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meanfreepathThere are probably more productive things to do with my time, but writing an periodic grad school update does force myself to collect my thoughts here.
Had productive discussions in the past few days (including before break) with Catherine, Amy, Peter, and of course Doc. I feel like my plans are starting to jell.
Top-tier, definite:
Cornell - Swatties there seem happy, large program with lots of choices, very strong reputation
Harvard - Very strong reputation, Catherine strongly recommends, had good experience there. Smaller dept, but lots of opportunities in stuff like AMO
Top-tier, likely to probable, with possible elimination of 1 or 2:
MIT - Big school. Excellent reputation. Has plasma and pretty much everything under the sun. Amy had a good experience there, have heard some negative things about the size.
Berkeley - Very big school. Excellent reputation, lots of choices (incl plasma, stuff going on at LLBL). Some negative vibes from people about them weeding out students. Don't know if this is true.\
Chicago - not sure where this fits in. School about which I know least. Seems like they have good interdisciplinary stuff, eg biophys.
More realistic schools, definite:
Princeton, Program in Plasma Physics, Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences - THE PLACE to go for fusion plasma, arguably for plasma in general. MRX experiment does reconnection physics similar to SSX. Other interesting smaller experiments, including lithium tokamak. Possibility of working in big group on a project like NSTX or ITER. I think there's some stellarator stuff going on too. Disadvantage: they only do plasma physics. Although Tom Kornack got in here and is doing a PhD project with an atomic physics guy. (Doc thinks my chances here are fairly good; I don't know...)
Wisconsin - another big school. They have plasma (MST, liquid sodium dynamo experiment who's supposedly catchy acronym I can't remember offhand - MDX probably?). Plasma is integrated with physics, is a good chunk of dept, rather than being a separate program, like Princeton. Also have lots of other things, so have good options outside plasma. Presumably a nice place to live.
More realistic, likely:
Colorado - Strong AMO. Have programs in plasma and condensed matter (liquid crystal institute) as well. Presumably nice place to live.
Maryland - Strong nonlinear dynamics. Have some plasma people... Howard Milchberg, whatever group borrowed the SSX HeNe interferometer - M[aryland]C[entrifugal][e]X[periment]? Close to my paternal grandparents. Close to home and Swat. Have, according to Catherine, good physics education group. Waived application fee - perhaps based on my general GRE scores or that I'm coming from Swat?
More realistic, possible:
Penn - strong condensed matter (according to Peter) but not much else. Close to home and Swat.
Washington - they have plasma, but in aerospace engineering :( Renowned physics education group... ie Lillian McDermott.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jedibl, aren't you working in McDermott's group? Disadvantage: far away, don't know a lot about their other physics research.
Iowa - very much a safety. Don't know if I'll apply. Talked to profs there at APS conference, who more or less insiniuated I'd get in by telling me to "let us know if you send your application in and we'll expedite things." Good place to go for non-fusion and particularly space plasma. Out in the middle of nowhere... Iowa City has a ridiculously crazy drinking culture. Even over the summer the beer trucks would roll in daily, and the police blotter in the Daily Iowan would run long every Monday morning with people arrested over the weekend for being drunk and disorderly and doing things like urinating in public.
I need to call ETS and Cornell in the morning, and get some GRE scores sent off pronto. Some stuff already sent off to recommenders.
Picked date for thesis talk - February 3. Need to finish ridiculously overdue 115 for Frank - this is an embarassing first for me. Need to make progress on the thesis -deaminerva, you're kicking my rear in terms of thesis progress this week :) Need to vote in firehouse election tomorrow. Need to review score of Messiah before Friday's concert - missed too many entrances tonight, had a couple of places where getting the starting note didn't quite go. Need to practice some of the fast passages - "For unto us a child is born", "His yoke is easy", memorize opening bass line of final "Worthy is the Lamb" and "Amen" if possible.
Had productive discussions in the past few days (including before break) with Catherine, Amy, Peter, and of course Doc. I feel like my plans are starting to jell.
Top-tier, definite:
Cornell - Swatties there seem happy, large program with lots of choices, very strong reputation
Harvard - Very strong reputation, Catherine strongly recommends, had good experience there. Smaller dept, but lots of opportunities in stuff like AMO
Top-tier, likely to probable, with possible elimination of 1 or 2:
MIT - Big school. Excellent reputation. Has plasma and pretty much everything under the sun. Amy had a good experience there, have heard some negative things about the size.
Berkeley - Very big school. Excellent reputation, lots of choices (incl plasma, stuff going on at LLBL). Some negative vibes from people about them weeding out students. Don't know if this is true.\
Chicago - not sure where this fits in. School about which I know least. Seems like they have good interdisciplinary stuff, eg biophys.
More realistic schools, definite:
Princeton, Program in Plasma Physics, Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences - THE PLACE to go for fusion plasma, arguably for plasma in general. MRX experiment does reconnection physics similar to SSX. Other interesting smaller experiments, including lithium tokamak. Possibility of working in big group on a project like NSTX or ITER. I think there's some stellarator stuff going on too. Disadvantage: they only do plasma physics. Although Tom Kornack got in here and is doing a PhD project with an atomic physics guy. (Doc thinks my chances here are fairly good; I don't know...)
Wisconsin - another big school. They have plasma (MST, liquid sodium dynamo experiment who's supposedly catchy acronym I can't remember offhand - MDX probably?). Plasma is integrated with physics, is a good chunk of dept, rather than being a separate program, like Princeton. Also have lots of other things, so have good options outside plasma. Presumably a nice place to live.
More realistic, likely:
Colorado - Strong AMO. Have programs in plasma and condensed matter (liquid crystal institute) as well. Presumably nice place to live.
Maryland - Strong nonlinear dynamics. Have some plasma people... Howard Milchberg, whatever group borrowed the SSX HeNe interferometer - M[aryland]C[entrifugal][e]X[periment]? Close to my paternal grandparents. Close to home and Swat. Have, according to Catherine, good physics education group. Waived application fee - perhaps based on my general GRE scores or that I'm coming from Swat?
More realistic, possible:
Penn - strong condensed matter (according to Peter) but not much else. Close to home and Swat.
Washington - they have plasma, but in aerospace engineering :( Renowned physics education group... ie Lillian McDermott.
jedibl, aren't you working in McDermott's group? Disadvantage: far away, don't know a lot about their other physics research.Iowa - very much a safety. Don't know if I'll apply. Talked to profs there at APS conference, who more or less insiniuated I'd get in by telling me to "let us know if you send your application in and we'll expedite things." Good place to go for non-fusion and particularly space plasma. Out in the middle of nowhere... Iowa City has a ridiculously crazy drinking culture. Even over the summer the beer trucks would roll in daily, and the police blotter in the Daily Iowan would run long every Monday morning with people arrested over the weekend for being drunk and disorderly and doing things like urinating in public.
I need to call ETS and Cornell in the morning, and get some GRE scores sent off pronto. Some stuff already sent off to recommenders.
Picked date for thesis talk - February 3. Need to finish ridiculously overdue 115 for Frank - this is an embarassing first for me. Need to make progress on the thesis -
deaminerva, you're kicking my rear in terms of thesis progress this week :) Need to vote in firehouse election tomorrow. Need to review score of Messiah before Friday's concert - missed too many entrances tonight, had a couple of places where getting the starting note didn't quite go. Need to practice some of the fast passages - "For unto us a child is born", "His yoke is easy", memorize opening bass line of final "Worthy is the Lamb" and "Amen" if possible.
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Date: 2005-12-01 01:10 pm (UTC)Good luck! And those grad schools sound exciting...
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