GradSchoolShopper

Now that the application process is almost finished for graduate programs, I thought it would be a nice idea to have a place to share advice and tips about graduate programs (regardless of the application itself.) There are quite a lot of people in this forum with graduate-degrees in the sciences -- how was grad school for you? Do you have any tips or advice for new students going through the process? What would you recommend a student would consider when picking a program in case they received multiple affirmative responses to their application? Let's share our experience!

Indeed so, but I thought it might show a bit of a trend at least in one subject. Your link is great, though. Thanks!

I don't mean to resurrect a problematic thread,but I wouldn't say this is something that is hard to test. Surveys like these that check for the presence of women and men in labs and workplaces, in multiple fields in science, exist. For example, this research from AIP Statistics about female physicists: http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/gendertrends.html shows some increase in female physicists, but the increase is rather small still. This, while a bit older, is also interesting: This might be true for the other fields. I wouldn't say that the genders are becoming equal, at least not in physics and astronomy, at least not yet, but the sitation seems to be improving slowly.

This is a tough question. In the technological age that we live in today, many technological positions are intertwined with one another in mixed fields like biophysics or medical physics, biochemistry, etc. I can't help much with prospective jobs of chemists and biologists, but physics is a very wide field, and misconceptions are abundant. As a physicists, you have quite a large array of job possibilities that are not necessarily strictly in academia. You can find more information about what you can do with physics in the Society of Physics Students website. They have a very good resource called "Careers using physics" that lays out quite a number of possibilities for a physics career - some of them very surprising. http://www.spsnational.org/cup/profiles/index.html Purdue university has a list of companies that frequent their career center and hires their graduates. It's an interesting and diverse list of companies outside of academia as well: http://www.physics.purdue.edu/career/whohires.shtml Notice, also, that there are several hospitals in that list. Physicists do have jobs in the medical field! You can also visit the American Institute of Physics Statistics Center to see some stats about job prospects and salaries (in the US) for physics majors: http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/emptrends.html Whatever you decide, I wish you good luck!

Everything you stated above will help you in applying for grad school, but it depends which program you want to go to and what type of studies you plan for. Different schools have slightly different requirements, but overall and on average, graduate programs in the sciences look for a strong academic background and research experience. This shows the school that you could not only get through the PhD program, but be a successful student with class as well as research. The GRE exams are also important, but neither of the three "basic" requirements is enough. Good grades are helpful, good GRE score is helpful, and a good set of recommendation letters and personal statement is helpful. You could get into a program even if one of those is not "perfect", but if you show you are well-rounded and successful in all three, you have an excellent chance of getting accepted. As a general rule, I'd recommend you make a list of your top 5 schools you want to apply to, and check the details in their application process. Some departments look for different types of candidates, and put emphasis on things like "extra curricular activities" or your personal statement. The best advice is to do your research, and know what each of the departments is looking for. Don't give up on your grades! You'll have a much greater chance of getting accepted if you put such effort in your studies. Good luck!