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So is this an acceptable near future life plan for like grad school and stuff?
BlochWave
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I'm fresh outta college, have a BS in physics, and have been working since May.
I had originally considered going to grad school straight out of college(in probably solid state physics or something comparable)but for reasons that I don't even really understand(felt weird spending well more than the first quarter of my life purely in school, wanted work experience since I had no internships or anything, started my token attempt at applying way too late, etc.)I got a job, a pretty good one really, and have been working since then. It hasn't taken long for me to decide that this particular job isn't what I'd like to be doing my whole life, but that was pretty much expected, especially since my original idea had been grad school
I was thinking of taking the physics GRE sometime soon, I think the score holds over time, right? I haven't really worried about that. Anyways, I was thinking of applying to grad school in a year or two's time(after three years I'm fully vested in the company, but I wouldn't lose much leaving while only 2/3 vested)So let's say I've got a couple of years relevant work experience, good GPA from my undergrad, and (hopefully) good GRE scores, is there a good chance of getting into a good program? If I do, is there a good chance I'd get like a job doing whatever there that would pay for my attendance, or get a scholarship?
I was never really completely clear how that worked in grad school, but it sounded like getting money was often easier than as an undergrad. I dunno, just brainstorming I guess, hectic day at work, and I'm thinking I wanna go ahead and set up the light at the end of the tunnel or something
I had originally considered going to grad school straight out of college(in probably solid state physics or something comparable)but for reasons that I don't even really understand(felt weird spending well more than the first quarter of my life purely in school, wanted work experience since I had no internships or anything, started my token attempt at applying way too late, etc.)I got a job, a pretty good one really, and have been working since then. It hasn't taken long for me to decide that this particular job isn't what I'd like to be doing my whole life, but that was pretty much expected, especially since my original idea had been grad school
I was thinking of taking the physics GRE sometime soon, I think the score holds over time, right? I haven't really worried about that. Anyways, I was thinking of applying to grad school in a year or two's time(after three years I'm fully vested in the company, but I wouldn't lose much leaving while only 2/3 vested)So let's say I've got a couple of years relevant work experience, good GPA from my undergrad, and (hopefully) good GRE scores, is there a good chance of getting into a good program? If I do, is there a good chance I'd get like a job doing whatever there that would pay for my attendance, or get a scholarship?
I was never really completely clear how that worked in grad school, but it sounded like getting money was often easier than as an undergrad. I dunno, just brainstorming I guess, hectic day at work, and I'm thinking I wanna go ahead and set up the light at the end of the tunnel or something
BlochWave on
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I think phd directly but that depends on if I can have an escape plan. If I get three or four years into a phd and decide this is crap, I'd like to be able to abort it to a master's degree pretty quick and get out with my higher education. I would think that's how it works anyways
The other thing that I didn't even know people did until I started working is get a handful of master's degrees in related fields
As for a getting out plan - in most places you can probably decide to quit and leave with a masters, though as far as I've heard in my field it's rare (probably more common would be people not passing quals and getting semi-kicked out of the phd program and given a masters)... I don't know how long physics phds should be, but if you're 4 years into a biology one the department will often be happy to help push you towards graduation in the next year or two just so they don't have to keep funding you
GREs - check either the ETS website, or with a couple programs... there is usually a date past which they won't accept them, though I think it's more on the order of 3-5 years going from memory of a couple years ago... and if you have good GREs, good grades, and (especially importantly) a few good recommendation letters from people with which you've done research in the field, you should be able to get into very good programs
Admissions stuff:
Your admission ability depends on where you apply. First and foremost look into what types of areas you want to do. Solid state physics is a gigantic fucking field...do you mean stuff like quantum phase transitions? High-temperature superconductors? Compound materials growth? Nanostructure physics (single-molecule transistors, carbon nanotubes)? Spin physics of semiconductors? Computational or experimental? You don't need to have a thesis topic, but a general idea helps so you know where to apply.
Depending on how well you do on the GRE and your GPA and if you did any REU terms as an undergrad (and especially if you were co-author on a publication), you can probably get into one of the so-called "Tier 1" schools. Physics is crazy competitive, though, so beware...especially at big name schools. With a BS in physics and relevant work experience you'll surely get into a good school. It just depends on how you define "good." There are lots of fantastic research institutions across the country that aren't Stanford, MIT, and CalTech. To a certain extent, you may get more out of school by going to another school, but that depends on you. However, the bigger the name where you got your PhD, the better your options for professorships. That statement is not at all true for industry or national research labs, though. Academia is just incredibly elitist.
Funding:
The rule of thumb for natural science grad school is never go somewhere that won't pay you. Most big schools offer you a stipend per year, and it may or may not depend on service (TA, RA). If a school offers you admission but no support (Stanford is notorious for this), then I would not go there. I HIGHLY ABSOLUTELY RECOMMEND you apply for NSF, NDSEG, Hertz Foundation, and any other big graduate fellowships out there. You'll get way more money, you won't have to TA or RA unless you want to (and trust me, you don't), and it looks fantastic on your CV. Harvard, I know, gives you a bonus on top of the fellowship stipend. Other schools often do the same, though not mine.
Masters:
I've never heard of a physics program that didn't let you do a masters thesis if you wanted to. When you defend that depends on your lab and your work. It could be four years, or two years.
My first piece of advice is not to fuck up your GRE, normal or physics. On the normal GRE, you are probably good for the Math part, but buff up on the writing, and especially the verbal. You REALLY want a good verbal; lots of physics institutions (and graduate schools in general) look highly upon this. As well, your physics GRE you want to study your ass off for. I was told that the physics GRE score wouldn't be too much of a problem if it were mediocre (Which it was) because I had 3 years of research experience, and had taken graduate course by the time I finished. They lied! Do well on your GREs! The reason I know this is that at the moment, there is a slim chance that I can have my application re-opened after being rejected, and I have talked to professors.
As for the industry experience, I don't know how much that actually matters in academia. I second grungebox in that academia is very elitist. As for how it worked at my school, you got a MS in physics if you decided that you really were sick of physics and you didn't want to go for your full PHD. What I've seen and heard is that for Solid state, you're probably looking at around 5 years for a PHD, for what I want its more like 7.
Oh, and if anybody had some advice for me as for what I can do (aside from applying to more schools next year, retaking the GREs, etc etc), please let me know!
Good luck!
My first post was worded badly, I think it looks like it says I wanna go to grad school for reasons I don't understand, but I mean for reasons I don't understand I did NOT go to grad school right away(and then I listed the reasons so that was BS anyways)
Part of the reason I didn't go right away was in fact my lack of research experience. I have about a semester's worth that I'd almost feel dirty putting down since I didn't really do much, or produce anything(it was on, let's see...PAES, positron annihilation induced auger electron spectroscopy, must less interesting than it sounds) but it was really the type of thing where the professor was just kinda introducing me to the subject in case I went to grad school there, which obviously I didn't. Is that worth anything? I did well in my classes but other than that was grossly unprepared(and our staff wasn't the most communicating bunch, I won't blame it any less on me, but I didn't even know undergrad research was an expected thing until around my junior year)
I should also mention I'm taking the GRE...again! I took it during school, but was kinda rushed in preparation, didn't really prepare well since at the time I was starting to decide to get a job after college, and took it before I had electronics or thermodynamics, and didn't bother studying either, and made a pretty average score(like the ultimate in average, right around the 50th percentile)
With the time to prepare, the desire to, and having experienced it before, I'm confident I can make a really good score, but how bad is it the fact that it's my second time? Is it like the SATs where some schools just take the second, and some average them? Would it make a difference that my score(hopefully) improved like a year later after having been out of school, implying some sense of self-education?
There's really nothing else you can do. Are you sure your rec letters weren't terrible? That'll sink an application very quickly.
Re-opening an application is hard, but re-applying is different. Then they'd just have a new file for you. I'm guessing though, since this situation didn't apply to me.
This is more of an engineering type job, but if nothing else I can get some glowing letters from guys with multiple phds in things like linear algebra, nonlinear optimization, nuclear physics, etc.
That's gotta be worth something, right?
Edit: Just to answer that one guy's earlier question, I have a pretty broad interest. For a while I was figuring to go to grad school for "condensed matter" before I realized that's like extra broad, so I narrowed it down to solid state(cliche I know, but that one guy is doing particle physics which I think is where pretty much ALL of my classmates went into!)I have an interest an electronics(developed too late for the half dozen damned GRE questions on it)so probably something involving semiconductors and the theory of such.
Actually, working here has increased my interest in aerospace engineering, and though this may be on the bottom of my "Things likely to happen" list, it's not unheard of for a science major to go to grad school in an engineering subject, is it?
Any experience is better than nothing. You'd be surprised at the lack of work most undergrads do. To be quite honest, most undergrads don't do much in their research internships/REUs. So, I'd definitely put it down. Not putting any research experience is a death sentence for an application, at least in applied physics. I can't speak about pure physics since I'm not in that department here, but I imagine it's the same. For that reason, though, I can't comment on the physics GRE since I didn't need to take it.
I totally agree; the only thing I'd add is don't go overboard if you don't have a recommendation letter from that professor, since that would look weird... but yeah, my impression is that rec letters carry huge weight in these applications, though it's obviously better they closer related to the research program that they are
Yeah, I think my letters of rec were good; I did well in all of the classes I had the professors for or did research for. I discussed going to graduate school at length with each of them, and they didn't seem to think I would have a problem getting into the school, especially with the graduate classes I took. The one thing another professor who is my friend suggested to me is that the best thing I could do to improve my application would be to increase my verbal GRE score (I was like 65%) and my physics GRE (43%). My physics GRE was especially bad (in my opinion) because I didn't study for it, and had two car accidents that week
As for the rec letters and undergrad research, I think most place are happy if as an undergraduate you didn't blow up the lab you are working in. From talking to the grad students in my group, the normal vision of undergrads is that they normally do not know what they are doing, and if they accomplish ANYTHING, that its a huge deal.
Right now I am still waiting for after the 15th to hear on them re-opening my application, as they have to have people decline to go here first.
A quick note on my work, if I work here for a couple of years, there's a good chance I'll have published reports. A coworker who does the same work I do has published reports on his(and others working with him)investigation into fuel slosh and gravity modeling, and he presented one at a AIAA conference, and I'm expected to do similar before too long, work permitting(we do everything, I've got like 3 or 4 tasks I'm working on at any given moment, some for NASA, some for other engineering companies, etc.)
SURELY a scientific report, even if not immediately applicable, would carry some weight?
definitely; especially if you're first author