Graduate School Admission Results

First round virtual interview.

I'm currently a WashU master's student and my subfield is astro. My current PI directly notified me via email that the admissions committee could not admit me into their PhD program due to the highly competitive applicant pool. I'm really disappointed with this result because I literally don't know why. I have been working with my current PI as soon as I was admitted to WashU since August 2023. I wish everyone applying to WashU this cycle the best of luck :( Personal background: Undergraduate: earned from a prestigious UK university, First-Class Honours Degree (GPA 3.85/4.00 after WES evaluation), 1 year of research experience (4 different projects in total, including 1 UROP summer internship at Imperial College London), 3 preprints on arXiv, 2 strong LoR from my undergraduate project advisors; Graduate: currently earning my master's at WashU, GPA 3.43/4.00 (physics major GPA 3.62/4.00), 1.5 years of research experience (master's thesis project), currently writing my first-author paper, 1 strong LoR from my current PI.

no interview

1 first author article (accepted by a Q1 journal), 2 years of teaching & 3 years of research experience, strong LoR from advisor

Notified by email, no publications, 3.5 years research, university awards, several poster presentations

currently finishing my last year of undergrad. 2 summers of research at cancer institution, 3 years working as a lab aide, 2 presentations.

GRE was not considered in the admissions. Was one of my top choices. However, it was sadly not meant to be. Congrats to those who got in.