Sunday, November 27, 2011

Applying to Graduate School; Warnings

So, I have my final list of graduate programs all put together, my recommenders all have their information, I've put together my resume, started work on my personal statement...the one problem is transcripts. There's a strike of the union workers at l'Universite de Sherbrooke (in Quebec province) where I did my study abroad. So those transcripts are taking up to a month to arrive, which I did not count on. Plus, they cannot currently fax them, so they're taking that long to get mailed to the translation service too. So much for everything being on time, let's hope a note of explanation will help the admissions committee. Anyway, my advice for today is to be prepared early with transcripts and translations if you study at any non-English speaking institution.

In other news, I am not going to grad school in physics because I realized how important it is to me to precisely understand the math involved. I get very frustrated with handwaving explanations and using math I don't fully understand. So I am mostly applying to applied math programs. I want to still look at modeling the physical world, but from a mathematically rigorous position. In fact, I am generally as interested in the math as the physics, and find the math to come more naturally. I am still applying to the MIT-WHOI program in physical oceanography, but I have an internship there for January and will decide then whether that is what I would rather pursue.
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