How do you know where you have a chance to get in?

[TuringComp]

Hi, I am an undergraduate going into Senior year at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I am a double major in Physics and Computer Science, and I want to go to graduate school, either for Nuclear Physics or Robotics. I would prefer to study Robotics, but all of my research experience is in Physics, and I know research is important for getting into graduate school. I am worried that my lack of experience in robotics research will count against me for applying to a robotics program. I have a 3.67 GPA, a 160 on verbal reasoning and 165 on quantitative reasoning GRE scores, I had two software development internships (one at Amazon) and an REU in Nuclear Physics and I've been researching High Energy Particle Physics for the past 3 years. I'm going to take a course in Embedded Systems, which will be focused on building a robot over the semester, and I'm going to talk to the professor about doing research this semester. I would like to avoid applying to schools that I have little to no chance of getting into, but have no idea how to gauge my chances of getting into a particular school. Is there any advice you can give me on which schools I should apply to for both Nuclear Physics and Robotics, or on how to estimate my chances of getting in to a program in those fields?

[TakeruK]

I can't give you school names, but I can say that research experience in X can still help you in getting into grad school for Y. Sure, similar research experience is "worth more", but at some level, research experience is research experience and it will still help.

[juilletmercredi]

I think those fields are related enough that the physics research experience can help you get into robotics programs, particularly if you can articulate well why you want to go into robotics.