Recruitment

The Graduate Admissions and Recruiting Committee actively recruited the best candidates from the 304 applicants who applied to our program this year. Each of the 69 admitted students were  contacted several times by email and invited to visit the department, and 17 prospective students attended an open house dinner held at the residence of Provost David Campbell. We offered sessions with academic presentations, meetings with faculty, and lunch with current graduate students. Of the 24 total students who visited our department in the spring, 8 chose to enroll in our graduate program, including some with the best undergraduate records among the applicants. These results demonstrate the importance of campus visits in the recruitment process. In total, 21 students accepted our offer.

The Dean’s Fellowship and the Photonics Fellowship continue to be an important recruiting tool. We awarded dean’s fellowships to two outstanding applicants who accepted our admissions offer, one of which was the prestigious National Science Foundation Fellowship. We also awarded the Photonics fellowship to a student who eventually accepted our offer of admission. In addition, the possibility of offering an apartment to these fellowship recipients in the graduate student residences at 580 Commonwealth Avenue appears to be helpful in our recruiting efforts.

2010 Admissions Statistics

Applicants: 304 | 30 countries, 52 women, 252 men
Average Physics GRE: 759 (61%), GPA: 3.78

Admitted: 69 | 10 countries, 12 women, 57 men
Average Physics GRE: 839 (76%), GPA: 3.85

Accepted: 21 | 6 countries, 2 women, 19 men
Average Physics GRE: 853 (78%), GPA: 3.71

Fields for 2010 Entering Students:
1   Computational science
9   Condensed matter experiment
2   Condensed matter theory
2   High energy experiment
3   High energy theory
2   Condensed matter experiment/theory
1   Condensed matter theory/Computational science
1   High energy experiment/Computational science

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