carlsaganism

thanks guys = )

thanks for all your inputs!! by the way, i am from Burnaby Vancouver ^^

Hi All, I got an email saying that they are inviting about 10 applicants to visit campus. They also said they will pay for everything. What does this mean? They didnt say anything about acceptance

All the programs I've looked into have guaranteed five year TAships. I am also looking to apply for some graduate fellowships, if that helps.

Hi All, I am a 3rd year undergraduate physics major with a 3.04 GPA (too many Cs in math class, though I have a mix of As and Bs in physics and astronomy classes). I am going to take the GRE this summer but I generally do horribly on exams. My research mentor and I submitted a paper for ApJ recently (I am first author). I will be working on another project this summer and hopefully result in another first author paper. My question: Is my research experience good enough to make up with my really bad grades and test scores? Thanks in advance for your kindness.

chicago is the best city lol

thank you so much for the super detailed comment! It really helped me shape my thoughts...

thanks for your thoughts on my situation!!

no haha, college has been a blast. It's just that my brother messed around (at Johns Hopkins, no less) and ended up being too late in worrying about graduate school and had to delay it for a year or two. I am afraid of being like him (I had too much fun during freshman year xD) and to answer your question, no, geomorphology is just my graduate research interest. I am doing seismology (Prof Ulrich Faul at MIT) and remote sensing work (Prof Mark Friedl).

Thanks for the advice!!

Hi guys (I am new here!), I am a sophomore at Boston University studying planetary geophysics. I messed up bad in my freshman year (ended up with a 3.0 GPA and a C+ in calculus). But I currently have all As and one A- in my classes this year and I hope to keep it up. My main concern is that even if I ended up with all As in my entire sophomore year, my GPA would still be hovering at about 3.4-3.5 ish, which is low to compared to what I have seen here (people with 3.6+ GPA still got rejected from mid-tier programs) However, I conduct research over the summer and I am going to present the projects results at AGU fall meeting in December, which I heard is a big plus to my resume/experience. Anyways, I am hoping to pursue a PhD in geomorphology/surface processes in a top planetary science program (Caltech/UArizona etc) and I am wondering my failed freshman year would prevent me from doing that. I know that UW has a mean 3.2 GPA for incoming PhD students http://www.ess.washington.edu/ess/education/grad/research/admission.html but Ive heard from people who had 3.7+ and still didn't get in some of the same or lower tier programs than UW. Also, I am serving as a undergraduate researcher in our Earth science department as well as in the Center for Remote Sensing and I am also planning on applying for funded earth science/planetary science research internships for the upcoming summer. I was also wondering if experiences could make up for my low GPA by the time I apply for grad school (in 2 years or so) Any thoughts/comments/insights from you guys would be greatly treasured!! Thanks!!