caltech physics phd acceptance rate

Physics Option (Ph)

The physics option offers instruction in the fundamentals of modern physics and provides a foundation for graduate study, which is generally necessary for a career in basic research. The physics program also forms an excellent basis for future work in a variety of applied fields.

An intensive version of the sophomore physics course (waves, quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics) is offered for those planning further study in physics, and the required junior-level courses give a thorough treatment of fundamental principles. Elective courses taken during the junior and senior years allow students to explore their particular interest. Some electives offer broad surveys, while others concentrate on particular fields of current research. A selection of laboratory courses is offered at several levels. Students interested in concentrating their studies in one specific area of physics should refer to the undergraduate physics website for course schedule recommendations.

Students are encouraged to become active participants in research on campus, both during the summer and during the school year. Academic credit for physics work done outside of the classroom can be awarded in a variety of ways.

Students must maintain a grade-point average of 1.9 or better each year in the subjects listed under this division to remain in the physics option.

Ph Option Requirements

The first five requirements should be completed by the end of the second year. In planning a program, note that Ph 6 and Ph 7 are each offered only once per year, in the second and third terms, respectively. The pass/fail option cannot be exercised for any courses used for these requirements with the exception of courses that do not offer grades.

• Ma 2 and Ma 3.
• Ph 7 or APh/EE 24. 2
• 18 units of Ph 77, or 27 units of Ph 78 (experimental thesis project), or 9 units of Ph 77 and 9 units from APh 77 or Ay 105, or 9 units of Ph 77 and 9 units of Ph 177.
• Ph 106 abc.
• Ph 21 or Ph 22 or one term of Ph 121 abc or Ay 190, or APh/MS 141.

1 Other laboratory courses may be substituted for the Ph 3 requirement, including Ph 5, Ph 8 bc, or APh 9 a. 2 APh 23 is a prerequisite for APh/EE 24 and can be used towards the advanced physics elective requirement. 3 Other communication courses e.g., Ay 30 (or Ay 141) and 31 or Ma 10 and 11 may be substituted for Ph 70.

Ph Required Electives

• 90 units of Advanced Physics Electives, in addition to the above, include any of the following: any Ph, APh, or Ay, course numbered 100 or above, or any of Ph 5, Ph 22, Ph 78, Ph 79, ACM 95, ACM 101, APh/EE 23, Ma 5, Ma 108, or up to 10 units for Ay 20 – 21. Nine units towards the 90 unit requirement will be given for taking three terms of Ph 77. Students are encouraged to take ACM 95 or the quarter of Ph 129 that covers analysis as part of this requirement. The pass/fail option cannot be exercised for any courses used for this requirement with the exception of ACM 95 and courses that do not offer grades. Not more than 36 units of Ph courses numbered 200 or above taken on a pass/fail basis may apply toward this requirement. No more than 18 units of Ph 171-172 may apply toward this requirement without permission from the Undergraduate Option Representative. Additionally, Ph 171-172 may only apply toward this requirement if taken in increments of six units or more and a written summary (2-4 pages in length) of the work completed is submitted to the Undergraduate Option Representative within 2 weeks of the beginning of the subsequent quarter. Students may also petition the Undergraduate Option Representative to request that courses from other options with suitable physics content apply toward this requirement.
• Nine units of science and engineering electives outside of Ph, Ay, APh, Ma, and ACM. These units are in addition to the required Core science electives.

Passing grades must be earned in a total of 486 units, including the courses listed above.

Ph Typical Course Schedule

Graduate Program

The education and training of graduate students toward the doctoral degree is a major emphasis of the Astronomy Department.

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An advanced degree in astrophysics at Caltech is contingent upon an extensive research achievement. Students in the program are expected to join a research program, and carry out independent research leading to publications in peer-reviewed journals, as well as a thesis. They must complete a minimum of 9 terms of formal oral research presentations. In their first year, the students must pass a series of six courses in astrophysics and by the end of their second year, also a minimum of four physics or equivalent courses. The students must pass three oral exams administered by faculty committees: a qualifying exam at the end of their first year, a candidacy exam during their third year, and the final PhD defense. Each of these examinations includes evaluation of the students' research work and also their mastery of broader facts, concepts and current frontiers of astrophysics. The examining committees read and evaluate the candidates' descriptions of their work, their published and unpublished work, the PhD thesis, and evaluate their performance in the oral examinations.

Graduates of our program are expected to have extensive experience with modern research methods, a broad knowledge of contemporary astronomy and astrophysics, and the ability to perform as independent researchers at the highest intellectual and technical levels.

The Caltech Astronomy graduate program aims to prepare students for creative and productive careers in astrophysical research and to train the next generation of leaders in the field. While the vast majority of our graduate students come from undergraduate astronomy or physics programs, some arrive with related majors such as engineering. In addition to those admitted directly to Astronomy, students in Physics who have astrophysical interests may conduct research with Astronomy or Physics faculty. Conversely, Astronomy students may also take the opportunity to work with faculty in either department. A discussion of the Astronomy option is contained in the following text; for more information on the Physics option, refer to the Caltech website .

The Caltech graduate program strives to be the destination of choice for the brightest and most creative astrophysics students from all backgrounds. The program consists of a rigorous set of first-year classes aimed at providing a broad education in fundamentals across various sub-fields in astrophysics, and the transition from guided research to independent (though supervised) research that leads to Ph.D. As such, in the admissions process we are seeking students with strong preparation and confident understanding in the relevant fields of physics, mathematics, and/or hardware/software engineering. Students are also expected to have demonstrated skill in critical thinking and problem solving in the face of uncertainty and incomplete information, for example through success in research projects or project work.

Incoming students typically have a strong grounding in undergraduate physics. We also encourage applications from students with complementary preparation (e.g., chemistry, computer science, engineering, math), including industry experience. Although preparation in astronomy through coursework and/or research can be helpful, this is not required for admission. We recognize that there are many paths to a graduate career in astronomy. The application package includes three letters of recommendation, a personal statement, and academic transcripts.

Caltech is a proud member of the Cal-Bridge program. The Cal-Bridge program has the mission of creating opportunities for students of traditionally underrepresented groups to participate and advance in physics, astronomy, computer science, and computer engineering and to increase their numbers in PhD programs in those fields. More information here . All Cal-Bridge scholars are guaranteed fee waivers when applying to our graduate program. 

Academic Program

In astrophysics, we strive to understand the physical processes that govern the universe, its constituents, and their evolution. We use the apparatus and methodology of physics to gather and interpret data and to conduct theoretical studies. Caltech Astronomy students are embedded in a large and diverse department with interesting talks, seminars, and conferences happening nearly every day. This helps them acquire broad knowledge and good scientific practices. They receive intensive classroom training, including exposure to all aspects of modern astrophysics.

There are six astronomy classes to be completed during the first year of graduate study: Radiative Processes, Structure and Evolution of Stars, Structure and Dynamics of Galaxies, High-Energy Astrophysics, Interstellar Medium, and Cosmology and Galaxy Formation.

During their first or second year, students focusing on observational astronomy also take the Astronomical Measurements and Instrumentation sequence and four courses in physics or another appropriate subject. Theory students, on the other hand, select six classes in physics, mathematics, or other applicable fields. All first-year students participate in Introduction to Modern Research which exposes them to available research opportunities.

After their first year, students are encouraged to enroll in upper-level special topics courses, which are offered according to student demand and professor interest. All students second-year and beyond take a Journal Club seminar to hone their presentation skills. For more information on courses, please see https://catalog.caltech.edu/current/2022-23/department/Ay/ .

As with most graduate departments, Caltech has a qualifying exam. Here, the exam is an hour-long oral examination given at the start of the second year and focused on the required first-year astronomy courses plus a presentation on the student's first-year research.

After passing the qualifying exam, graduate students transition to teaching-assistant positions for the duration of their second year. The teaching assignments are made by the students themselves and include assisting with courses ranging from first-year graduate classes to undergraduate lectures, recitations, and laboratory classes at all levels. After the one-year teaching requirement, most students move to full-time research positions.

For students interested in mentoring and teaching, there are additional opportunities to help lecture for courses or to continue working as a teaching assistant‚ especially for the freshman-level introductory astronomy class. In addition, graduate students often co-mentor summer students through the Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program.

The graduate program emphasizes independent research, and students are free to pursue study in virtually any area of astrophysics. They are encouraged to sample several different research projects before embarking on their thesis work. Research may be supervised by any of the teaching or research faculty, and can be performed in collaboration with postdocs or larger consortia. Faculty members advise, on average, 2 postdocs and 1-2 advanced graduate students (3rd through 5th-year) as well as the 1st and 2nd-year students collectively. Many also take on one or more undergraduate students each summer.

Caltech's extensive, world-class observational facilities have always been an important component of our graduate education program, and our students learn the trade from the active example of their peers and advisors. The access they have to develop and use these observatories is simply unmatched by any other institution. Our deep connections to the JPL and the "Greater IPAC" communities, which develop and operate space missions (such as Spitzer, Herschel, and WISE), add to the large list of opportunities open to the students. To match its unparalleled observational resources, Caltech has an excellent theoretical astrophysics group – TAPIR – shared by the Physics and Astronomy departments. Students in TAPIR work alongside leading scientists in many venues of theoretical astrophysics and also benefit from collaborations with leading observers and instrumentalists.

Thesis Projects

Many Caltech theses represent substantial, even milestone, results in their fields and position our graduates for continuing careers of excellence. Eighty percent of our graduate program matriculates receive Ph.D. degrees, within a mean time of 5.5 years. Students who graduate from Caltech with an M.S. degree generally find employment in education, research, or industry.

Caltech Thesis Database: Astronomy

Caltech Thesis Database: Astrophysics

Alumni & Job Placement

Caltech Astronomy boasts a long and impressive list of Ph.D. alumni who have gone on to distinguished careers in the field. Details on many graduates of the program are listed on our website along with their current employment and links to archived theses.

Overall, our graduates do very well in the postdoctoral job market, and typically several per year win prestigious fellowships. The long-term research employment prospects for Caltech Astronomy Ph.D.s compare very favorably with those at other institutions (see figure). For instance, when compared to the national average, we have placed a higher percentage of our Ph.D.s into highly competitive faculty positions at research universities.

Among alumni graduating over the past 30 years, close to half (47%) have found long-term employment as professors at Ph.D.-granting universities, with an additional 34% employed as staff at observatories or national laboratories. 13% are in business or industry, 2.5% are professors at 4-year or community colleges, and another 2.5% work in other education-related careers.

Nationally, while the number of bachelor's degrees in astronomy was within 15% of constant throughout the 1980s and 1990s, over the past decade there has been close to 100% growth in the number of astronomy majors and 60% growth in physics majors. The increased pools for graduate admission have been accompanied by a smaller yet very substantial 50% increase in the number of available first-year graduate student positions nationwide. At the same time, the number of doctorate degrees awarded has remained stable (+/-15%).

At Caltech we typically graduate between 2 and 6 Astronomy Ph.D.s per year, and a similar number of Physics graduate students whose primary interest is astrophysics. Our matriculating first-year class in Astronomy ranges from year to year between 2 and 9 students. Presently in Astronomy, there are 25 graduate students. We also have 2-5 undergraduate majors per year. Almost all of our undergraduate majors participate in summer research here at Caltech, and one-half to two-thirds go on to graduate school in astronomy or physics.

Caltech graduates often maintain active collaborations with the faculty and staff at Caltech, even long after their graduation.

Apply Online

The application portal is currently closed. We will begin accepting applications for Fall 2025 on October 15, 2024. To apply, you will need to register an account at https://www.applyweb.com/caltgapp *. Check the Application Deadlines for the particular academic program you are applying to as the application system will close at 12:01am on the day following the posted deadline. Once the application has been submitted, you will not be able to modify supporting documents, so please proofread materials thoroughly before submission. Deadlines vary by program from November 15 to December 15.

Caltech is committed to supporting students and scholars affected by the Israel-Gaza and Ukraine-Russia conflicts, irrespective of citizenship. For those candidates in the region who have been affected, it may be possible to apply after the posted deadline. Interested candidates should contact the respective Option Representative for additional information and guidance on applying. The normal standards for admission will be used.

Application Fee

There is an application fee of $100.00 USD. Fee waivers will be granted to a limited number of students who can demonstrate financial need, or are affiliated with organizations that have made special arrangements with our office. To request a fee waiver, please complete the online fee waiver form within the graduate application and submit it through the online admissions system.

If you have questions about your application, you may email the Graduate Office .

Please also check the Frequently Asked Questions before contacting our office, as most answers to your questions may be found there.

Caltech Graduate Programs Place High in U.S. News Rankings

Numerous Caltech graduate programs are among the best in their fields, according to the just-released rankings from U.S. News & World Report . Overall, the chemistry and Earth sciences earned top spots, ranking number one in the Best Graduate Schools 2023–24 guidebook.

Several other programs are ranked in the top 10 for their graduate programs, including physics in third place, engineering in seventh, and mathematics in eighth.

Subdivisions also rank well. In the Earth sciences, Caltech's geochemistry, geology, and geophysics/seismology subdivisions have number one rankings. In physics, elementary particle/field/string theory, cosmology/relativity/gravity, and quantum physics are ranked first, atomic/molecular/optical physics is ranked third, and condensed matter physics is ranked ninth. In chemistry, organic and physical chemistry are each ranked second and inorganic chemistry is ranked fourth. In engineering, aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical engineering and chemical engineering are each ranked second, mechanical engineering is ranked third, and electrical/electronic/communications engineering is ranked fourth.

When graduate programs in the biological sciences were last assessed in 2022, Caltech tied for third. The subdivisions of biological sciences, biochemistry/biophysics/structural biology, and molecular biology also tied for third.

According to U.S. News, each school in the engineering ranking was first scored on nine ranking factors, including total research expenditures and average expenditures for faculty—which together, starting with this year's rankings, represent 50 percent of a school's rank. Other factors include peer assessment, percentage of faculty in the National Academy of Engineering, 2022 acceptance rate, and student –faculty ratio. These scores were standardized and compared with the means and standard deviations among all other ranked schools, and then the standardized values were weighted, totaled, and rescaled so the top school received 100 with other schools receiving their percentage of the top score. Finally, each school was numerically ranked in descending order of its overall score. Engineering specialty rankings were based on peer assessments by department heads in each specialty area.

Rankings of doctoral programs in the sciences were based on the results of surveys sent to academic officials in fall 2022 and early 2023 in chemistry, computer science, Earth science, mathematics and physics. The subdivision rankings were based on ratings by department chairs and directors of graduate studies in each field surveyed from the schools offering a PhD degree in that field.

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• Science Education and Careers

Getting into physics grad school

• Thread starter Vanadium 50
• Start date Jan 12, 2009
• Tags Grad Grad school Physics School
• Jan 12, 2009

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Vanadium 50 said: The ratio X/Y is known as the yield ratio, and departments keep historical records of this, so they know pretty much how many people to admit. They get Z applications, and typically Z >> Y: perhaps 10 or 20 times larger, although of course it varies.

j93 said: I hate to nitpick but no school has a 5% acceptance rate Harvard 12% Berkeley 16% from GradSchoolShopper

Dr Transport said: The best resource is the American Institute of Physics, they publish a catalog of grad schools, the faculty listing etc...right down to applications received, accepted, number of degrees granted over the past X years... If memory serves me correctly, and I could be wrong, but I remember seeing that Rochester accepted single digit percentages (they basically say, if we accept you you will get a PhD) and I'd rank them with Berkely, Stanford, Cornell and some of the other big name schools.

j93 said: gradschoolshopper is a site that just links to that aip data. Any data that I have seen that claims a single digit rate is suspect. For example, USC claims they accept 13 out 190 but have 78 grad students. Rochester seems to claim they accept 20 out of 400 but have 114 grad students. They are either flat out lying (cooking the books or they honestly believe accepted students means students who accepted their offers) or have a 100% yield which neither Stanford, MIT , nor Harvard do. Dont take numbers at face value.

Also, as someone going through the application process this year, thanks for writing this up Vanadium50!  

• Jan 13, 2009

Part 2: Grades: A physics department invests a lot of effort into educating graduate students. They don't want to admit students that will not complete their degrees, and like it or not, grades are a very strong predictor of how well that person will do. I don't know what the average GPA is of an admitted student, integrated over all universities, but I would imagine it's around 3.7: the typical student got mostly A's and some B's as an undergraduate. The less competitive one's undergraduate institution is, the higher the expectation of good grades. Below 3.5, a student starts to become uncompetitive very quickly. Below a 3.0 many universities simply will not admit you. People ask how severe this 3.0 limit is. This varies by school, but it's often taken very seriously. At one university, near the bottom of the rankings of departments, the dean of the college forbids accepting students for graduate admissions with less than a 3.0. Exceptions are granted only by the provost (the senior academic officer of the university). Part of this is because grades once in graduate school are taken seriously: a C is considered failing. When I was a graduate student, if you had any two quarters with either a quarter or cumulative average below 3.0, you were shown the door. The department had no choice in the matter - this was the policy of the college. So they were strongly disinclined to admit students with a history of low grades. History is an important word here. Committees look at trends and patterns. A history of high grades, backed with strong test scores is the sort of pattern they like. An upward trend in grades is a trend they like. Strong physics grades is a trend they like. Downward trends in grades, they don't like so much. A GPA that offsets low physics grades with higher grades in easy courses is a trend they don't like so much. They look beyond the single number - so all 3.7's are not created equal.  

Part 3: Standardized Tests The graduate equivalent of the ACT or SAT is the Graduate Record Examination or GRE. This comes in two parts, a general test covering verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and critical thinking and analytical writing skills, and a subject test covering what is taught in the typical undergraduate physics curriculum. The general test is largely irrelevant. Sometimes the college has minimum requirements for the general score, but physics graduates tend not to have any problem with them. Other than that, I have never seen this score make a difference: a student who got in because of a high general GRE or one who was rejected because of a low general GRE. The key part is the subject test. This is the only way that the committee has to compare across schools: how does a student with a 3.5 at University X compare to one with a 3.6 at University Y? While this test is pretty much universally acknowledged not to be perfect, because it is standardized, it is taken very seriously by committees. Since only about half of the people who take the GRE go on to graduate school, one needs to score roughly in the top half to be competitive anywhere, and substantially above that if one wants to be competitive at a more selective university. The other test that's important is the TOEFL, for international applicants. Most departments have had the experience of admitting a bright student from some far-away land, with a great application except for low TOEFL scores. They admitted this student, saying, "look how bright he is - surely he'll pick up English in no time". For whatever reason, this didn't happen, and they ended up with someone with English skills so poor that they couldn't use him as a TA, and whose presentations were very difficult to follow, making his path to a PhD quite rough. Most departments have learned from this experience and are taking increasingly close looks at TOEFL scores. International students should be aware of this.  

Part 4: Letters of Recommendation These are very important. Grades and GREs are just a pile of numbers (correlated ones at that) and don't give as an accurate a view of the candidate as letters do. In many cases, letters are the deciding factor on whether to admit someone or not. To set the scale, about 1 in 4 students ends up going to graduate school. The average college graduates 10 physics majors per year, so about 2 people per class go. Each student will likely (and naturally) pick the professors whose opinion of him is best to write letter, so it's entirely possible that both students' letters say something like "The best student this year". Now of course this oversimplified analysis fails at a place like MIT, which graduated 85 physics majors last year, but the point is that a letter that seems quite strong at first look is merely average among admitted students. The very best letters I have seen describe a student in some depth, including strengths and weaknesses. Including negatives actually helps the student (provided they are not too negative of course), because it shows that the writer isn't just writing fluff - she put time, effort and thought into the process, and it really can help the committee assess whether or not the student is a good match for the program. The more specific, the better. "Got an A in my class" but not much else isn't very helpful - we have the transcripts. "Good in labs but sometimes makes careless mathematical errors" is better. "Works well with ultrahigh vacuum equipment, and in fact has better vacuum hygiene than most postdocs, but still struggles with sign errors when doing lengthy matrix manipulation" is better still. So, who should write your letters? The professors who know you the best. Those are not necessarily the biggest names at your university, or even necessarily the ones who gave you the highest grade. A detailed letter than is mostly, but not universally positive will do your application far more good than one that is completely positive but vague. This is one of the areas where research is important. If you've done undergraduate research, you've worked closely with a professor, who can presumably write a letter with some meat on it. I would even argue that much of the benefit of undergraduate research on graduate admissions stems from the project generating a professor who can write such a letter. If you have not done any undergraduate research, I would strongly recommend having one letter from the professor teaching a laboratory course. Chances are she has interacted with you one-on-one, which is a plus and the admissions committee will also want to know how you did in the closest thing to research in your degree program. If you have done something outside your own school, such as an REU, that is also a good source for letters: apart from the reasons above, now the committee knows what people at two schools think of you. It may make sense to have a professor in another department write you a letter, particularly if she knows you and your work well. Don't go overboard, though - if a physics major intending to get a PhD in physics sends in three letters from historians, the committee will wonder. Two physicists and a chemist though would not be a problem, and may be advantageous.  

Part 5: Other Factors Having experience with research at the undergraduate level is a good thing. There are people who claim that it is required to get into graduate school. I disagree. Beneficial, yes. Required, no. One major benefit was mentioned earlier - it gives a professor an opportunity to work with you and write a letter with some substance to it. But what if you went to a small liberal arts college where research opportunities are limited? I wouldn't worry about it - most colleges that offer degrees in physics fall into that category, so you are hardly in an unusual situation. Many students are admitted with this sort of background, and they usually do quite well. If however, you have an opportunity as an undergraduate to participate in research, you should certainly take it - there are personal benefits to this, and frankly, research isn't for everyone. If you find it's not for you, better to learn that as an undergraduate rather than after beginning a multi-year research degree. Also, it looks quite strange if one graduates from a research university, particularly one with a commitment to undergraduate involvement, with no research experience and then applies for a multi-year research program. Often a candidate is asked to write a personal statement. This is not a contest to see who can write the saddest story or who was interested in physics the earliest. The committee doesn't care what books or television shows first got you interested in physics. They do, however, want to know why you want to invest half a dozen years of your life into this. They want to know what you want to study: experimental? theoretical? AMO? Nuclear? If your background is missing something typical of entering students (e.g. you were not a physics major as an undergrad), they want to know how you intend to make up that shortfall. It's not expected that you have decided on your thesis topic at this point. But it is expected that you are aware of the different branches and have thought about where you might want to do your research. They are looking for something like "theoretical nuclear physics" and not "a better calculation of the half-life of Ni-56". If you are attracted by more than one area, say that. But if all branches of physics interest you equally, you might want to think a little harder. Finally, for heaven's sake run this through a spell checker and look at the grammar. This is an opportunity to look very bad in front of the committee, and sadly, many students avail themselves of this opportunity.  

Vanadium 50 said: Part 2: Grades: I don't know what the average GPA is of an admitted student, integrated over all universities, but I would imagine it's around 3.7: the typical student got mostly A's and some B's as an undergraduate. The less competitive one's undergraduate institution is, the higher the expectation of good grades. Below 3.5, a student starts to become uncompetitive very quickly. Below a 3.0 many universities simply will not admit you.

I was thinking mostly in terms of a 4.0 (which is the most common among undergraduate institutions).  

L62 said: It could be that in the case of for example, USC - saying they accept 13 out of 190 but have 78 grad students - it's because the other 65 grad students were those who had been admitted in previous years who are still there working on their degrees. so the 13 out of 190 refers to new or incoming students whereas the 78 refers to total number of students (incoming as well as existing)

I think it's a matter of being inaccurate rather than dishonest. I think the AIP sends out a form every year to the departments and the department secretaries have to fill it out. At least that was the case at my former school, which never took the form too seriously (but then again the department was totally backwards). I don't think anyone sits there and calculates the exact average of test scores and GPAs... Who has time for that?  

For Avg GPAs and GRE I would agree with you. I think if I was a secretary or anyone in the position to fill out the form and I received a form that asked about acceptances for my college I would assume they meant offers given by my university just like if they asked how many rejections I would think of the group that does not get an offer. I thinks it takes a deliberate effort to go against this interpretation especially since the AIP also asked for the amount of first year grad students.  

• Jan 14, 2009

I don't think that the exact number of rejected applications (which of course varies from school to school and year to year) is really that important. One very good reason is that there's not much an applicant can do about the other applications anyway, so it's best to focus on the one application they have some control over - their own. Another is that if the school accepts, say 20 students, it only matters if you're in that 20 or not. If not, it doesn't matter if you're in that batch with 5 other people or 500. What matters is that even at a school ranked towards the bottom of PhD granting institutions (and these are often still quite good schools - the vast majority do not offer the PhD degree at all) there are many more applicants than places for them. Things are competitive everywhere, and like I said, not everyone who wants to go to graduate school gets to go.  

Just mentioned rejected applications because when you say rejected applications you mean applications that were not offered admission I am assuming and I believe that implies that when you say accepted you mean applications that were offered admission. USC and Rutgers apparently disagree with those definitions from the data they submitted to AIP and I can't believe they honestly do. The whole debate was to point out that physics PhD programs do not have single digit acceptance rate. The acceptance rate bottoms out at approximately 12% and can hover as high as 30% and slightly higher for domestic students. I was looking at UCLA data for domestics which is among top 50 programs. The rate for some lower ranked schools could possibly have acceptance rate in the high 30's/low 40's assuming they are at least slightly less selective than UCLA. That's a range from 1 in 8 to 1 in 3. This is according to AIP data that makes sense because it doesn't display a 100% yield and other university data. I just thought it was an exaggeration to imply a 5% acceptance rate.  

• Jan 15, 2009

j93 said: Just mentioned rejected applications because when you say rejected applications you mean applications that were not offered admission I am assuming and I believe that implies that when you say accepted you mean applications that were offered admission. USC and Rutgers apparently disagree with those definitions from the data they submitted to AIP and I can't believe they honestly do. The whole debate was to point out that physics PhD programs do not have single digit acceptance rate. The acceptance rate bottoms out at approximately 12% and can hover as high as 30% and slightly higher for domestic students. I was looking at UCLA data for domestics which is among top 50 programs. The rate for some lower ranked schools could possibly have acceptance rate in the high 30's/low 40's assuming they are at least slightly less selective than UCLA. That's a range from 1 in 8 to 1 in 3. This is according to AIP data that makes sense because it doesn't display a 100% yield and other university data. I just thought it was an exaggeration to imply a 5% acceptance rate.

JUICYWART said: While some top schools (I'm speaking as a Statistics PhD applicant) have slightly higher acceptance rates (such as Duke), generally, most students that apply to these schools are the best in the country [edit - best in the world] (think top 10%). So it doesn't really matter what the acceptance rate is . It's not a good indicator of how difficult it is to get into a graduate school. If you're an average applicant, your chance of getting into a top program will be MUCH less than 5%.

• Jan 16, 2009

Thanks for taking the time to put this together Vanadium 50.  

• Jan 18, 2009

A PF Molecule

I think this should be stickied, given the glut of "can I get in without a 3.0?" threads lately.  

• Jan 5, 2011

Thank you Vanadium 50, this thread is very helpful for applicants.  

• Jan 6, 2011

How do you convert a percentage mark ie. 70% from a Canadian physics program into an American GPA? Is this 3.7 mark on a 4.0 or 4.33 scale? On the other hand, where did you get your 3.7 gpa value from? It seems ridiculously high. :) The class averages of my physics and math classes at my university are usually around 72%.Thanks for your helpful post Vanadium50.  

If one's average was 70%, and the class average was 72%, I'd assume that person's GPA wouldn't be above 3.0, let alone 3.7.  

I know this is a year old but I have a question: Do grad schools tell their applicants if a TA or RA job is available to them after being accepted? I'm also doubful on the below scenarios. Situation 1: There was also a mention about some classes having more weight then others. What if an applicant had a 3.3 GPA but his college required him to take many humanities and social science courses which he did poorly in, but this student has aced every physics and math class he took. Would this make it very unlikely he would be accepted or does he have the grades that could make him a competitive applicant? Ceteris paribus. Situation 2: How about an applicant with this upward trend of gpa's in his 4 years of undergrad: 2.6, 3.3, 3.7, 4.0. This gpa has an average of 3.4; would it be considered bad or good by a committee? It seems that Vanadium has experience with acceptance committees so I would like people with similar experience to give an insight instead of speculation.  

A PF SuperCluster

Fizex said: I know this is a year old but I have a question: Do grad schools tell their applicants if a TA or RA job is available to them after being accepted?

My experience is the same as JT Bell's. As far as the other questions, the answer is, I am afraid, whatever the committee thinks of it. One school might look at low scores outside of physics and think "well, only his physics grades matter" and another might think "doesn't work so hard on things he's not interested in." That's why people get in in some places and don't in others.  

A PF Asteroid

Volorado, Most schools will have their own conversion schemes which should be printed in their calanders. For a very general approximation: A+ = 4.0 = 90 - 100% (= 4.3) A = 4.0 = 85 - 89% A- = 3.7 = 80 - 84% B+ = 3.3 = 77 - 79% B = 3.0 = 73 - 76% B- = 2.7 = 69 - 72% etc. In Canada, schools that have honour rolls will generally establish the cutoff around the 80%, A-, 3.7 line and the majority of students who get into graduate school are at or above this line. Fizex, Actually, most schools should be able to explain financial support before you even apply. It should be on their web pages. In some cases though, they won't make any guarantees until you receive a letter of offer. For both of your scenarios, remember that graduate school admissions work on a competative basis. Once you make the minimum requirements, you are lumped into a pool of candidates for a set number of positions. Candidates in the pool are ranked and if there are N positions, the top N candidates are offered admission. So, in light of that, in scenario 1, this candidate would likely come out ahead of another candidate with the same average who didn't do as well in the upper year physics classes. Similarly, in scenario 2, this candidate would likely be ranked higher than one with the same average with consistent numbers or worse, a trend that went the other way.  

I think that the odds of getting into grad school if you are a serious student is a bit larger than those numbers indicate. The GRE is an international test so there are pretty substantial numbers of people taking it that will not end up in a US grad school. There may be a lot of self-selection here, but every US citizen that I know that wanted to go to physics grad school with a decent application has gotten in somewhere, and I don't know anyone that has made a "serious application" that wasn't able to get in somewhere eventually.  

twofish-quant said: I think that the odds of getting into grad school if you are a serious student is a bit larger than those numbers indicate. The GRE is an international test so there are pretty substantial numbers of people taking it that will not end up in a US grad school. There may be a lot of self-selection here, but every US citizen that I know that wanted to go to physics grad school with a decent application has gotten in somewhere, and I don't know anyone that has made a "serious application" that wasn't able to get in somewhere eventually.

• Jan 7, 2011

Choppy said: Volorado, Most schools will have their own conversion schemes which should be printed in their calanders. For a very general approximation: A+ = 4.0 = 90 - 100% (= 4.3) A = 4.0 = 85 - 89% A- = 3.7 = 80 - 84% B+ = 3.3 = 77 - 79% B = 3.0 = 73 - 76% B- = 2.7 = 69 - 72%

Hi Camaron, Here's a conversion chart from McMaster's website. As you can see, it's pretty school-dependent. Also, there's a difference between percentage obtained on exams and final grades. The 3.7 = A- = 80-84% line seems pretty standard from my experience. It's also worth pointing out that this is for undergrad. My experience is that graduate grades, although following a similar scale, will have a significantly higher cutoff for what constitutes a pass. http://careers.mcmaster.ca/students/education-planning/virtual-resources/gpa-conversion-chart  

Caramon said: In Alberta from my experience it generally goes like this: A+ = 4.0 = 97% + A = 3.9 = 93%-96% A- = 3.7 = 90%-92% B+ = 3.3 = 85%-89% B = 3.0 = 80% - 84% B- = 2.7 = 75%-79% C+ = 2.3 = 70%-74% C = 2.0 = Below 70% There is no "set" percentage, it's based on z-scores and a bell-curve normally. Not sure how the hell someone would be worth any of A with a grade in the "80-84" range...

Jokerhelper said: Is it? I thought only US grad schools wanted those.

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