Advice Requested on Physics Phd School Selection for Husband and Wife Applying Together

Graduate School
1

Hello, my wife and myself both just graduated with Masters degrees from a relatively low-ranked PhD program and we are looking to apply to a PhD program with better opportunities. Both of us have been here for about 5 years and we would, if at all possible, like to be accepted to the same school.

My undergrad is in Physics from a relatively high-ranked school in the US (which I completed with a GPA of 3.7/4)
My wife’s undergrad is in Physics from a relatively high-ranked school in India (which is equivalent to about >3.5/4 after conversion)

I have two Masters degrees. The first is in Physics (which I completed with a GPA of 3.7/4)
My second Masters Degree is in Science Education (which I completed with an overall GPA of 3.9/4)
My wife’s Masters degree is in Physics (which she completed with a GPA of 3.6/4)
She was also pursuing a PhD in Physics following this, for which she completed all of the course-work (overall GPA is 3.8/4)

Other information which may be helpful is that we both passed the Physics Qualifying exam at our school at the PhD level. We believe that this is likely a positive for our application. Also, my wife has completed her PhD candidacy exam, which happened about 1.5 years go.

In addition, both of us have research experience and computer programming skills at both the undergrad and grad level.
As an undergrad I worked on a theoretical REU project and also worked on an experimental project. Both were strongly related to optics.
As a graduate student I have worked closely on two projects, both of which are in Physics Education.
As an undergrad my wife worked on both theoretical and experimental AMO projects. At the graduate level she has also worked on both experimental and theoretical projects AMO.

Having said all this the research opportunities at our current graduate school are very limited. We do not have papers and we have taken the decision to move elsewhere. It is actually because of these limited opportunities that I originally chose to see if Physics Education was a good fit. It was not, and as the opportunities at this school were not a good fit for either of us, and it became apparent that the opportunities necessary were not going to become available in the future, we have made the decision to move, even after all this time.

This time lapse of about 5 years is something which we believe may count against us. We are certainly going to explain it as well as we can in our SOP’s (and do it in such a way it makes it clear it will not happen again) but just to be sure we are looking at applying to about 20 schools. We have come up with a very tentative list and would like any advice which you can provide about good choices (i.e, to say if we are over-reaching or under-reaching, other schools to consider, etc…)

We are going to be taking the September PGRE next Saturday, followed soon after by the General GRE. Thus, we won’t be able to upload our exact scores for a while. However, as things stand right now we expect that for both of us the scores for the PGRE should end up 800+. Thus, please take that number into account for any advice.

We would very much appreciate any advice regarding the list of schools which you can provide. We’re really in a very difficult situation, and any advice which may help us to get out of it would be very much appreciated.

Heres our list so far. We are applying to a lot of lower ranked school because honestly, as I said previously, we are in a very difficult situation and need to get in. Trying again next year is not an option. Our research interests lie mainly with experimental AMO for me, and theoretical AMO for my wife. However, as our situation is somewhat desperate we feel we can be a little flexible. Also, in order to increase our chances of getting multiple acceptances, we plan on applying to a wide range of schools. Thus, you may see a few unranked universities in our list, which we feel is okay as there will be about 20 in total.

  1. University of Nebraska - Lincoln (Ranked 70 on US News)
  2. Washington State University (Ranked 77 on US News)
  3. Georgetown University (Ranked 77 on US News)
  4. Oregon State University (Ranked 77 on US News)
  5. Colorado School of Mines (Ranked 77 on US News)
  6. University of Central Florida (Ranked 85 on US News)
  7. University of Texas - Dallas (Ranked 95 on US News)
    8 ) Lehigh University (Ranked 95 on US News)
  8. University of Maryland - Baltimore (Ranked 103 on US News)
  9. Temple University (Ranked 103 on US News)
  10. University of New Hampshire (Ranked 103 on US News)
  11. University of Houston (Ranked 103 on US News)
  12. West Virginia University (Ranked 111 on US News)
  13. Wake Forest University (Ranked 123 on US News)
  14. George Mason University (Ranked 131 on US News)
  15. Old Dominion University (Ranked 142 on US News)
  16. Portland State University (Unranked on US News)
2

Have you both got great LOR’s already written by profs at the college you graduated from?
I And ask your profs who THEY know at the above colleges. A LOR written to a fellow colleague can open up doors better than a LOR from a stranger.
great LOR’s are essential for acceptance to PHD programs.

3

Yes we do. Both of us will have letters from our previous advisors, among other professors who we have either also worked with or had graduate level courses under.

As to whether the professors have any collaborators at the colleges we apply to, we plan on stopping by within the next week or so and discussing these choices with these professors. Hopefully they will know have worked with a few people at these universities, or can suggest a few other good schools where they do have connections. That’s a really good suggestion.

As to the schools themselves, do you have any thoughts on these schools we listed, or perhaps know of a few others we should consider? Any advice, or even just thoughts, would be greatly appreciated.

4

Also, I should be clear that we do not believe that the professors from whom we are getting the record letters from have contacts at many other universities. Collaborations with other schools, for any of the professors we chose, are very few if any. Thus, we cannot really rely on them having contacts which makes our record letters more effective. This is related to the lack of opportunities which prompted our transfer in the first place.
We will check, but aside from a few contacts my wife’s former professor has at a small number of schools we do not believe that this effect will be significant.

5

well, they may have more contacts than you know about- for instance- colleagues that they went to college with, who they see or have seen at conferences over the years, etc etc.
You haven’t been with them every waking hour of every day for the past 20 + year…

6

Are you both hoping to get full stipends as PhD students?
Have you applied for NASA fellowships or other fellowships that can offset the cost of supporting your stipends?

7

You’re absolutely correct that they may have more contacts than I am aware of. We shouldn’t necessarily assume that and will certainly speak with them about it. Hopefully that will even help us find a few more schools to apply to.

As for the funding situation, I believe that all of the schools which we are applying to will come with a full stipend. This is quite common in Physics. In fact, I don’t think I know of any school which doesn’t fund its Physics Phd students. Thus, the funding situation after getting in shouldn’t be the main issue. That said, we will of course speak with professors at the new school ahead of time to make sure that they will have the funds for an RA not long after we join.

This discussion is very helpful. Please let me know if you have any more thoughts or questions.

Thanks.

8

You really need to apply to programs that are in a geographically dense region (a number of physics Ph.D. programs). You are facing a situation where you need to both get a funded Ph.D. position. Unless the program you apply to is very large, the odds are not great. If you apply to several programs which are relatively close together, you increase your chances of both finding a spot. Looking at the programs on your list, I think your best chances are with the three in the D.C. area and the two in the Philadelphia area. If you can find another metro area where you can apply to several programs, that would be a good idea. Of course, you need to consider those programs which have strengths in the area that you are interested in unless you are open to changing.

9

^Yeah, I agree with @xraymancs. The chances are good that one of you will get accepted and not the other. If that’s the case, you really don’t want to be out in Pullman, WA (Washington State - Idaho is nearby, but that’s not on your list) or Corvallis, OR (Oregon State). Even some of the schools in metropolitan or suburban areas, like Lehigh or UCF, don’t necessarily have a bunch of other universities close by. Of course, you can always TRY to apply to a few programs out in the boondocks to see if you get accepted to one together, but your main concentration should be areas with a cluster of universities.

Also, If your wife has already completed her candidacy exam at her current program, does she really want to start all over at a new PhD program? Your work rarely transfers - at least all of it - so it’s very possible that she’ll have to take some graduate coursework (maybe a year’s worth), and very likely that she’ll have to retake qualifying exams.

What are your career goals? You say that you are transferring from a lower-ranked PhD program. But schools ranked 70 and above are also lower-ranked programs. That might not be a big deal if you want to go into industry or something, but if you both have plans on academia - and particularly if you want to live in the same general area in the future - higher-ranked programs will serve you better.