Though many physics students who choose to go into advanced studies remain in physics -- other students attend business school, law school, medical school, veterinary school, or engineering.

How do you prepare for graduate school?

Graduate schools tend to look at four things when considering the applications of students.

Your Academic Record

Grad schools look at the full 4 years of your academic career in order to see if you have shown a history of excellence in your studies of physics, mathematics and other disciplines. Though physics and mathematics are given the most attention ... schools do look for weaknesses in other areas as well. The stronger your academic record the better your chances of getting into the school of your choice.

Undergraduate Research

Actually involvement in physics outside the classroom. Mere academic excellence is no guarantee that you will be able to do research -- this involves synthesizing knowledge from many subfields of physics, pursuing open-ended questions, possesing physical insight, the ability to think creatively as well as logically, ... These traits have a chance to show up in a good research project. Students should try and take advantage of the research ooportunities on campus and off-campus (during the summer). See the section on How do you do reseach as an undergraduate? for more advice.

Board Scores

No one is willing to say what, if any, is the correlation between the GRE board scores and the ability to do physics. Certainly some students have done poorly on the GRE and have done very well in physics. And others have done very well on the tests but have not done well in advanced physics. But most schools seem to argue that the better you do on the tests, the greater your chance at succeeding in grad school. In any case, most schools require the GRE General test and most require the Physics Subject test as well. Again the better you do on these tests the better your chance of being able to choose which school to attend. See the section on How do you study for the GRE? for more advice.

Letters of Recommendation

The assumption by grad schools is that the faculty can give a very different perspective than can be seen in the board scores or academic record. If the faculty has the opportunity to get to know you very well in the 4 years of your undegraduate career and in research involvement they can often speak to your strengths and address any potential weaknesses in your application.

Of course grad schools looks at the complete picture and if you are weak in one area, corresponding strenghs in the other areas might be a convincing argument. But generally you want to present as strong and as balanced a picture as possible.

Some more advice

Planning for Graduate Studies in Physics and Related Fields

- from the Committee on Graduate Education of the AAPT.

Applying to Graduate School

- written by students from Johns Hopkins

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Last updated 8/29/2005