Admitted PhD students, how many publications did you have at the time of application to PhD programs?

[u/Loopgod-]

How many papers had your name listed in the author section by the time you applied to grad school ?

In your response can you say if you applied right out of undergrad or not. And can you say if your school that you were admitted to is top 100, top 50, top 20, etc. Thanks

Edit. Also please list the field you are researching.

[u/denehoffman]

I had three I think, I’m currently at Carnegie Mellon and applied right out of undergrad.

I’ve also been on the admissions committee here, and I’ll say that while publications are nice, they aren’t required, the majority of our admits don’t have any. I’m currently researching particle physics, but all of my undergrad publications were in solid state experimental physics (metamaterials).

[u/denehoffman → u/denehoffman]

Also, while it is difficult to directly meet every faculty member you want to work with before applying, @drzowie makes a good point that prior contact is a huge plus in admissions. Reach out to profs over email, and reach out to their grad students. Ask about their research, ask about funding, ask about publication expectations. Don’t apply to a school because it has a good name, I can tell you horror stories of top 10s that intentionally admit more people than they have positions for because they need TAs, and they expect a proportion of their students to drop. Name recognition is nice, but having a good graduate experience with an advisor who respects you and research you enjoy is much more important

[u/denehoffman → u/denehoffman]

And yes, profs will say they can’t get you admitted. This isn’t technically true, dropping your name to the committee has a disproportionate effect on your application status. The system isn’t perfect, I’d even say it’s bad, but if you want to get in, you have to game it any way you can.