An Odd Predicament

[Neil Dickson]

Hi all! This is my first time posting here, but I'm hoping not my last time. Sorry for the huge amount of background info.

I finished my undergrad in Computer Science in 2009, and since then have been working at a company (D-Wave Systems), researching practical quantum computers, simulating them, and developing new algorithms for them. As much as I think my research is as much CS as it is Physics, it appears to get lumped into Physics at universities, with just research related to complexity theory being under CS. Consequently, although I've got 9 papers published and more on the way, they're in journals not usually associated with CS, e.g. in Nature, Physical Review Letters, Journal of Computational Physics, etc. They're apparently big journals for physicists (especially Nature and PRL), but few people in CS have heard of them.

I applied to do graduate studies at a few universities, and got accepted by University of Waterloo, only to find out that nobody there actually researches topics related to what I research, so I had to reject their offer. (For those curious, there seem to be two separate groups there, one studying complexity theory, and the other experimentally investigating e.g. 1 and 2 qubit systems, neither of which seems to be interested in practical quantum algorithms.) I've been rejected by MIT 3 times, which is too bad, because they do seem to have a solid group there researching quantum algorithms. The only catch is that they're in the Physics department, not CS, and I'm not qualified to apply for Physics, so my applications to the CS department to do research with that group don't work out so well.

Should I even bother with graduate studies? If so, does anyone know of any reasonable options? I have contacts into several quantum computing research groups in North America, so I can get more detailed info, but they don't seem to hold any weight for getting in. Any other random thoughts?

[barber5]

Hi all! This is my first time posting here, but I'm hoping not my last time. Sorry for the huge amount of background info.

I finished my undergrad in Computer Science in 2009, and since then have been working at a company (D-Wave Systems), researching practical quantum computers, simulating them, and developing new algorithms for them. As much as I think my research is as much CS as it is Physics, it appears to get lumped into Physics at universities, with just research related to complexity theory being under CS. Consequently, although I've got 9 papers published and more on the way, they're in journals not usually associated with CS, e.g. in Nature, Physical Review Letters, Journal of Computational Physics, etc. They're apparently big journals for physicists (especially Nature and PRL), but few people in CS have heard of them.

I applied to do graduate studies at a few universities, and got accepted by University of Waterloo, only to find out that nobody there actually researches topics related to what I research, so I had to reject their offer. (For those curious, there seem to be two separate groups there, one studying complexity theory, and the other experimentally investigating e.g. 1 and 2 qubit systems, neither of which seems to be interested in practical quantum algorithms.) I've been rejected by MIT 3 times, which is too bad, because they do seem to have a solid group there researching quantum algorithms. The only catch is that they're in the Physics department, not CS, and I'm not qualified to apply for Physics, so my applications to the CS department to do research with that group don't work out so well.

Should I even bother with graduate studies? If so, does anyone know of any reasonable options? I have contacts into several quantum computing research groups in North America, so I can get more detailed info, but they don't seem to hold any weight for getting in. Any other random thoughts?

Jeeze, I'd think you'd be able to get into just about any group you'd want to with those publications and some good letters, but apparently I don't know. Maybe I have an usual awareness of physics for a CS person? But I really think just about anyone in the sciences has heard of at least Nature and PRL and knows their prestige.

[newms]

Yeah, I think you're more than qualified for admissions and have sterling credentials (I think most [all?] CS people would know of Nature and would be proud of a publication in Nature). I guess it comes down to fit. Departments can be reluctant to admit people whose research isn't a good fit with the research that is taking place there. My advice would be to try to find CS departments that are doing similar research as you (perhaps you might have to look outside of the very top ranked schools).

Alternatively, are you sure you're not qualified to apply to a Physics department? I really am not sure about the requirements of Physics departments, but many science fields allow applicants to apply even if they don't have a BS in that field. Perhaps you could even consider doing the Physics Subject GRE to shore up your credentials for applying to a Physics department.

In either case, don't give up on graduate studies. Good luck!

[csperson]

I'm surprised you applied to MIT 3 times...

I would not apply to the same school more than 2 times

Are you actually going to apply again?

I agree with the previous post. professors at top schools pretty much always look for students who have done similar research to join their groups.

I don't know anything about computational physics (or physics) . But is that related to Scientific Computing? Seems most CS departments have at least one professor in that area.

Edited June 30, 2011 by csperson

[Neil Dickson]

Maybe I have an usual awareness of physics for a CS person? But I really think just about anyone in the sciences has heard of at least Nature and PRL and knows their prestige.

Ah, okay. I was probably basing my assumption on that the CS Master's students I talked to hadn't heard of Nature or Science, let alone PRL. It'd make sense that profs or PhD's would probably be more acquainted with them.

I guess it comes down to fit. Departments can be reluctant to admit people whose research isn't a good fit with the research that is taking place there. My advice would be to try to find CS departments that are doing similar research as you (perhaps you might have to look outside of the very top ranked schools).

Makes sense. A colleague has suggested a bunch of possibilities, but I don't know much about the actual research they do yet. I'll need to narrow them down and see if any are a good match.

Alternatively, are you sure you're not qualified to apply to a Physics department? I really am not sure about the requirements of Physics departments, but many science fields allow applicants to apply even if they don't have a BS in that field. Perhaps you could even consider doing the Physics Subject GRE to shore up your credentials for applying to a Physics department.

Yeah, I've considered this, but the main issue is that I'd probably fail the Physics GRE, and Physics departments seem to require it. Although I have some very specific quantum physics knowledge and can apply it, I haven't taken any courses in relativity, fluid dynamics, condensed matter, statistical thermodynamics, particle physics... or even quantum physics for that matter.

In either case, don't give up on graduate studies. Good luck!

Thanks!

I'm surprised you applied to MIT 3 times...

I would not apply to the same school more than 2 times

Are you actually going to apply again?

Oh, to clarify, the latter two applications were concurrent. For the first one, I only applied to one program, Computation for Design and Optimization (CDO), and I didn't have anything significant accepted/published at the time, only things under review. For the second set, I applied to CS and to CDO, and got rejected by both even with the papers accepted & published. I'd even presented preliminary work to the group there for a paper that I just got accepted at New Journal of Physics today (a few hours after the first post above). I won't apply there a third year unless a professor there directly tells me ahead of time that he'll supervise me and the departments are okay with it.

I don't know anything about computational physics (or physics) . But is that related to Scientific Computing? Seems most CS departments have at least one professor in that area.

Yep. I do a lot of numerical linear algebra, performance optimization, parallelization, and distribution, which are the bread and butter of scientific computing. If I did grad studies in scientific computing, I'd probably want to get to know what the specific prof is into first, since, for example, it seems like (for unknown reasons) many profs dismiss general performance optimization as pointless, when you can actually get huge speedups from it. Anyway, enough of me ranting, haha. Thanks for the suggestion!

[frenzydude]

You certainly do have a stellar profile. In fact, you are already doing what many people would like to do after getting a PhD, so you might as well continue in the job :-)

[Amogh]

You certainly do have a stellar profile. In fact, you are already doing what many people would like to do after getting a PhD, so you might as well continue in the job :-)

I completely agree with frenzydude. But i also get where the OP is coming from. I think he wants a PhD to expand his options and for career growth maybe in the same company or other options.

And i would say that yours is a special case. You should contact professors you are interested in working with before hand and tell them you are going to apply. Also try and explain that you are open to changing your focus a little(not too much though and that too only if you are willing to) to fit the current work going on there.

I think you should contact some famous profs working in your area and see what they say. Also do talk to some people from the physics depts, tell them how you are not qualified to apply for physics program but you would love to work with them in interdisciplinary research if they could put in a good word for you with admissions in the CS dept or directly recommend you for admission in the physics dept itself. Many times there are exceptional cases where the standard procedures are abandoned to accept stellar students(and with pubs in nature and prl i'd say u fit the bill).

All the Best