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mamemaki

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  • Location
    Chicago
  • Application Season
    Not Applicable
  • Program
    Computational Mathematics / Physics

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  1. Hello All, Nice to meet you! Thank you in advance for reading my long post. I recently graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a degree in Computer Science (GPA 3.2). I have a somewhat unconventional background since my first two years at Caltech were dedicated to studying physics, where I progressed to introductory graduate classes (Lagrangian Mechanics, Advanced Quantum Mechanics, Tensor Analysis, etc.). Now that I've been out of school for a few months, I've decided that I want to pursue a PhD that unites my love of programming with a hard science -- preferably physics. The PhD does not necessarily need to be related to physics as long as I have the background necessary to work in a research environment, but I've always been interested in physics and modeling. To this end, I assumed that computational science programs would be most accepting of my programming background. However, I understand that a degree in CS weighs heavily against me for admission to programs in the sciences, and that my informal background in physics can only get me so far (despite the fact that Caltech has one of the best physics programs in the world and I made it through a good deal of the classes). My question is: given my background, what is the optimal path for my time and energy with respect to admission into computational science programs? I don't have any unrealistic expectations like getting into top tier programs, but I do want to do the best I possibly can. Basically, I want to gauge what aspects of my background are salvageable for this path and what programs will be accepting of someone with my kind of background. For example, should I dedicate a large part of my time to the physics GRE, or would I be better off applying to programs in an applied mathematics department, studying for the mathematics GRE? My current plan is to volunteer for professors at a local university (hopefully pure science / computational related). Other than that, I plan to study hard for the general GRE. I will apply in about two years, so I figured that now is the best time to ask for some advice about what to prioritize. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks so much for taking the time to read and wishing happy holidays to everyone.
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