eflewis

My worries: So far I've been rejected from 6 schools with no word from the others (I applied to a lot of grad schools to increase my chances but here we are). I've done everything I can but I never got an internship in my field because they're so competitive, and my undergrad department doesn't have research that really aligns with what I want to do. I don't really know what I'll do if I don't get into grad school, I guess I should start figuring out a plan B. My excitement: I'm up for a really prestigious award at my university and I've been forwarded to the final round of review, so I think I could have a chance- that would be a really great mood booster among all of this. Plus, if I do end up getting in, I'm really excited to go to grad school and really get my hands dirty in some cool astrophysics stuff. This is giving me flashbacks to the past 2 springs where I've applied to a bunch of internships and slowly but surely gotten rejected from all of them. Third time's the charm, right? Here's to staying positive!

I am a rising senior looking to pursue a Ph.D. in Astronomy- currently, I'm a physics and applied mathematics double major. I have a couple strong points on my application- 3.7 GPA, 2 years of research experience, lots of extracurriculars and leadership experience (including the Society for Physics Students and Pi Mu Epsilon, the mathematics honor society). However, one big worry of mine is finding professors who will write me strong letters of recommendation. One professor, the head of the lab I've worked in for two years, is pleasant and seems to like me, but he's a notoriously bad professor in the department (the good research groups were all full) and I'm worried that he just may not be good at writing a strong, convincing letter. Another professor is my academic adviser, and I think he'll be fine and will write me a good letter. The third letter is my biggest fear- there is one professor that I've had a few classes with and have done well in. I have the opportunity to be an assistant TA for him in the fall, and I figured that between the classes and the assistant TA position he would have had enough good experiences with me to write a good letter. My only concern is that he is terrible at responding to emails and a bit scatterbrained/disorganized; he verbally offered me this position in May and hasn't responded to any of my emails since then asking for more solid details and how to prepare for the position. On the other hand, we have a very strong LIGO research group at my school and one of the professors in that group is very well known in the field and highly respected. I had one class with him that I performed very well in, but I'm not sure that we had enough interactions to ensure that he knows me well and that I could approach him and ask him to write me a letter/that he would have enough to go off of. I know letters of recommendation are crucial to the application, so any advice on this subject would be greatly appreciated!