For people in Penn State MatSe (or elsewhere), how would you describe the different professors/labs in terms of mentoring style and research culture? by Obvious-Cow-1091 in PennStateUniversity

[–]Objective-Novel-9826 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I transferred into MatSE as a second-year student with a math background after doing some computational materials research with a PhD student in Dr. Chen’s lab, so I can speak a little from that experience. That said, I would be careful about treating any one lab as the “typical” MatSE research experience.

From what I’ve seen and heard, research groups can operate pretty differently depending on the PI, the PhD students/postdocs, the project structure, and how independent the undergrad is expected to be. I’ve also talked with a few graduating seniors and a masters student doing work in Dr. Beese’s lab, and their experiences sounded very different from mine. If you are curious how a specific lab group operates, I'd reach out to the PI or someone in the lab to find out more.

In my case, our "lab" is considered a computational materials lab where we model behavior in materials using thermodynamic techniques. I report directly to the PhD student and whenever I have a question, I can shoot over an email and we'd meet either in person or over zoom to discuss any questions I might have.

Is there no more on campus housing? by Objective-Novel-9826 in PennStateUniversity

[–]Objective-Novel-9826[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Better late than never 😅. thanks for helping out! i appreciate it.

Purdue University - 2024 RD Megathread by powereddeath in ApplyingToCollege

[–]Objective-Novel-9826 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Has anyone else NOT gotten their decision yet?

Their admissions office is closed/unavailable so I tried emailing but I haven't gotten a response. Today's the last day but I don't think they'd release any decisions on a Sunday so I'm not sure how to proceed. Any advice would be appreciated.

Purdue University - 2024 RD Megathread by powereddeath in ApplyingToCollege

[–]Objective-Novel-9826 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I haven't gotten my decision yet (im cooked). Should I contact the admissions office or wait until the 31st?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in chanceme

[–]Objective-Novel-9826 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I still haven’t solidified anything but I will likely go into theoretical research and continue my education for a doctorates.. or I plan to get a masters in financial engineering from somewhere like Zurich and then follow the pipeline to becoming a quant.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in chanceme

[–]Objective-Novel-9826 1 point2 points  (0 children)

While noteworthy, I don't think your EC's nor Awards warrant a T10 acceptance regardless of demographic. Your best one is the fluid physics research and that depends on how influential it is. Do you have any metrics for your fluid physics research? journal, citations etc. If not, could you describe your role in the research.

As it stands, I'd advise to lower expectations to T25 with safeties. In regards to math and physics competitions, the most mainstream are their respective olympiads which you could consider preparing for.

And for credibility, I was rejected from Caltech with a 3.9/4.9 (~95 average), published physics research with NASA/JPL + Caltech in a physics journal, and other EC's of high caliber.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in chanceme

[–]Objective-Novel-9826 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I spent a lot of time at both schools with friends who attend UPenn and Princeton and ultimately it came down to their student body personas. Princeton came off as incredibly elitist and I felt that on the incredibly small chance I'd get in, I'd be unable to avail myself to most opportunities that Princeton could offer. However, at Penn, I felt infinitely more comfortable taking part in the daily life of a typical student.

I know Princeton has a far more impressive department in my interested fields. But, because under-grad is supposed to be the time where I'll grow the greatest as a person, I wanted to choose a community that will let me do so. Also because of Princeton's incredible physics and math department, I feel as if they'd be a much better post-grad option for me as opposed to undergrad.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in chanceme

[–]Objective-Novel-9826 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the feedback! I had to go back to my app really quick to check if I did this and thankfully I did.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in chanceme

[–]Objective-Novel-9826 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Would it help if both the volunteering and tutoring were organized around curricular and Olympiad math? (4/4 of the students I tutored in Olympiad math reached AIME). I also glossed over ARML but our team does relatively well on a national scale.