology” or something like that. But I end it with why I want to go to that school.

(2) Specifically what I want to work on and who with at X university, and broad strokes about what I have to offer to those groups.

(3) Section about my past cosmology research

(4) Section about my past experimental research (can potentially be merged with (3.))

(5) Section on my current work (or the work I was doing when I applied)

(6) Conclusion: end very strong! University X is the optimal choice for you for graduate school.

 

Okay, for now I’ll end here. If possible, I will add more as soon as I can. But, ladies, be strong and sell yourselves! You have so much to offer. And get pumped — this is an exciting new journey you’re embarking on!

Best,

Stevie

P.S. Questions? Ask any of the physics profs for my email and then hit me up!

P.P.S. I would like to make a personal note, when I was a senior in physics at Smith I applied to about 7 top graduate schools and didn’t get in to any of them. Major mistakes I made: (1) I sent the same essay to every school, (2) I didn’t diversify my schools – only top ones!, (3) my heart wasn’t in my applications, and I didn’t study for my GREs. Additionally, (4) I never contacted any of the professors I wanted to work with. And what happened? I didn’t get in anywhere. For me, that was sad but alright. I wanted to take time off. But if you really want to go to grad school now, work it! As they say, “You’ve gotta want it.”

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