berkeley physics phd acceptance rate

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Grad Applicant Count Report

The Grad Applicant Count report provides a high-level view of graduate admissions for one or more academic years.  You can view headcounts for applied, admitted, and SIRed, as well as admit rate and yield rate for graduate applicants by year, semester, derived residency, and degree level/goal by college/school, division, department, major, academic plan, and academic subplan.

You can filter data in the report by academic year, derived residency, semester, and degree level.

The tabular reports for headcount by applied, admitted, and SIRed are organized by college in the rows and year in the columns. You can drill down on college/school to see division, department, and intended majors.

The trend reports for admit rate and yield rate are at the college level and do not have a drill down by major.

Sample Questions

How many prospective graduate students applied for entry into uc berkeley for 2022-23.

• Select 2022-23 for the Academic Year and click Apply
• The Applicant Headcount tabular chart on the left shows the applicant headcount by school/college and the total for campus. A total of 40,881 students applied to graduate programs (that have data included in this dashboard) for the 2022-23 academic year.

How many of these applicants were admitted? How does this admit rate vary?

• The Admitted Headcount chart shows the number of applicants admitted by school or college.
• The Admit Rate line chart shows the admit rate for each school or college so you can make comparisons by school/college, by year and overall trend.

How many admitted students accepted their admissions offer by submitting a Statement of Intent to Register (SIR)? How does the yield rate vary?

• The Statement of Intent to Register Headcount chart shows the number of admitted students that submitted a statement of intent to register by school or college.
• The Yield Rate chart shows the yield rate for each school or college so you can make comparisons by school/college, by year and overall trend.
• With so many lines in the chart, it can be difficult to see the college or school you are interested in. Use the Export link below the chart to export data. You can export to a formatted file, e.g. PDF, Excel, etc. or as raw data in a comma separated values (CSV) file.

What were that subplan's admit and yield rates?

• Right-click on the Applied Headcount column, select Include column, and select Admit Rate.
• Right-click on the Admit Rate column, select Include column, and select Yield Rate.

About the Program

Graduate work leading to the PhD degree is offered in the Department of Physics. Students may petition for an MA degree on their way to a PhD. Please note that the department will not consider applications from students who intend to work toward the MA degree only. In certain cases, students may petition for a terminal MA degree. Research is a major part of the PhD program, and research opportunities exist across the full spectrum of theoretical and experimental physics, including astrophysics and cosmology; atomic, molecular and optical physics; biophysics; condensed matter; elementary particles and fields; fusion and plasma; low-temperature physics; mathematical physics; nuclear physics; quantum information; space physics; and statistical mechanics.

At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, extensive opportunities exist for research in astrophysics, elementary particle and nuclear physics, condensed matter physics and materials science, and plasma and nuclear physics. Space physics, interplanetary studies, solar plasma research, physics of the upper atmosphere, and cosmological problems are pursued both in the Physics Department and at the Space Sciences Laboratory.

Visit Department Website

Admission to the University

Applying for graduate admission.

Thank you for considering UC Berkeley for graduate study! UC Berkeley offers more than 120 graduate programs representing the breadth and depth of interdisciplinary scholarship. The Graduate Division hosts a complete list of graduate academic programs, departments, degrees offered, and application deadlines can be found on the Graduate Division website.

Prospective students must submit an online application to be considered for admission, in addition to any supplemental materials specific to the program for which they are applying. The online application and steps to take to apply can be found on the Graduate Division website .

Admission Requirements

The minimum graduate admission requirements are:

A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;

A satisfactory scholastic average, usually a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 (B) on a 4.0 scale; and

Enough undergraduate training to do graduate work in your chosen field.

For a list of requirements to complete your graduate application, please see the Graduate Division’s Admissions Requirements page . It is also important to check with the program or department of interest, as they may have additional requirements specific to their program of study and degree. Department contact information can be found here .

Where to apply?

Visit the Berkeley Graduate Division application page .

Admission to the Program

The Department of Physics ordinarily admits only those applicants who have scholastic records well above a B+ average and who have completed the equivalent of the undergraduate major in physics. This program includes upper division courses in mechanics (4 semester units), electromagnetism and optics (8 semester units), statistical and thermal physics (4 semester units), quantum mechanics (8 semester units), and advanced undergraduate laboratory (5 semester units). Courses in atomic, nuclear and solid state physics, astronomy and applied mathematics are recommended as electives. Not all courses in the major are required for admission. Some courses required for the major program but not previously taken may have to be made up in the first year of graduate work. Applicants are required to submit a list of courses taken in physics and mathematics with course number, and applicable textbook, as well as a list of courses in progress.

In determining the admissibility of a prospective graduate student the department attempts to carefully weigh all relevant factors, including transcripts of academic work, test scores, letters of recommendation, research experience, and a statement of purpose. We recognize the diverse experiences of our applicants and therefore encourage them to submit supporting materials.

The Graduate Program in Physics is designed for those intending to pursue work leading to the PhD. After completing the necessary course work and examination requirements, an MA degree can be awarded. However, the department does not consider applications from those intending to work toward the MA degree only.

Master's Degree Requirements

The master’s degree in Physics is conferred according to Graduate Division degree policies.  Students in the physics doctoral program may apply for the MA degree. The Physics MA candidate must complete:

1) Curriculum

Note: Required courses (19.0 units) must be taken for a letter grade or 19 replacement units if subject waivers have been granted for prior coursework.

2) 16 additional units of approved upper division and graduate courses, which may include PHYSICS 251 and PHYSICS 375

Note: Total units required for MA degree is 35 semester units of upper division and graduate work in physics (or related fields) with an average grade of at least B. Eighteen of these units must represent graduate courses in physics. Neither upper division courses required in the Physics Major Program nor PHYSICS 290 seminars,  PHYSICS 295 ,  PHYSICS 299 ,  PHYSICS 301 , or  PHYSICS 602  may be used to satisfy the 35 unit requirement. No more than one-third of the 16 elective units may be fulfilled by courses graded Satisfactory, and then only if approved by the head graduate adviser.

3) Pass a comprehensive examination (passing the Physics preliminary examination constitutes passing the comprehensive exam).

Doctoral Degree Requirements

Normative time requirements.

The normative time for completing a PhD in Physics is six years.

Time to Advancement

Graduate students are required to take a minimum of 38 units of approved upper division or graduate elective courses (excluding any upper division courses required for the undergraduate major).  The department requires that students take the following courses which total 19 units: Physics 209 (Classical Electromagnetism), Physics 211 (Equilibrium Statistical Physics) and Physics 221A-221B (Quantum Mechanics). Thus, the normative program includes an additional 19 units (five semester courses) of approved upper division or graduate elective courses.  At least 11 units must be in the 200 series courses. Some of the 19 elective units could include courses in mathematics, biophysics, astrophysics, or from other science and engineering departments.  Physics 290, 295, 299, 301, and 602 are excluded from the 19 elective units. Physics 209, 211 and 221A-221B must be completed for a letter grade (with a minimum average grade of B).  No more than one-third of the 19 elective units may be fulfilled by courses graded Satisfactory, and then only with the approval of the Department.  Entering students are required to enroll in Physics 209 and 221A in the fall semester of their first year and Physics 211 and 221B in the spring semester of their first year. Exceptions to this requirement are made for 1) students who do not have sufficient background to enroll in these courses and have a written recommendation from their faculty mentor and approval from the head graduate adviser to delay enrollment to take preparatory classes, 2) students who have taken the equivalent of these courses elsewhere and receive written approval from the Department to be exempted. 

If a student has taken courses equivalent to Physics 209, 211 or 221A-221B, then subject credit may be granted for each of these course requirements.  A faculty committee will review your course syllabi and transcript.  A waiver form can be obtained from the Physics Student Affairs Officer detailing all required documents.  If the committee agrees that the student has satisfied the course requirement at another institution, the student must secure the Head Graduate Adviser's approval.  The student must also take and pass the associated section of the preliminary exam.  Please note that official course waiver approval will not be granted until after the preliminary exam results have been announced.  If course waivers are approved, units for the waived required courses do not have to be replaced for PhD course requirements.  If a student has satisfied all first-year required graduate courses elsewhere, they are only required to take an additional 19 units to satisfy remaining PhD course requirements.  (Note that units for required courses must be replaced for MA degree course requirements even if the courses themselves are waived; for more information please see MA degree requirements).

In exceptional cases, students transferring from other graduate programs may request a partial waiver of the 19 elective unit requirement. Such requests must be made at the time of application for admission to the Department.

Preliminary Examination

The preliminary examination is designed to ensure that students command a broad spectrum of undergraduate physics prior to their engaging in graduate research. The preliminary exam is a written exam composed of four sections, grouped by general subject areas of undergraduate physics. All four sections of the preliminary examination are offered at the beginning of both Fall and Spring semesters. A student who has passed all four sections of the exam will have passed the preliminary examination. The Department expects students to pass the examination within the first three semesters of graduate study (see further notes on this below).

The preliminary exam is intended as one tool for helping the Department evaluate that students are making adequate progress towards their PhD. The determination of a student’s academic standing in the Department will be based on a student’s entire record, including performance on the prelim exam, undergraduate coursework, graduate coursework, and research performance where appropriate. Consequently, a student would not be asked to leave the Department based solely on performance on the written preliminary exam.

The written exam has four sections, covering (1) classical mechanics, (2) electromagnetism and optics, and special relativity, (3) thermodynamics and statistical physics, and (4) quantum mechanics. Note that these divisions do not preclude the possibility of questions on one section that draw from subject matter emphasized in a different section. (For example, a question that touches on thermodynamics in the quantum mechanics section.) A student who passes any section of the written exam need not take that section again. Each section lasts three hours and covers traditional, textbook style problems, as well as more comprehensive questions that specifically test physical and numerical insight (e.g. order-of-magnitude estimates including physical constants, analyzing physical situations by application of general principles instead of complex calculations, etc.).  A student’s individual performance on each section of the exam, and not ranking relative to other students, will determine whether that student has passed or failed the section. In other words, there is no predetermined percentage of students to pass/fail the exam.

Students are encouraged, but not required, to attempt the examination during their first semester. Students are required to have attempted all of the written sections in their second semester. The status of students who have not yet passed all sections of the preliminary examination will be reviewed by a faculty committee each semester, beginning in the student's third semester, and recommendations of further action will be made. The Department Chair must approve exceptions to this schedule; all exceptions, except those due to illness or emergency, must be approved in advance.

The academic record of a student in their  third semester  who has not passed all four written sections will be reviewed. Near the beginning of the third semester (as prelim exam results become available) a faculty committee, in consultation with the student’s faculty mentor, will review the student’s academic record and performance on the prelims to determine whether a sufficient breadth of undergraduate physics has been demonstrated. This review may include meeting with the student to ask questions to further assess the student’s understanding of undergraduate physics, focusing primarily although not exclusively on the not-yet-passed sections of the exam, to discuss the student’s background and how best to address remaining deficiencies. If their determination is that the student has a sufficient breadth of undergraduate physics, the student will be determined to have passed the prelim exam, and will be allowed to proceed with research. If the committee’s determination is that this understanding is not yet demonstrated, they will recommend that the student be sent a warning letter by the Department Chair, and will specify requirements (including a timeline) for the student to return to making sufficient academic progress. These requirements could include taking and passing with a B or better grade specific  undergraduate courses during the third and/or fourth semester, and/or retaking and passing sections of the prelim exam not yet passed at the start of the fourth semester. This review could also result in additional recommendations to the student, such as serving as GSI for a course deemed appropriate to reinforce previous undergraduate coursework.  The intent of this third-semester review by the faculty committee is to determine if deficiencies exist in a student’s knowledge of undergraduate physics, and if so, what actions are required of the student to address these deficiencies.

A faculty committee will then review the student’s efforts towards returning to good academic progress at the beginning of the  fourth semester . This 4th semester review may also include meeting with the student to ask questions to assess the student’s understanding of undergraduate physics. This faculty committee will review the student’s entire academic record – including performance on the preliminary exam, coursework, and intended research plans – and recommend to the Department Chair whether the student is making sufficient academic progress and may be allowed to proceed with research. The Head Graduate Adviser or Department Chair will report the results to the Graduate Division. If requirements established in the 3rd semester review include undergraduate courses taken in the fourth semester, this 4th semester review can be deferred until the grades in these courses are determined, but in no case can this review be extended past the end of the student’s 4th semester. This review is not intended to create additional requirements, but to determine if previous requirements have been met, and in particular should not require any further attempts at passing any section of the preliminary exam.  The intent of this fourth- semester review by the faculty committee is to determine whether a student has mastered sufficient undergraduate physics to start PhD level research by the end of the 2nd year. If the committee concludes that such mastery is not present, they will recommend to the Department Chair that the student be asked to leave the program due to inadequate progress towards the PhD.

A revision in this schedule can be granted, for one or more sections of the preliminary exam, for any student with an incomplete undergraduate physics education as determined by consultation between the student and the student’s faculty mentor. Both the Head Graduate Advisor and the Department Chair must approve this revised schedule. Any student exercising this option is expected to take one or more undergraduate physics courses at UC Berkeley during the first one or two semesters. This student should follow the regular schedule outlined above for any sections of the exam not affected by the revised schedule, and is allowed to attempt the delayed section(s) at the start of their first one or two semesters for practice, in which case the student would not be required to repeat any sections that have been passed during this period. The student would then be expected to take all sections of the exam not yet passed at the beginning of the 3rd semester, and to repeat any unpassed sections at the start of the 4th semester. A faculty committee will be asked to assess this student following this exam if there are still sections not passed, following guidelines above, and can either determine that the student has demonstrated a sufficient breadth of undergraduate physics, and hence has passed the prelim exam, or to recommend that the student be sent a warning letter with specific requirements and a timeline for being returned to making sufficient academic progress; the most likely requirement and timeline for this is to be asked to study over the following summer and to attempt the still unpassed sections a final time at the start of the 5th semester.  The intent of this 4th and potentially 5th semester review by the faculty committee is that a student shall either be determined to have mastered sufficient undergraduate physics to start PhD level research by the start of their 3rd year, or else be asked to leave the program due to inadequate progress towards the PhD. Delays in this decision beyond the start of the 3rd year are highly discouraged and will only be considered under exceptional circumstances.

Qualifying Examination 

Within 2-3 semesters of beginning research, the Department expects students to take the University’s Oral Qualifying Examination covering his or her research field and related areas. This exam is required for advancement to PhD candidacy, and signifies that the student is prepared and qualified to undertake research, not that the student has already completed a significant body of work towards the PhD. It is therefore expected to occur for most students in the 3rd year, and no later than the 4th year. A student is considered to have begun research when they first register for Physics 299 or fill out the department advising form showing that a research advisor has accepted the student for PhD work, at which time the research advisor becomes responsible for guidance and mentoring of the student. The examination is administered by a four-member committee (consisting of three Physics Department and one outside faculty member, including the research advisor) approved by the Graduate Division on behalf of the Graduate Council, and may be repeated once at the recommendation of the examining committee. The Department expects that all committees include at least one theorist and one experimentalist. For students with advisors from outside the department or who are not members of the Academic Senate (e.g., with appointments at LBNL or SSL), permission for a five-member committee may be requested from Grad Division to allow both the non-faculty and faculty advisor to be on the committee; in this case, approval of the proposed research by the Head Graduate Advisor and the Chair of the Department must also be obtained before the student takes their qualifying exam.

Rules and requirements associated with the Qualifying Exam are set by the Graduate Division on behalf of the Graduate Council. The committee membership and the conduct of the exam are therefore subject to Graduate Division approval. The exam is oral and lasts 2-3 hours. The Graduate Division specifies that the purpose of the Qualifying Exam is “to ascertain the breadth of the student's comprehension of fundamental facts and principles that apply to at least three subjects areas related to the major field of study and whether the student has the ability to think incisively and critically about the theoretical and the practical aspects of these areas.” Grad Division also states that this oral qualifying exam serves a significant additional function. “Not only teaching, but the formal interaction with one’s students and colleagues at colloquia, annual meetings of professional societies and the like, often require the ability to synthesize rapidly, organize clearly, and argue cogently in an oral setting.... It is consequently necessary for the University to ensure that a proper examination is given incorporating [these skills].”

The Qualifying Exam requires that the student, in consultation with his or her advisor, identify three topics which in the Physics Department are expected to be a proposed Thesis Topic, an Area of Research, and a General Area of Research. The General Area of Research is taken to be the sub-field within physics (e.g. astrophysics, biophysics, particle physics, condensed matter physics); the Area of Research to be a still broad but more narrowly defined field within the sub-field (e.g. magnetism, or QCD). For fields where these choices are not obvious, the student should suggest appropriately broad topics contiguous to their Thesis Topic. The choice of topics is subject to the approval of the Physics Department Head Graduate Adviser, per Graduate Council Requirements. Qualifying Exams in the Physics Department begin with a presentation from the student that is expected to last approximately, but no more than, 45 minutes, during and after which questions related to the presentation are typically asked. The presentation should focus on the student's research goals and necessary background material, including the proposed Thesis Topic and the Area of Research that encompasses the thesis topic, as well as a proposed schedule for finishing the PhD and goals/milestones in that schedule. After this presentation, following a short break if desired, members of the committee will further question the student both about the presentation itself and about the broader subject areas included in the General Area of Research, testing the student’s “ability to think incisively and critically about the theoretical and the practical aspects of these areas”. The Department expects these questions to be related to the student's research field, but to be broad in nature rather than narrowly related to the thesis itself. Ability to give a coherent and organized presentation and to answer questions on the three topics in an oral setting is also required for passing this exam. Note that adjustments may be made on the basis of campus policies for cases in which an otherwise able individual is prevented from meeting an oral requirement by a physical disability.

PHYSICS C201 Introduction to Nano-Science and Engineering 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2013, Spring 2012 A three-module introduction to the fundamental topics of Nano-Science and Engineering (NSE) theory and research within chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering. This course includes quantum and solid-state physics; chemical synthesis, growth fabrication, and characterization techniques; structures and properties of semiconductors, polymer, and biomedical materials on nanoscales; and devices based on nanostructures. Students must take this course to satisfy the NSE Designated Emphasis core requirement. Introduction to Nano-Science and Engineering: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Prerequisites: Major in physical science such as chemistry, physics, etc., or engineering; consent of advisor or instructor

Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: Three hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Physics/Graduate

Grading: Letter grade.

Instructors: Gronsky, S.W. Lee, Wu

Also listed as: BIO ENG C280/MAT SCI C261/NSE C201

Introduction to Nano-Science and Engineering: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS C202 Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023 Principles of gas dynamics, self-gravitating fluids, magnetohydrodynamics and elementary kinetic theory. Aspects of convection, fluid oscillations, linear instabilities, spiral density waves, shock waves, turbulence, accretion disks, stellar winds, and jets. Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics: Read More [+]

Instructors: Chiang, Kasen, Ma, Quataert, White

Also listed as: ASTRON C202

Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS C203 Computational Nanoscience 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2009, Spring 2008, Spring 2006 A multidisciplinary overview of computational nanoscience for both theorists and experimentalists. This course teaches the main ideas behind different simulation methods; how to decompose a problem into "simulatable" constituents; how to simulate the same thing two different ways; knowing what you are doing and why thinking is still important; the importance of talking to experimentalists; what to do with your data and how to judge its validity; why multiscale modeling is both important and nonsense. Computational Nanoscience: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week

Additional Format: Three hours of Lecture and One hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks.

Also listed as: NSE C242

Computational Nanoscience: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 205A Advanced Dynamics 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2019 Lagrange and Hamiltonian dynamics, variational methods, symmetry, kinematics and dynamics of rotation, canonical variables and transformations, perturbation theory, nonlinear dynamics, KAM theory, solitons and integrable pdes. Advanced Dynamics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 105 or equivalent

Additional Format: Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.

Advanced Dynamics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 205B Advanced Dynamics 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2020 Nonlinear dynamics of dissipative systems, attractors, perturbation theory, bifurcation theory, pattern formation. Emphasis on recent developments, including turbulence. Advanced Dynamics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 205A

PHYSICS C207 Radiation Processes in Astronomy 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021 An introduction to the basic physics of astronomy and astrophysics at the graduate level. Principles of energy transfer by radiation. Elements of classical and quantum theory of photon emission; bremsstrahlung, cyclotron and synchrotron radiation. Compton scattering, atomic, molecular and nuclear electromagnetic transitions. Collisional excitation of atoms, molecules and nuclei. Radiation Processes in Astronomy: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Physics 105, 110A; 110B concurrently; open to advanced undergraduates with GPA of 3.70

Instructors: Chiang, Kasen, Quataert

Also listed as: ASTRON C207

Radiation Processes in Astronomy: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 209 Classical Electromagnetism 5 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 Maxwell's equations, gauge transformations and tensors. Complete development of special relativity, with applications. Plane waves in material media, polarization, Fresnel equations, attenuation, and dispersion. Wave equation with sources, retarded solution for potentials, and fields. Cartesian and spherical multipole expansions, vector spherical harmonics, examples of radiating systems, diffraction, and optical theorem. Fields of charges in arbitrary motion, radiated power, relativistic (synchrotron) radiation, and radiation in collisions. Classical Electromagnetism: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 110A-110B or consent of instructor

Classical Electromagnetism: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 211 Equilibrium Statistical Physics 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022 Foundations of statistical physics. Ensemble theory. Degenerate systems. Systems of interacting particles. Equilibrium Statistical Physics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 112 or equivalent

Equilibrium Statistical Physics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 212 Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 Time dependent processes. Kinetic equations. Transport processes. Irreversibility. Theory of many-particle systems. Critical phenomena and renormalization group. Theory of phase transitions. Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 112 and 221A-221B, or equivalents

Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 216 Special Topics in Many-Body Physics 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022 Quantum theory of many-particle systems. Applications of theory and technique to physical systems. Pairing phenomena, superfluidity, equation of state, critical phenomena, phase transitions, nuclear matter. Special Topics in Many-Body Physics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 221A-221B or equivalent recommended

Special Topics in Many-Body Physics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS C218 Modern Optical Microscopy for the Modern Biologist 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023 This course is intended for graduate students in the early stages of their thesis research who are contemplating using modern microscopy tools as part of their work. It endeavors to cut through the confusion of the wide array of new imaging methods, with a practical description of the pros and cons of each. In addition to providing an intuitive physical understanding how these microscopes work, the course will offer hands on experience with cutting-edge microscopes where students will be able to see firsthand how different imaging modalities perform on their own samples, and where they will be able to access computational tools for the visualization and analysis of their data. Modern Optical Microscopy for the Modern Biologist: Read More [+]

Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for MCELLBI 205 after completing MCELLBI 205, or MCELLBI 205. A deficient grade in MCELLBI 205 may be removed by taking MCELLBI 205, or MCELLBI 205.

Additional Format: Three hours of lecture per week.

Instructors: Betzig, Ji

Formerly known as: Molecular and Cell Biology 205

Also listed as: MCELLBI C205/NEU C272

Modern Optical Microscopy for the Modern Biologist: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 221A Quantum Mechanics 5 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 Basic assumptions of quantum mechanics; quantum theory of measurement; matrix mechanics; Schroedinger theory; symmetry and invariance principles; theory of angular momentum; stationary state problems; variational principles; time independent perturbation theory; time dependent perturbation theory; theory of scattering. Quantum Mechanics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 137A-137B or equivalent

Quantum Mechanics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 221B Quantum Mechanics 5 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022 Many-body methods, radiation field quantization, relativistic quantum mechanics, applications. Quantum Mechanics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 221A

PHYSICS 226 Particle Physics Phenomenology 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 Introduction to particle physics phenomena. Emphasis is placed on experimental tests of particle physics models. Topics include Quark model spectroscopy; weak decays; overview of detectors and accelerators; e+e- annihilation; parton model; electron-proton and neutrino-proton scattering; special topics of current interest. Particle Physics Phenomenology: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 221A-221B or equivalent or consent of instructor

Particle Physics Phenomenology: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS C228 Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2022, Spring 2021, Fall 2016 A survey of physical cosmology - the study of the origin, evolution, and fate of the universe. Topics include the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker model, thermal history and big bang nucleosynthesis, evidence and nature of dark matter and dark energy, the formation and growth of galaxies and large scale structure, the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave radiation, inflation in the early universe, tests of cosmological models, and current research areas. The course complements the material of Astronomy 218. Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology: Read More [+]

Instructors: Holzapfel, Lee, Ma, Seljak, White

Also listed as: ASTRON C228

Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 229 Advanced Cosmology 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2021, Spring 2019 Advanced topics in physical and early-universe cosmology. Topics include the expanding Universe, evidence and nature of dark matter and dark energy, relativistic perturbation theory, models of cosmological inflation, the formation and growth of large scale structure and the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background, and current research areas. The course extends the material of C228. Advanced Cosmology: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Physics/Astronomy C228 or equivalent or consent of instructor

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: Three hours of lecture per week. Three hours of lecture per week.

Advanced Cosmology: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 230 Quantum and Nonlinear Optics 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024 The detailed theory and experimental basis of quantum and nonlinear optics is presented and used to exhibit basic concepts of quantum measurements and noise, stochastic processes and dissipative quantum systems. Topics covered may include the second-quantization treatment of electromagnetic fields, photodetection, coherence properties of quantum-optical fields, light-atom interactions, cavity quantum electrodynamics, several non-linear optical systems, squeezed light and its applications, aspects of quantum information science, and selected topics at the forefront of modern optics research. Quantum and Nonlinear Optics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Physics 110A, Physics 137A, Physics 137B, or consent of instructor

Quantum and Nonlinear Optics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 231 General Relativity 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022 An introduction to Einstein's theory of gravitation. Tensor analysis, general relativistic models for matter and electromagnetism, Einstein's field equations. Applications, for example, to the solar system, dense stars, black holes, and cosmology. General Relativity: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Physics 110B or Physics 139 (or equivalent) or consent of instructor/department

General Relativity: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 232A Quantum Field Theory I 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 Introduction to quantum field theory: canonical quantization of scalar, electromagnetic, and Dirac fields; derivation of Feynman rules; regularization and renormalization; introduction to the renormalization group; elements of the path integral. Quantum Field Theory I: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Concurrent enrollment in 221A or 221B or consent of instructor

Quantum Field Theory I: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 232B Quantum Field Theory II 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022 Renormalization of Yang-Mills gauge theories: BRST quantization of gauge theories; nonperturbative dynamics; renormalization group; basics of effective field theory; large N; solitons; instantons; dualities. Selected current topics. Quantum Field Theory II: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 232A or equivalent or consent of instructor

Quantum Field Theory II: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 233A Standard Model and Beyond I 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022 Introduction to the Standard Model of particle physics and its applications: construction of the Standard Model; Higgs mechanism; phenomenology of weak interactions; QCD and the chiral Lagrangian; quark mixing and flavor physics. Standard Model and Beyond I: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 232A or equivalent or consent of instructor (concurrent enrollment in 232B is recommended)

Standard Model and Beyond I: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 233B Standard Model and Beyond II 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2021, Fall 2020 Advanced topics in the Standard Model and beyond, selected from: open problems in the Standard Model; supersymmetric models; grand unification; neutrino physics; flat and warped extra dimensions; axions; inflation; baryogenesis; dark matter; the multiverse; other current topics. Standard Model and Beyond II: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 233A or equivalent or consent of instructor

Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit with instructor consent.

Standard Model and Beyond II: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 234A String Theory I 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021 Perturbative theory of the bosonic strings, superstrings, and heterotic strings: NSR and GS formulations; 2d CFT; strings in background fields; T-duality; effective spacetime supergravity; perturbative description of D-branes; elements of compactifications and string phenomemology; perturbative mirror symmetry. String Theory I: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 232A or equivalent or consent of instructor. 232B is recommended

String Theory I: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 234B String Theory II 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2021 Nonperturbative apsects of string theory. Topics selected from black holes; black branes; Bekenstein-Hawking entropy; D-branes; string dualities; M-theory; holographic principle and its realizations; AdS/CFT correspondence; gauge theory/gravity dualities; flux compactifications; cosmology in string theory; topological string theories. Selected current topics. String Theory II: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 234A or equivalent or consent of instructor

String Theory II: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 238A Modern Atomic Physics 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2023 Atomic, molecular, and optical physics is at once a precise and quantitative description of atoms, molecules and light; a generalized toolbox for manipulating and probing quantum systems; and an active field of contemporary research. This course exposes students to all these aspects. Lectures will cover topics such as atomic structure and spectra, the interaction of atoms with static and time-varying electromagnetic fields, some topics in quantum electrodynamics, methods of resonant manipulation of quantum systems, and resonance optics. Through lectures, discussion sessions, and homework assignments, students encounter contemporary research foci. Modern Atomic Physics: Read More [+]

Modern Atomic Physics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 238B Advanced Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2023 Contemporary topics in atomic, molecular, and optical physics are presented at an advanced level. These topics may include one or several of the following, at the discretion of the instructor: mechanical effects of light-atom interactions, ultra-cold atomic physics, molecular physics, resonance optics of multi-level atoms, and probing particle physics with atoms and molecules. Advanced Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Physics 110A; Physics 137A; Physics 137B; Physics 130 or 230; Physics 138 or 238A

Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for PHYSICS 238B after completing PHYSICS 238. A deficient grade in PHYSICS 238B may be removed by taking PHYSICS 238.

Advanced Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 240A Quantum Theory of Solids 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 Excitations and interactions in solids; crystal structures, symmetries, Bloch's theorem; energy bands; electron dynamics; impurity states; lattice dynamics, phonons; many-electron interactions; density functional theory; dielectric functions, conductivity and optical properties. Quantum Theory of Solids: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 141A-141B and 221A-221B or equivalents, or consent of instructor; 240A is prerequisite to 240B

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PHYSICS 240B Quantum Theory of Solids 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022 Optical properties, excitons; electron-phonon interactions, polarons; quantum oscillations, Fermi surfaces; magnetoresistance; quantum Hall effect; transport processes, Boltzmann equation; superconductivity, BCS theory; many-body perturbation theory, Green's functions. Quantum Theory of Solids: Read More [+]

PHYSICS 242A Theoretical Plasma Physics 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021 Analysis of plasma behavior according to the Vlasov, Fokker-Planck equations, guiding center and hydromagnetic descriptions. Study of equilibria, stability, linear and nonlinear waves, transport, and laser-plasma interactions. Theoretical Plasma Physics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Physics 142, or consent of instructor

Theoretical Plasma Physics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 242B Theoretical Plasma Physics 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2020, Spring 2016 Analysis of plasma behavior according to the Vlasov, Fokker-Planck equations, guiding center and hydromagnetic descriptions. Study of equilibria, stability, linear and nonlinear waves, transport, and laser-plasma interactions. Theoretical Plasma Physics: Read More [+]

PHYSICS 250 Special Topics in Physics 2 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2021, Fall 2019 Topics will vary from semester to semester. See Department of Physics announcements. Special Topics in Physics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Consent of instructor

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2-4 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: Two to Four hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.

Special Topics in Physics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 251 Introduction to Graduate Research in Physics 1 Unit

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 A survey of experimental and theoretical research in the Department of Physics, designed for first-year graduate students. One regular meeting each week with supplementary visits to experimental laboratories. Meetings include discussions with research staff. Introduction to Graduate Research in Physics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Graduate standing in Department of Physics or consent of instructor

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1 hour of lecture per week

Additional Format: One hour of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.

Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.

Introduction to Graduate Research in Physics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS C254 High Energy Astrophysics 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Fall 2018 Basic physics of high energy radiation processes in an astrophysics environment. Cosmic ray production and propagation. Applications selected from pulsars, x-ray sources, supernovae, interstellar medium, extragalactic radio sources, quasars, and big-bang cosmologies. High Energy Astrophysics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 201 or consent of instructor. 202 recommended

Instructors: Boggs, Quataert

Formerly known as: Physics C254, Astronomy C254

Also listed as: ASTRON C254

High Energy Astrophysics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS C285 Theoretical Astrophysics Seminar 1 Unit

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 The study of theoretical astrophysics. Theoretical Astrophysics Seminar: Read More [+]

Instructor: Quataert

Also listed as: ASTRON C285

Theoretical Astrophysics Seminar: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 288 Bayesian Data Analysis and Machine Learning for Physical Sciences 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 The course design covers data analysis and machine learning, highlighting their importance to the physical sciences. It covers data analysis with linear and nonlinear regression, logistic regression, and gaussian processes. It covers concepts in machine learning such as unsupervised and supervised regression and classification learning. It develops Bayesian statistics and information theory, covering concepts such as information, entropy, posteriors , MCMC, latent variables, graphical models and hierarchical Bayesian modeling. It covers numerical analysis topics such as integration and ODE, linear algebra, multi-dimensional optimization, and Fourier transforms. Bayesian Data Analysis and Machine Learning for Physical Sciences: Read More [+]

Bayesian Data Analysis and Machine Learning for Physical Sciences: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 290A Seminar 2 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023 Seminar: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week

Additional Format: Two hours of Seminar per week for 15 weeks.

Seminar: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 290B Seminar 2 Units

Physics 290d seminar 2 units.

Terms offered: Fall 2005, Fall 2004, Fall 2003 Seminar: Read More [+]

PHYSICS 290E Seminar 2 Units

Physics 290f seminar 2 units, physics 290g seminar 2 units.

Terms offered: Fall 2006, Spring 2006, Fall 2005 Seminar: Read More [+]

PHYSICS 290H Seminar 2 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015 Seminar: Read More [+]

PHYSICS 290I Seminar 2 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 1999, Spring 1998 Seminar: Read More [+]

PHYSICS 290J Seminar 2 Units

Terms offered: Prior to 2007 Seminar: Read More [+]

PHYSICS 290K Seminar 2 Units

Physics 290l seminar 2 units.

Terms offered: Fall 2012, Fall 2000 Seminar: Read More [+]

PHYSICS 290N Seminar in Non-Neutral Plasmas 2 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2007, Fall 2006, Spring 2006 Seminar in Non-Neutral Plasmas: Read More [+]

Seminar in Non-Neutral Plasmas: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 290P Seminar 2 Units

Physics 290q seminar in quantum optics 2 units.

Terms offered: Prior to 2007 Seminar in Quantum Optics: Read More [+]

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PHYSICS 290R Seminar 2 Units

Physics 290s seminar 2 units, physics 290t seminar 2 units.

Terms offered: Spring 2000, Fall 1999, Spring 1999 Seminar: Read More [+]

PHYSICS 290X Seminar 2 Units

Physics 290y seminar 2 units, physics 290z seminar 2 units, physics c290c cosmology 2 units.

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Spring 2022 Cosmology: Read More [+]

Instructors: White, Cohn

Formerly known as: Physics C290C, Astronomy C290C

Also listed as: ASTRON C290C

Cosmology: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 295 Special Study for Graduate Students 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Fall 2021, Fall 2015 This course is arranged to allow qualified graduate students to investigate possible research fields or to pursue problems of interest through reading or non-laboratory study under the direction of faculty members who agree to give such supervision. Special Study for Graduate Students: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Graduate standing

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-4 hours of independent study per week

Summer: 6 weeks - 1-4 hours of independent study per week 8 weeks - 1-4 hours of independent study per week

Additional Format: One to Four hour of Independent study per week for 15 weeks. One to Four hour of Independent study per week for 8 weeks. One to Four hour of Independent study per week for 6 weeks.

Special Study for Graduate Students: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 297 Careers for Physical Science PhDs 1 Unit

Terms offered: Spring 2018 This course exposes graduate students and postdocs in the physical sciences to non-academic careers. Each session hosts speakers who have transitioned from a PhD in the physical sciences to a variety of industries, including data science, quantitative finance, software/hardware engineering, consulting, and more. Careers for Physical Science PhDs: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1 hour of seminar per week

Additional Format: One hour of seminar per week.

Careers for Physical Science PhDs: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 299 Research 1 - 12 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024 8 Week Session, Spring 2024 Research: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week

Summer: 6 weeks - 1-12 hours of independent study per week 8 weeks - 1-12 hours of independent study per week

Additional Format: Zero hours of Independent study per week for 15 weeks. One to Twelve hour of Independent study per week for 8 weeks. One to Twelve hour of Independent study per week for 6 weeks.

Research: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 301 Advanced Professional Preparation: Supervised Teaching of Physics 1 - 2 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023 Discussion, problem review and development, guidance of physics laboratory experiments, course development. Advanced Professional Preparation: Supervised Teaching of Physics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 300

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1 hour of independent study per week

Additional Format: One hour of informal meeting and 10 to 20 hours of teaching per week.

Subject/Course Level: Physics/Professional course for teachers or prospective teachers

Advanced Professional Preparation: Supervised Teaching of Physics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 375 Professional Preparation: Supervised Teaching of Physics 2 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019 Mandatory for first time GSIs. Topics include teaching theory, effective teaching methods, educational objectives, alternatives to standard classroom methods, reciprocal classroom visitations, and guided group and self-analysis of videotapes. Professional Preparation: Supervised Teaching of Physics: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor; may be taken concurrently with 301

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: Two hours of lecture plus 10 to 20 hours of teaching per week.

Formerly known as: Physics 300

Professional Preparation: Supervised Teaching of Physics: Read Less [-]

PHYSICS 602 Individual Study for Doctoral Students 1 - 8 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015 Individual study in consultation with the major field adviser intended to provide an opportunity for qualified students to prepare themselves for the various examinations required of candidates for the Ph.D. Individual Study for Doctoral Students: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: For qualified graduate students

Credit Restrictions: Course does not satisfy unit or residence requirements for doctoral degree.

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-8 hours of independent study per week

Summer: 6 weeks - 1-8 hours of independent study per week 8 weeks - 1-8 hours of independent study per week

Additional Format: One to Eight hour of Independent study per week for 15 weeks. One to Eight hour of Independent study per week for 8 weeks. One to Eight hour of Independent study per week for 6 weeks.

Subject/Course Level: Physics/Graduate examination preparation

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PHYSICS 700 Departmental Colloquium 0.0 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2016 Physics Department weekly colloquium. Departmental Colloquium: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of colloquium per week

Additional Format: Two hours of colloquium per week.

Grading: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.

Formerly known as: Physics 800

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arianapaniagua

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• Science Education and Careers

Getting into physics grad school

• Thread starter Vanadium 50
• Start date Jan 12, 2009
• Tags Grad Grad school Physics School
• Jan 12, 2009

A PF Universe

• New insights into hot carrier solar cells: Study explores hot electron tunneling and collection to enhance efficiency
• Thermal effects in spintronics systematically assessed for first time
• Team studies the emergence of fluctuating hydrodynamics in chaotic quantum systems

Vanadium 50 said: The ratio X/Y is known as the yield ratio, and departments keep historical records of this, so they know pretty much how many people to admit. They get Z applications, and typically Z >> Y: perhaps 10 or 20 times larger, although of course it varies.

j93 said: I hate to nitpick but no school has a 5% acceptance rate Harvard 12% Berkeley 16% from GradSchoolShopper

Dr Transport said: The best resource is the American Institute of Physics, they publish a catalog of grad schools, the faculty listing etc...right down to applications received, accepted, number of degrees granted over the past X years... If memory serves me correctly, and I could be wrong, but I remember seeing that Rochester accepted single digit percentages (they basically say, if we accept you you will get a PhD) and I'd rank them with Berkely, Stanford, Cornell and some of the other big name schools.

j93 said: gradschoolshopper is a site that just links to that aip data. Any data that I have seen that claims a single digit rate is suspect. For example, USC claims they accept 13 out 190 but have 78 grad students. Rochester seems to claim they accept 20 out of 400 but have 114 grad students. They are either flat out lying (cooking the books or they honestly believe accepted students means students who accepted their offers) or have a 100% yield which neither Stanford, MIT , nor Harvard do. Dont take numbers at face value.

Also, as someone going through the application process this year, thanks for writing this up Vanadium50!  

• Jan 13, 2009

Part 2: Grades: A physics department invests a lot of effort into educating graduate students. They don't want to admit students that will not complete their degrees, and like it or not, grades are a very strong predictor of how well that person will do. I don't know what the average GPA is of an admitted student, integrated over all universities, but I would imagine it's around 3.7: the typical student got mostly A's and some B's as an undergraduate. The less competitive one's undergraduate institution is, the higher the expectation of good grades. Below 3.5, a student starts to become uncompetitive very quickly. Below a 3.0 many universities simply will not admit you. People ask how severe this 3.0 limit is. This varies by school, but it's often taken very seriously. At one university, near the bottom of the rankings of departments, the dean of the college forbids accepting students for graduate admissions with less than a 3.0. Exceptions are granted only by the provost (the senior academic officer of the university). Part of this is because grades once in graduate school are taken seriously: a C is considered failing. When I was a graduate student, if you had any two quarters with either a quarter or cumulative average below 3.0, you were shown the door. The department had no choice in the matter - this was the policy of the college. So they were strongly disinclined to admit students with a history of low grades. History is an important word here. Committees look at trends and patterns. A history of high grades, backed with strong test scores is the sort of pattern they like. An upward trend in grades is a trend they like. Strong physics grades is a trend they like. Downward trends in grades, they don't like so much. A GPA that offsets low physics grades with higher grades in easy courses is a trend they don't like so much. They look beyond the single number - so all 3.7's are not created equal.  

Part 3: Standardized Tests The graduate equivalent of the ACT or SAT is the Graduate Record Examination or GRE. This comes in two parts, a general test covering verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and critical thinking and analytical writing skills, and a subject test covering what is taught in the typical undergraduate physics curriculum. The general test is largely irrelevant. Sometimes the college has minimum requirements for the general score, but physics graduates tend not to have any problem with them. Other than that, I have never seen this score make a difference: a student who got in because of a high general GRE or one who was rejected because of a low general GRE. The key part is the subject test. This is the only way that the committee has to compare across schools: how does a student with a 3.5 at University X compare to one with a 3.6 at University Y? While this test is pretty much universally acknowledged not to be perfect, because it is standardized, it is taken very seriously by committees. Since only about half of the people who take the GRE go on to graduate school, one needs to score roughly in the top half to be competitive anywhere, and substantially above that if one wants to be competitive at a more selective university. The other test that's important is the TOEFL, for international applicants. Most departments have had the experience of admitting a bright student from some far-away land, with a great application except for low TOEFL scores. They admitted this student, saying, "look how bright he is - surely he'll pick up English in no time". For whatever reason, this didn't happen, and they ended up with someone with English skills so poor that they couldn't use him as a TA, and whose presentations were very difficult to follow, making his path to a PhD quite rough. Most departments have learned from this experience and are taking increasingly close looks at TOEFL scores. International students should be aware of this.  

Part 4: Letters of Recommendation These are very important. Grades and GREs are just a pile of numbers (correlated ones at that) and don't give as an accurate a view of the candidate as letters do. In many cases, letters are the deciding factor on whether to admit someone or not. To set the scale, about 1 in 4 students ends up going to graduate school. The average college graduates 10 physics majors per year, so about 2 people per class go. Each student will likely (and naturally) pick the professors whose opinion of him is best to write letter, so it's entirely possible that both students' letters say something like "The best student this year". Now of course this oversimplified analysis fails at a place like MIT, which graduated 85 physics majors last year, but the point is that a letter that seems quite strong at first look is merely average among admitted students. The very best letters I have seen describe a student in some depth, including strengths and weaknesses. Including negatives actually helps the student (provided they are not too negative of course), because it shows that the writer isn't just writing fluff - she put time, effort and thought into the process, and it really can help the committee assess whether or not the student is a good match for the program. The more specific, the better. "Got an A in my class" but not much else isn't very helpful - we have the transcripts. "Good in labs but sometimes makes careless mathematical errors" is better. "Works well with ultrahigh vacuum equipment, and in fact has better vacuum hygiene than most postdocs, but still struggles with sign errors when doing lengthy matrix manipulation" is better still. So, who should write your letters? The professors who know you the best. Those are not necessarily the biggest names at your university, or even necessarily the ones who gave you the highest grade. A detailed letter than is mostly, but not universally positive will do your application far more good than one that is completely positive but vague. This is one of the areas where research is important. If you've done undergraduate research, you've worked closely with a professor, who can presumably write a letter with some meat on it. I would even argue that much of the benefit of undergraduate research on graduate admissions stems from the project generating a professor who can write such a letter. If you have not done any undergraduate research, I would strongly recommend having one letter from the professor teaching a laboratory course. Chances are she has interacted with you one-on-one, which is a plus and the admissions committee will also want to know how you did in the closest thing to research in your degree program. If you have done something outside your own school, such as an REU, that is also a good source for letters: apart from the reasons above, now the committee knows what people at two schools think of you. It may make sense to have a professor in another department write you a letter, particularly if she knows you and your work well. Don't go overboard, though - if a physics major intending to get a PhD in physics sends in three letters from historians, the committee will wonder. Two physicists and a chemist though would not be a problem, and may be advantageous.  

Part 5: Other Factors Having experience with research at the undergraduate level is a good thing. There are people who claim that it is required to get into graduate school. I disagree. Beneficial, yes. Required, no. One major benefit was mentioned earlier - it gives a professor an opportunity to work with you and write a letter with some substance to it. But what if you went to a small liberal arts college where research opportunities are limited? I wouldn't worry about it - most colleges that offer degrees in physics fall into that category, so you are hardly in an unusual situation. Many students are admitted with this sort of background, and they usually do quite well. If however, you have an opportunity as an undergraduate to participate in research, you should certainly take it - there are personal benefits to this, and frankly, research isn't for everyone. If you find it's not for you, better to learn that as an undergraduate rather than after beginning a multi-year research degree. Also, it looks quite strange if one graduates from a research university, particularly one with a commitment to undergraduate involvement, with no research experience and then applies for a multi-year research program. Often a candidate is asked to write a personal statement. This is not a contest to see who can write the saddest story or who was interested in physics the earliest. The committee doesn't care what books or television shows first got you interested in physics. They do, however, want to know why you want to invest half a dozen years of your life into this. They want to know what you want to study: experimental? theoretical? AMO? Nuclear? If your background is missing something typical of entering students (e.g. you were not a physics major as an undergrad), they want to know how you intend to make up that shortfall. It's not expected that you have decided on your thesis topic at this point. But it is expected that you are aware of the different branches and have thought about where you might want to do your research. They are looking for something like "theoretical nuclear physics" and not "a better calculation of the half-life of Ni-56". If you are attracted by more than one area, say that. But if all branches of physics interest you equally, you might want to think a little harder. Finally, for heaven's sake run this through a spell checker and look at the grammar. This is an opportunity to look very bad in front of the committee, and sadly, many students avail themselves of this opportunity.  

Vanadium 50 said: Part 2: Grades: I don't know what the average GPA is of an admitted student, integrated over all universities, but I would imagine it's around 3.7: the typical student got mostly A's and some B's as an undergraduate. The less competitive one's undergraduate institution is, the higher the expectation of good grades. Below 3.5, a student starts to become uncompetitive very quickly. Below a 3.0 many universities simply will not admit you.

I was thinking mostly in terms of a 4.0 (which is the most common among undergraduate institutions).  

L62 said: It could be that in the case of for example, USC - saying they accept 13 out of 190 but have 78 grad students - it's because the other 65 grad students were those who had been admitted in previous years who are still there working on their degrees. so the 13 out of 190 refers to new or incoming students whereas the 78 refers to total number of students (incoming as well as existing)

I think it's a matter of being inaccurate rather than dishonest. I think the AIP sends out a form every year to the departments and the department secretaries have to fill it out. At least that was the case at my former school, which never took the form too seriously (but then again the department was totally backwards). I don't think anyone sits there and calculates the exact average of test scores and GPAs... Who has time for that?  

For Avg GPAs and GRE I would agree with you. I think if I was a secretary or anyone in the position to fill out the form and I received a form that asked about acceptances for my college I would assume they meant offers given by my university just like if they asked how many rejections I would think of the group that does not get an offer. I thinks it takes a deliberate effort to go against this interpretation especially since the AIP also asked for the amount of first year grad students.  

• Jan 14, 2009

I don't think that the exact number of rejected applications (which of course varies from school to school and year to year) is really that important. One very good reason is that there's not much an applicant can do about the other applications anyway, so it's best to focus on the one application they have some control over - their own. Another is that if the school accepts, say 20 students, it only matters if you're in that 20 or not. If not, it doesn't matter if you're in that batch with 5 other people or 500. What matters is that even at a school ranked towards the bottom of PhD granting institutions (and these are often still quite good schools - the vast majority do not offer the PhD degree at all) there are many more applicants than places for them. Things are competitive everywhere, and like I said, not everyone who wants to go to graduate school gets to go.  

Just mentioned rejected applications because when you say rejected applications you mean applications that were not offered admission I am assuming and I believe that implies that when you say accepted you mean applications that were offered admission. USC and Rutgers apparently disagree with those definitions from the data they submitted to AIP and I can't believe they honestly do. The whole debate was to point out that physics PhD programs do not have single digit acceptance rate. The acceptance rate bottoms out at approximately 12% and can hover as high as 30% and slightly higher for domestic students. I was looking at UCLA data for domestics which is among top 50 programs. The rate for some lower ranked schools could possibly have acceptance rate in the high 30's/low 40's assuming they are at least slightly less selective than UCLA. That's a range from 1 in 8 to 1 in 3. This is according to AIP data that makes sense because it doesn't display a 100% yield and other university data. I just thought it was an exaggeration to imply a 5% acceptance rate.  

• Jan 15, 2009

j93 said: Just mentioned rejected applications because when you say rejected applications you mean applications that were not offered admission I am assuming and I believe that implies that when you say accepted you mean applications that were offered admission. USC and Rutgers apparently disagree with those definitions from the data they submitted to AIP and I can't believe they honestly do. The whole debate was to point out that physics PhD programs do not have single digit acceptance rate. The acceptance rate bottoms out at approximately 12% and can hover as high as 30% and slightly higher for domestic students. I was looking at UCLA data for domestics which is among top 50 programs. The rate for some lower ranked schools could possibly have acceptance rate in the high 30's/low 40's assuming they are at least slightly less selective than UCLA. That's a range from 1 in 8 to 1 in 3. This is according to AIP data that makes sense because it doesn't display a 100% yield and other university data. I just thought it was an exaggeration to imply a 5% acceptance rate.

JUICYWART said: While some top schools (I'm speaking as a Statistics PhD applicant) have slightly higher acceptance rates (such as Duke), generally, most students that apply to these schools are the best in the country [edit - best in the world] (think top 10%). So it doesn't really matter what the acceptance rate is . It's not a good indicator of how difficult it is to get into a graduate school. If you're an average applicant, your chance of getting into a top program will be MUCH less than 5%.

• Jan 16, 2009

Thanks for taking the time to put this together Vanadium 50.  

• Jan 18, 2009

A PF Molecule

I think this should be stickied, given the glut of "can I get in without a 3.0?" threads lately.  

• Jan 5, 2011

Thank you Vanadium 50, this thread is very helpful for applicants.  

• Jan 6, 2011

How do you convert a percentage mark ie. 70% from a Canadian physics program into an American GPA? Is this 3.7 mark on a 4.0 or 4.33 scale? On the other hand, where did you get your 3.7 gpa value from? It seems ridiculously high. :) The class averages of my physics and math classes at my university are usually around 72%.Thanks for your helpful post Vanadium50.  

If one's average was 70%, and the class average was 72%, I'd assume that person's GPA wouldn't be above 3.0, let alone 3.7.  

I know this is a year old but I have a question: Do grad schools tell their applicants if a TA or RA job is available to them after being accepted? I'm also doubful on the below scenarios. Situation 1: There was also a mention about some classes having more weight then others. What if an applicant had a 3.3 GPA but his college required him to take many humanities and social science courses which he did poorly in, but this student has aced every physics and math class he took. Would this make it very unlikely he would be accepted or does he have the grades that could make him a competitive applicant? Ceteris paribus. Situation 2: How about an applicant with this upward trend of gpa's in his 4 years of undergrad: 2.6, 3.3, 3.7, 4.0. This gpa has an average of 3.4; would it be considered bad or good by a committee? It seems that Vanadium has experience with acceptance committees so I would like people with similar experience to give an insight instead of speculation.  

A PF SuperCluster

Fizex said: I know this is a year old but I have a question: Do grad schools tell their applicants if a TA or RA job is available to them after being accepted?

My experience is the same as JT Bell's. As far as the other questions, the answer is, I am afraid, whatever the committee thinks of it. One school might look at low scores outside of physics and think "well, only his physics grades matter" and another might think "doesn't work so hard on things he's not interested in." That's why people get in in some places and don't in others.  

A PF Asteroid

Volorado, Most schools will have their own conversion schemes which should be printed in their calanders. For a very general approximation: A+ = 4.0 = 90 - 100% (= 4.3) A = 4.0 = 85 - 89% A- = 3.7 = 80 - 84% B+ = 3.3 = 77 - 79% B = 3.0 = 73 - 76% B- = 2.7 = 69 - 72% etc. In Canada, schools that have honour rolls will generally establish the cutoff around the 80%, A-, 3.7 line and the majority of students who get into graduate school are at or above this line. Fizex, Actually, most schools should be able to explain financial support before you even apply. It should be on their web pages. In some cases though, they won't make any guarantees until you receive a letter of offer. For both of your scenarios, remember that graduate school admissions work on a competative basis. Once you make the minimum requirements, you are lumped into a pool of candidates for a set number of positions. Candidates in the pool are ranked and if there are N positions, the top N candidates are offered admission. So, in light of that, in scenario 1, this candidate would likely come out ahead of another candidate with the same average who didn't do as well in the upper year physics classes. Similarly, in scenario 2, this candidate would likely be ranked higher than one with the same average with consistent numbers or worse, a trend that went the other way.  

I think that the odds of getting into grad school if you are a serious student is a bit larger than those numbers indicate. The GRE is an international test so there are pretty substantial numbers of people taking it that will not end up in a US grad school. There may be a lot of self-selection here, but every US citizen that I know that wanted to go to physics grad school with a decent application has gotten in somewhere, and I don't know anyone that has made a "serious application" that wasn't able to get in somewhere eventually.  

twofish-quant said: I think that the odds of getting into grad school if you are a serious student is a bit larger than those numbers indicate. The GRE is an international test so there are pretty substantial numbers of people taking it that will not end up in a US grad school. There may be a lot of self-selection here, but every US citizen that I know that wanted to go to physics grad school with a decent application has gotten in somewhere, and I don't know anyone that has made a "serious application" that wasn't able to get in somewhere eventually.

• Jan 7, 2011

Choppy said: Volorado, Most schools will have their own conversion schemes which should be printed in their calanders. For a very general approximation: A+ = 4.0 = 90 - 100% (= 4.3) A = 4.0 = 85 - 89% A- = 3.7 = 80 - 84% B+ = 3.3 = 77 - 79% B = 3.0 = 73 - 76% B- = 2.7 = 69 - 72%

Hi Camaron, Here's a conversion chart from McMaster's website. As you can see, it's pretty school-dependent. Also, there's a difference between percentage obtained on exams and final grades. The 3.7 = A- = 80-84% line seems pretty standard from my experience. It's also worth pointing out that this is for undergrad. My experience is that graduate grades, although following a similar scale, will have a significantly higher cutoff for what constitutes a pass. http://careers.mcmaster.ca/students/education-planning/virtual-resources/gpa-conversion-chart  

Caramon said: In Alberta from my experience it generally goes like this: A+ = 4.0 = 97% + A = 3.9 = 93%-96% A- = 3.7 = 90%-92% B+ = 3.3 = 85%-89% B = 3.0 = 80% - 84% B- = 2.7 = 75%-79% C+ = 2.3 = 70%-74% C = 2.0 = Below 70% There is no "set" percentage, it's based on z-scores and a bell-curve normally. Not sure how the hell someone would be worth any of A with a grade in the "80-84" range...

Jokerhelper said: Is it? I thought only US grad schools wanted those.

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Is admission standard for math PhD significantly higher than that for physics PhD?

I'm a student at a small LAC, and I'm considering to apply to both math and physics PhD programs. In my school, which is top 15 but do not have large (20 students in each dep.) or well-known departments for either of these fields, students did significantly better on physics PhD admission than on math PhD admission. For math, many students go instead to master's, and only one or two students can make top 40~70 PhD program per year. For physics, some students went to Caltech, Columbia, UCSB, and other high ranked programs in the last year, which was just as usual. A similar phenomena seem to happen not only in my school. Mathgre.com and Physicsgre.com list applicant profiles and admission results for each PhD program, and they show a similar tendency. For example, students accepted to top pure math PhD programs are exclusively those who got nearly 4.0 GPA, took many grad-level courses, had a significant amount of research experience and come from an undergrad institution with a renowned PhD program. On the other hand, students accepted to top physics PhD programs have more diversity in GPA, their undergrad institution, number of grad-level courses taken and amount of research experience.

What causes this difference? Or is my view wrong? If this difference actually exists, I think the following factors are among the causes:

• Physics PhDs are funded more, and therefore more students can be afforded.
• Physics PhDs have both theoretical and applied subdivisions, while many applied math programs exist as master's programs.
• Math PhDs demand its applicants to take a significant number of grad-level courses, while physics ones don't.

Also, how about the situation when it comes to pure math vs. hep-th in the U.S.?

• mathematics

• 7 Is your first sentence saying that your university 1) is a small liberal arts college, 2) is one of the top 15 universities in the country, and 3) does not have a strong mathematics or physics department? I don't think all three of these can be true simultaneously. –  Tom Church Commented Sep 23, 2015 at 2:46
• 3 I mean it's one of the top 15 LACs in the country, so it's not an university, and the ranking excludes universities. Although it has strong departments in other natural science topics, our math and physics deps are not the ones. 2) and 3) can be simultaneously true only when 1) is also satisfied. –  Math.StackExchange Commented Sep 23, 2015 at 2:51
• 15 I'm a physicist. I'm just speculating, but it seems likely to me that a physics grad student is seen as valuable cheap labor in an experimental research group, whereas a grad student is a burden in both math and theoretical physics. In an area like high-energy particle physics, a grad student is a cog in the wheel. No originality or independence of thought is required. If you're willing to pull cables and debug software, you're an asset. –  user1482 Commented Sep 23, 2015 at 23:35
• Thanks for your comment. In the U.S. is the admission for experimental hep PhD usually separated from the admission for hep-th? I'm not familiar with the process in the U.S., but many PhD programs in the U.S. seem to have the same admission process for both experimental hep and hep-th. If they are not usually separated, do students officially select their "concentration" after entering to the program? –  Math.StackExchange Commented Sep 24, 2015 at 0:31
• 2 @AranKomatsuzaki: Usually you apply to the department as a whole, but you state a likely area of research or whether you're leaning toward theory or experiment. If you say you want to do string theory, your application may be considered more skeptically than if you say you want to be an experimentalist. In the US, there is normally a lot of coursework at the beginning of a PhD program. That coursework is an opportunity for students to get a feel for whether they would be likely to succeed as theorists. –  user1482 Commented Sep 24, 2015 at 15:04

This is an attempt to gather some data supporting or refuting your hypothesis (or rather a slightly different one). Ideally, we would like a direct comparison of admission rates at top places, but I could only find limited data on admissions rates, so let me start elsewhere. At any rate, some of this data may be of interest.

The annual number of bachelor's degrees in physics is about 8000. From the AMS's annual survey , this number for math is about 28,000. This suggests there may be a lot more PhD program applicants for math. However, I don't have data separating out which math degrees are on a math ed track (or similarly for physics, though I guess the numbers are much greater for math ed), and these people are unlikely to pursue PhDs.

What about actual numbers of PhD students? I didn't see 1st year PhD numbers in physics for recent years but this slightly dated data puts it around 3000 new grad students in physics/astronomy (with about 93% aiming for PhDs), whereas the AMS annual survey has around 3600, and around 5000 if you include masters programs. (Stats and biostats is separate with around 2000, I guess including masters.) These statistics also say the number of physics versus math phd's awarded in recent years are pretty similar (about 1500-1600 for physics compared to 1400 for math). So there may be many more "potential" PhD applicants in math, but both math and physics students seem to compete for roughly the same number of slots in grad programs. (I don't know about how many of the PhD enrollments were domestic BS/BA holders, but we might guess the numbers are comparable as about 54% of enrollments were US citizens.)

So the above data tenuously supports your hypothesis. Can we check this with some actual admission rates?

For physics schools, this website has grad school admission rates. For top schools, the admissions rate seems to be around 10-15% (though Penn State seems to be an anomaly). Unfortunately, I don't know such a nice tool for math schools, but a few math departments mention their admission rates. Northwestern is around 17% (about the same as for their physics program, 16.4%). Notre Dame's is around 20% (a little lower than their 26% for physics).

These were all I could easily find and I'm afraid it's not enough to make any real conclusions, but I might speculate that top math phd programs are only somewhat more competitive than top physics ones if at all. (And in terms of undergrad research experience, I would guess that's more common in physics than in math.)

Edit: One qualitative issue for why you're seeing what you're seeing could be that top schools in math get lots of applications and if an admissions committee isn't familiar with a department, it doesn't know how to evaluate a transcript or the letters of recommendation from there, so it will tend to play it safe and accept students from places it's more familiar with. This is one reason why it's very helpful for students at small, relatively unknown schools to do programs like REUs (or a master's first) where a letter writer from there can compare you with a wide range of students. That said, I know many people who have gone straight from small, relatively unknown schools directly to top math PhD programs.

• I really appreciate your effort to gather all these data. I'm surprised to see some of the facts you mentioned and from your link. 1) # of physics bachelor's is only 8k/y. This sounds like physics is one of a few least popular majors among the departments which exist in almost every colleges in the U.S. Maybe media is exaggerating difficulty of physics, and youngsters were discouraged. 2) Acceptance rate of physics programs are much higher than expected (I thought ~5% for top ones). While top math PhD programs enrollment are roughly 20/r, physics –  Math.StackExchange Commented Sep 24, 2015 at 4:08
• PhD seems to have more capacity. 3) Some of lower ranked programs have pretty low acceptance rate. Penn state, while it's ranked high, is probably not for me. 4) This may be a well-known fact, but about a half PhD students in math and physics can't get PhD. The following list of universities attended by math PhD students at Harvard and UC Berkeley gave me an idea of how prestige of undergrad institution matters in admission for math PhD (because better education nurtured better students). reddit.com/r/math/comments/296e60/… –  Math.StackExchange Commented Sep 24, 2015 at 4:12
• 6 That only 8,000 bachelor's degrees are awarded to physics students at American universities annually made my eyes pop out. I would have guessed a much larger figure. So a big +1 for presenting hard data. –  Pete L. Clark Commented Sep 24, 2015 at 5:01
• 3 Another point to consider is that people that end up in physics departments come from a variety of backgrounds. I'm a physicist myself but we have plenty of chemists, materials scientists, IT guys and the odd mathematician in my department. I would guess it's mostly only mathematicians trying to make it to maths PhD programs. –  Miguel Commented Sep 24, 2015 at 6:24
• 2 @AranKomatsuzaki Regarding your point 4), I'm guessing that most of the PhD students at top schools can get PhDs. At Caltech in math, almost everyone who started finished, and those who didn't were usually the ones who decided it wasn't for them during their 1st year, so I don't think that's as bleak as it seems. Also, see edit about undergrad institution. –  Kimball Commented Sep 24, 2015 at 12:29

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The I School accepts 3–7 Ph.D. students each year from more than 100 applications. Applications are reviewed by a committee of faculty.

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The Statement of Purpose should describe your aptitude and motivation for doctoral study in your area of specialization, including your preparation for this field of study, your academic plans and research interests, and your future goals. Please be sure to identify in your Statement of Purpose which faculty member(s) you are interested in researching with, and why. We expect that candidates are able to demonstrate a research record and agenda that fit well with specific I School faculty.

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The department has established six years as the normative time to degree. Normative time is the elapsed calendar time in years that under normal circumstances will be needed to complete all requirements for the PhD, assuming a student who enters without deficiencies, who is engaged in full-time uninterrupted study, and who is making desirable progress toward the degree.

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