29 Mar 2022

University Of California, San Diego

Physics, PhD (F22)

Rejected via E-mail on 29 Mar 2022

Note

I applied to more than 20 schools. Only 3 remained undeclared; others all rejected me. Hep-th, very tough year. I am not sure what these schools want the applicants of Hepth to be. I have consulted around 5 professors in hepth, especially in string theory, about graduate application preparation. One of them told me to take challenging courses and get good grades, but research is unnecessary. Another one told me to find any possible research to do. Most professors I consulted just told me to learn GR and QFT, and undergraduate research in theoretical high energy is not generally possible. They also suggested me to expand my field of interest, because the positions for string theory are always limited. I have taken graduate math courses including algebraic topology and differentiable manifold to prepare for the research because I saw many papers use them. However, one professor I consulted told me a little differential geometry is enough for the sub-direction of string theory he is doing. It seems the preparation really depends on the specific sub-direction, but the competition for such a limited position is too fierce. I will also apply to some master of math or physics programs. Whatever, good luck to everyone.

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