<p>Hi, sorry if these types of threads are frowned upon here.</p>
<p>I'm applying to grad schools and am hoping to get a better gauge on which ones (if any) I may get in to and hopefully narrow my list down.</p>
<p>Status: I'm an undergrad physics major at a top 40 school with a 3.0 GPA. I've taken a lot of physics electives in a wide variety of subjects. I've been doing research in an experimental physics lab for about five semesters, but don't have much to show for it. I've got two solid rec letters. And the third one's my research professor's, but I honestly can't say how that will go since I've slacked off in lab. At the moment I'm considering specializing in the neighborhood of complex systems/non-linear dynamics/biophysics. Also, I'm legally blind (which party explains my lack of performance in lab). So professor's I've asked say I should do theory or computation since those are kinda the only options I have. </p>
<p>Schools:
U Colorado Boulder
U Washington
Carnegie Mellon
UC Davis
Boston U
UT Dallas
Texas A&M
UI Chicago
Vanderbilt
Tufts
U SoCal </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>It’s not that they’re “frowned upon,” it’s that they’re useless. Nobody can “chance” you for graduate school. Undergraduate “chances” are hot buttered nonsense and that goes double for graduate studies. The graduate admissions process is highly qualitative and involves a huge range of factors that nobody on this forum can even begin to process - from targeted research interests to the number of available funding slots to specific program quirks. Just listing a GPA and a bunch of schools tells us almost nothing about your application, and nobody here has any idea what kind of competition you’re going to be up against.</p>
<p>The best judges are going to be your professors and advisers. Look for programs that have faculty who are researching tracks that you’re interested in.</p>
<p>You self-describe as an “average/lower-average student;” those students seldom are admitted to or go to grad school. Grad programs are tougher, the grading is harder, there is little or no academic support from faculty. You may need some more creative advice from your advisors as to what your path after undergrad might be. Good luck!</p>
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<p>That’s not really true. A 3.0 GPA is not “average/lower-average,” particularly in a hard science such as physics. Moreover, there’s plenty of students who are admitted to graduate studies with a GPA in the region of 3.0… (like myself, as I earned a 3.1.) Part of the reason “chances” are useless is that GPA is not close to the whole story in graduate admissions… yes, if you have a 2.3 or something, that’s going to pretty much be a roadblock, but getting over the 3.0 threshold brings many other factors into play.</p>