Graduate Admissions – Additional Guidance

The high-level information provided in this section helps the admissions committee to guide your application through the admissions process.  The research areas of interest and “suggested faculty readers” are particularly important to ensuring that your application is read by the admissions committee members (and possibly other faculty) most able to appreciate your research background and interests.  The “suggested faculty readers” may include faculty that you would be interested in working with, or may simply represent areas of research that you find interesting or have worked in.  Research areas in the MIT Physics Department are described here, and each area page includes a list of associated faculty.  The physics department hosts a wide and diverse collection of labs, centers and groups that operate within and across research areas.  Finally, the faculty webpage lists all faculty, and allows you to select based on the research area, lab and/or center.

The following examples are of applicants with a fairly tight research focus.  This narrow focus is just for the sake of making simple examples and is not typical or expected of all applicants.

Example A, an applicant interested in the particle nature of dark matter, and dark energy’s role in cosmology:

• Area 1: High Energy and Nuclear Physics (Theory)
• Area 2: High Energy and Nuclear Physics (Experimental)
• Lab/center/group: Center for Theoretical Physics (CTP)
• Suggested Faculty Readers: Winslow, Slatyer, Guth

Example B, an applicant interested in galaxy formation, black holes and dark matter dynamics:

• Area 1: Astrophysics Theory
• Area 2: Astrophysics Observation, Instrumentation, and Experiment
• Lab/center/group: MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research (MKI)
• Suggested Faculty Readers: Necib, Vogelsberger, McDonald

Example C, an applicant interested in precision metrology for astrophysics or fundamental physics

• Area 1: Astrophysics Observation, Instrumentation, and Experiment
• Area 2: Atomic and Optical Physics
• Area 3: Quantum Information Science
• Lab/center/group 1: Center for Ultracold Atoms (CUA)
• Lab/center/group 2: MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics & Space Research (MKI)
• Suggested Faculty Readers: Mavalvala, Evans, Vuletic

The information requested in these sections allows us to contact you, provide you with information that may be relevant to the application process, and understand our applicant pool with the aim of improving our admissions process.

MIT is a diverse and supportive community committed to the inclusion of all gender identities. The Physics Department is committed to upholding both the MIT Nondiscrimination Policy and the Physics Community Values.

The Physics subject GRE is optional for applications submitted in 2023 for the 2024 start year. Physics GRE (PGRE) and General GRE scores are not required and all applications will be given full consideration with or without GRE scores.

English is the language of instruction at MIT and all students must demonstrate their English language proficiency.  Non-native English speakers are expected to provide results from the IELTS or TOEFL with their application, though a waiver may be requested in some circumstances (see the FAQ for more information).

Graduate Record Examination (GRE)

• General test and subject test will be optional for applications due 12/15/2023.

International English Language Testing System (IELTS)

• Minimum score required: 7
• Electronic scores send to: MIT Graduate Admissions

Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)

• Minimum score required: 100 (iBT) 600 (PBT)
• Institute code: 3514
• Department code: 76

Waiver of TOEFL/IELTS may be available.

Your academic experience and performance is an important part of your application. In this section you are asked to provide information about academic institutions that you have attended. Most of the requested information should be self-explanatory, but there are a few points that might require clarification.

Your academic experience and performance is an important part of your application. In this section you are asked to provide information about academic institutions that you have attended. Most of the requested information should be self-explanatory, but there are a few points that might require clarification.

• Institution Name and Location: Please find your institution in the database using the text search function.  Finding your institution in our database will greatly help the admissions committee!  If your institution is not in the database, you may enter the institution’s name and address manually.
• Academic Calendar: Please indicate if this institution uses a Semester (2 academic terms per year, i.e. fall and spring), Trimester (3 terms: fall, winter, spring) or Quarter (4 terms: fall, winter, spring, summer) system.  Optional/special academic terms, like optional summer classes or MIT’s “Independent Activity Period” in January, can be ignored for the purposes of this question.
• Dates of Attendance: Please indicate the dates you attended (or expect to attend) this institution.  The end date may be a few months in the future, and will probably be similar to your expected degree date (requested under Degree information).
• Contact Hours: Please estimate the average number of “contact hours” per week (i.e., time in class) during your time at this institution.  For many US colleges and universities the number of credits given for a class is equal to the number of contact hours per week (see the Carnegie Unit System), such that the requested value is just the number of credits on your transcript divided by the number of semesters you attended the institution.  For example, 15 hours per week (and thus 15 credits per term) would lead to 120 credits total after 4 years (8 semesters).  There are a wide range of course credit systems used internationally, and some utilities for unit conversion exist (e.g., University of Arizona and a wiki page for the EU).
• Level of Study, and Degree Expected/Awarded: Please indicate the degree you received (or expect to receive soon) from this institution.  The list of majors is standardized and quite long: most applicants to the Physics Department should choose “Physics, General” or “Physics and Astronomy”.
• Numerical GPA: Please enter your cumulative GPA as listed on your transcript.  If your institution does not provide a numerical GPA, but you can compute yours from the courses on your transcript, please do so.  Otherwise, enter “N/A.”
• Grading System: While most educational institutions provide numerical grades or letter grades, the relationship between these numerical scales and performance varies widely. In the US, common numerical scales have a range of 0 to 4.0, 0 to 4.3 and 0 to 5. Internationally, numerical scales may have a range of 0 to 10, 0 to 20, 0 to 100, etc. In order to provide the admissions committee with a clearer understanding of your GPA, and other grades on your transcript, we request that applicants guide our interpretation of your grades.

In order for grade information to have a uniform format, we ask you to indicate the conversion from your institution’s grading scale to a “Standard Grade”.  This grade scale is defined as:

While there are many wiki pages written about grading systems which we hope will be of use to our applicants, we recognize that these conversions are likely to be imperfect and somewhat subjective. We appreciate your time and effort, and we do not expect you to attempt to compensate for grade inflation or grade distributions.

We have compiled a list of common grading systems and we hope that you will find your institution’s system in the “Grading System” list.  See this spreadsheet for more information and translations to our “Standard Grade” scale.  If you are unable to find your institution’s grading system in the list (or something close to it), please select “Other” and follow the resulting prompts.

Transcripts vary widely among institutions and are rarely sufficient for us to understand the importance of the classes you have taken. Please list below the college/university courses you have taken that will best help the admissions committee evaluate you academic preparation for graduate study in physics.

• Course Type: The list of Physics, Math and Computing topics should be a guide to what the committee hopes to be informed about.  You may list up to 10 courses in each category.  If you have taken more than 10 courses in a single category, please select those which are most relevant to your graduate studies.
• Course Name: This should be descriptive, like “Electricity and Magnetism” (i.e., not “PHY102”).  Please provide the name in English (i.e., translate if necessary).
• Grade on Transcript: Please provide the grade shown on your transcript for this course.  Since grading schemes vary widely, we also ask for a “Standard Grade Equivalent” to help us understand your grades by expressing them on a common scale.  For more detailed instructions and examples, see the Academic History section above.  If the course you are listing is in-progress, or a course that you plan to take before graduating, you may indicate this with the “In Progress” or “Planned” options.
• Primary and Secondary Subject: This information is requested to help us understand the content of your courses.  Optionally, you may use the “Secondary Subject” field if the course covered multiple topics.
• Textbook: This information is also intended to help us understand the content of your courses. However, we recognize that finding textbook names may be onerous, so please provide this information only if it is reasonably accessible.
• Course Start: Please provide the month in which this course started.  This will help us locate it in your academic trajectory.

This is a list of all forms of merit-based recognition (MBR) you have received (after high school).  There are innumerable forms of recognition that MIT applicants have received for their academic, research and outreach efforts, and we would like to understand the importance of each of yours to your application.  The information requested in this section is intended to give the admissions committee a clear picture of the significance of each of your honors, prizes, awards, fellowships, etc.

• Title: The title/name of this MBR.  This should be brief, and as it appears on the granting organization’s website or other published record.
• Type: Choose from the list, or use Other to state the type.. 
• Granting Organization: Please provide information about the organization that granted you this MBR.  If this MBR is from an academic institution you attended, please make sure to use the name of the institution as it appears in your Academic History.
• Status and Date: Please indicate the status (i.e., “Received” or “Pending”) and the date you received this MBR.
• Pool: the size of the pool from which winners are drawn for this MBR.  You may enter an approximate number, or choose from institutional, local, regional, national, international, or global.  This helps us to understand the significance of the MBR you received.
• Year: the year in which the MBR was received
• Pool Size, Recipients: This information helps the admissions committee understand the significance of this MBR.  The “Pool Size” is intended as a rough estimate of the number of people who were eligible to receive this MBR, while “Recipients” indicates the number who received it.  In some cases, the number of recipients is a specific percentage of the pool; use “express in %” and give a numerical value in these cases.
• URL: a link to the institutional webpage showing the applicant’s reception of this MBR, if available (we know that this is not available in many cases)
• Description: This space is provided for you to provide any additional information you would like to share.  For pending fellowships, scholarships, etc., please describe the remainder of the decision process.

Example A, a “dean’s list” recognition that goes to the top 10% of students enrolled in your college or university, which you received in 2019

• Title = Dean’s List: University of Nebraska
• Type = Dean’s List
• Granting Organization Type = Academic Institution
• Institution Name = University of Nebraska (matches name in Academic History)
• Institution Country = United States (matches name in Academic History)
• Status = Received
• Pool =  Institutional (100+)
• Recipients = 4 – 10%
• URL = https://cas.unl.edu/dl-fall-2019
• description = Top 10% of GPAs

Example B, a silver medal in the 2018 International Physics Olympiad.

• Title = International Physics Olympiad: silver medalist
• Type = Medal
• Granting Organization Type = Other
• Institution Name = International Physics Olympiad
• Institution Country = Portugal
• Status = Received
• Pool =  Global
• Recipients = 30 – 100
• URL = https://ipho2018.pt/content/exams 
• Description = There were 69 silver medals, and 42 gold medals awarded in 2018

Example C, a Goldwater Scholarship

• Title = Goldwater Scholarship
• Type = Scholarship
• Granting Organization Type = Other
• Institution Name = Goldwater Scholarship Foundation
• Institution Country = United States
• Status = Received
• Pool =  National (3M – 100M)
• Recipients = 300
• URL = https://goldwaterscholarship.gov/2021-goldwater-scholars-by-legal-state-of-residence/  
• Description = <empty>

While publications are not necessary for admission, they form an important part of some applications.  In this section you are asked to list all kinds of research-related publications.  Entry fields are as follows:

• Title: the title of the publication
• Type: the type of publication (e.g., Article, Book, Poster, etc.).  We also ask for more information about some types of publications (e.g., Peer-reviewed or Institutional for Articles, Conference Type for Posters and Proceedings).
• Author Last Names: for some types of publications, we ask for author list information.  List only family names (last names) and truncate with “et.al.” after 5 authors.
• Your Contribution: Please indicate your contribution to this publication.  Choose from: lead author (you did most of the writing), co-lead author (you did a lot of the writing), contributing author (you made specific and identifiable contributions to the text), or collaboration member (your contributions were non-specific or indirect, but sufficient for authorship).  The lead author often appears first in the author list while the co-lead may be second in the author list, but conventions vary across disciplines (even within Physics).
• Status: Please indicate the completion status of this publication (e.g. in-preparation, accepted, or published). 
• Date Published: the month and year of publication, or expected publication if the status is not “Published”.
• Journal, Conference or Publisher: the full name of the journal, preprint server, conference proceedings, conference (for posters), institution (for thesis), publisher (for books), etc.  Please do not use abbreviations.
• Citations: the number of citations this publication has received (0 if none or unknown).  These can typically be found with a search on Google Scholar.
• Impact Factor: the impact factor (IF) of the journal where this article was published, if any (omit if not available or not applicable).  The impact factor of many journals can be found with a Google search (e.g., “Physical Review X impact factor”)
• Publication URL: Please provide a URL for this publication, if possible.  If the publication has a digital object identifier, please provide a link using doi.org (see Example A below).
• Associated Research Experience: Please indicate the research experience associated with this publication using one of the titles you gave on the Research Experiences page.

Example A, publication in Physical Review X by Evans:

• Title = Quantum Limit for Laser Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Detectors from Optical Dissipation
• Type = Article, Peer-Reviewed
• Author Last Names = Miao, Smith, Evans
• Contribution = contributing author
• Status = Published
• Date Published = June 2019
• Journal, Conference or Publisher = Physical Review X
• Citations = 40
• Impact Factor = 14.4
• URL = http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.9.011053

Example B, poster at a conference by Terkowski:

• Title = Amorphous and crystalline hybrid mirror coatings
• Type = Conference Poster, International
• Status = Presented
• Date Published = May 2019
• Journal, Conference or Publisher = Gravitational Wave Detector Workshop
• DOI or URL = https://agenda.infn.it/event/15928/sessions/13074/attachments/62920/76372/Booklet_POSTER_GWDADW2019.pdf

Example C, preprint on arXiv by Harrison:

• Title = Photospheric Radius Expansion and a double-peaked type-I X-ray burst from GRS 1741.9–2853
• Type = Article, Preprint
• Author Last Names = Pike, Harrison, Tomsick, Bachetti, Buisson, et al.
• Contribution = co-lead
• Status = Published
• Date Published = June 2021 
• Journal, Conference or Publisher = arXiv
• Citations = 10
• URL = https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.13312

In addition to publications, public talks and presentations of many types are a common means of recognizing success in research and outreach.  Please list any public talks that you have given which you deem important to the admissions committee’s understanding of your application.  Entry fields are:

• Title: the title of the talk or presentation
• Type: the type of event at which you made this presentation.  Choose from the list, or pick “Other” and indicate the event type.
• Event Name, Date: the name of the event, and the date on which it happened.
• URL: a link to the institutional webpage showing the event schedule with your talk.  We realize that this will only be available for some types of events.

Example A, a talk at an international conference:

• Title = Squeezing the Most from a Gravitational Wave Detector Network
• Type = conference
• Event Name = International Conference on Fiber Optics and Photonics 2012
• URL = https://www.osapublishing.org/abstract.cfm?uri=photonics-2012-PL3

Example B, a talk to a local astronomical society

• Title = The Lives and Deaths of Massive Stars
• Type = outreach 
• Event Name = Monthly Meeting of the Auckland Astronomical Society
• URL = none

Success in research is a key component to success in graduate school.  In this section we ask you to provide the admissions committee with a CV-like list of research activities.  This list is intended to be brief, while the experiences most relevant to your goals for the future may be elaborated on in the “Statement of Objectives” and/or the optional “Personal Statement”.

• Title or Subject: a title for this activity which indicates the research area
• Type: the type of research activity.  Choose from the list, or pick “Other” and indicate the activity type.  If your activity covers multiple types, pick the dominant one and explain briefly in the description.
• Start Date: the month and year when you started this activity.
• End Date: the month and year when you finished this activity.  If the activity is on-going, enter the expected end date.
• Weeks: the number of weeks you were engaged in this activity.  This will be meaningful only for short-term activities.  If you spent 10 or more weeks in this activity, please pick “10+” and we will use your Start and End dates to estimate the number of weeks.
• Hours per Week: the approximate average number of hours spent per week engaged in this activity (i.e., 40-60 for full-time, 20-30 for part-time, etc.)
• Organization/Institution Type, Name and Country: indicate the type of organization where this activity took place, as well as its name and the country where it is located.  If this research was done at an academic institution you attended, please use one of the names you gave on the “Academic History” page.
• Research Supervisor, Title and Name: the title and name of your research supervisor.  For the title, please give the full title without abbreviations (i.e. Doctor, Associate Professor, etc.). 
• Associated Letter: Please indicate if your application will include a recommendation letter associated with this research experience.  If this letter is NOT from your research supervisor, please indicate the connection in the Description (below).
• Description: a brief description of your most notable accomplishment during this activity (max 50 words).  A more complete description of this experience may be included in the “Statement of Objectives” and/or the optional “Personal Statement”.

Example A, summer research opportunity at the home institution:

• Title = Investigation of the relation between stellar metallicity and stellar masses
• Type = Computational
• Institution or Organization = California Institute of Technology 
• Research Supervisor = Professor Evan Kirby
• Description = As part of my work, I developed modularized code infrastructure in Python for the data reduction pipeline of the Keck Observatory telescopes, which is still being used by the group today to efficiently process observations of stars and their spectra

Example B, Research experience program at institution outside your home country:

• Title = Exotic State Preparation in a Triangular Optical Lattice
• Type = Theoretical
• Institution or Organization = Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics
• Research Supervisor = Professor Doctor Carla Dunne
• Description =  In this project, the dynamics of a triangular optical lattice are used to create higher orbital states in a gas of ultracold atoms. By varying control parameters like the relative polarization phases of the lattice lasers, arbitrary desired excited states and tunneling rates are achieved.

The ability to communicate and teach scientific topics is also important to success in academia.  In this section we ask you to provide the admissions committee with a CV-like list of teaching activities.  As with the “Research Experience” section, this list is intended to be a brief overview.

• Title or Subject: a title for this activity
• Type: the type of teaching activity.  Choose from the list, or pick “Other” and indicate the activity type.  If your activity covers multiple types, pick the dominant one and explain briefly in the description.
• Start Date: the month and year when you started this activity.
• End Date: the month and year when you finished this activity.  If the activity is on-going, enter the expected end date.
• Weeks: the number of weeks you were engaged in this activity.  This will be meaningful only for short-term activities.  If you spent 10 or more weeks in this activity, please pick “10+” and we will use your Start and End dates to estimate the number of weeks.
• Hours per Week: the approximate average number of hours spent per week engaged in this activity (i.e., 40-60 for full-time, 20-30 for part-time, etc.)
• Organization/Institution Type, Name and Country: indicate the type of organization where this activity took place, as well as its name and the country where it is located.  If this research was done at an academic institution you attended, please use one of the names you gave on the “Academic History” page.
• Description: a brief description of your most notable accomplishment during this activity (max 50 words).  A more complete description of this experience may be included in the “Statement of Objectives” and/or the optional “Personal Statement”.

Example A, discussion instructor

• Title: Discussion Instructor 
• Type: instructor
• Institution: University of Kansas 
• Description: I was the discussion instructor for the undergraduate physics class, PHSX 211, where I guided ~20 students through sample physics problems and they were encouraged to discuss them in a group of peers

Example B, Peer-assisted learning program

• Title: Peer-assisted learning scheme
• Type: tutor
• Institution: University College Cork
• Description: I spent two years as a leader in my institution’s peer-assisted learning program, in which I held weekly problem-solving sessions in math/physics for students in non-STEM degree programs

The admissions committee strives to admit applicants who will maintain a vibrant and active community, in the Physics Department, at MIT, and beyond MIT.  In this section we ask you to provide a CV-like list of community engagement, leadership and outreach activities.  As with the “Research Experience” section, this list is intended to be brief.  You are invited to give more detail in the “Statement of Objectives” and/or the optional “Personal Statement”.

• Title or Subject: a title for this activity
• Type: the type of activity.  Choose from the list, or pick “Other” and indicate the activity type.  If your activity covers multiple types, pick the dominant one and explain briefly in the description.
• Start Date: the month and year when you started this activity.
• End Date: the month and year when you finished this activity.  If the activity is on-going, enter the expected end date.
• Weeks: the number of weeks you were engaged in this activity.  This will be meaningful only for short-term activities.  If you spent 10 or more weeks in this activity, please pick “10+” and we will use your Start and End dates to estimate the number of weeks.
• Hours per Week: the approximate average number of hours spent per week engaged in this activity (i.e., 40-60 for full-time, 20-30 for part-time, etc.)
• Organization/Institution Type, Name and Country: indicate the type of organization where this activity took place, as well as its name and the country where it is located.  If this research was done at an academic institution you attended, please use one of the names you gave on the “Academic History” page.
• Your Role in this Activity: Please choose from the best match from the list, or pick “Other” and indicate your role in this activity.  If you had multiple roles, pick the dominant one and explain briefly in the description.
• Description: a brief description of your most notable accomplishment during this activity (max 50 words).  A more complete description of this experience may be included in the “Statement of Objectives” and/or the optional “Personal Statement”.

Example A, volunteering time in the Society of Physics Students

• Title = Society of Physics Students
• Type = Student Government 
• Average hours per week = 0-2 
• Institution = University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Your Role = Volunteer
• Description = Hosted office hours throughout the semester to help students with their problem sets in physics. I also helped organize fortnightly cookie socials meant to facilitate bonding within the physics community.

Example B, leadership in the Society of Physics Students

• Title = Society of Physics Students
• Type = Student Government 
• Average hours per week = 5-10 
• Institution = University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Your Role = President/Vice-President
• Description = I was SPS President, and led a small leadership team that met monthly with the Department Head to discuss undergrad issues (e.g., police presence; see Personal Statement). We also started a fortnightly Research Feature series, inviting graduate students and faculty to talk about their research and connect with undergraduates.

Example C, tutoring at Girls Who Code

• Title = Tutor for Girls Who Code
• Type = Public Engagement/Outreach
• Average hours per week = 5-10 
• Your Role = Tutor
• Organization = Girls Who Code
• Description = I was a tutor at several 2-week Summer Immersion Programs every year from 2018 to 2021, teaching rising 10-12th grade students who were new to coding

Applicants with relevant experience beyond the types listed above are invited to provide a brief CV-like list of these activities in this section.  As in the previous sections, you are invited to give more detail in the “Statement of Objectives” and/or the optional “Personal Statement”.

• Title or Subject: a title for this activity
• Type: the type of activity.  Choose from the list, or pick “Other” and indicate the activity type.  If your activity covers multiple types, pick the dominant one and explain briefly in the description.
• Start Date: the month and year when you started this activity.
• End Date: the month and year when you finished this activity.  If the activity is on-going, enter the expected end date.
• Weeks: the number of weeks you were engaged in this activity.  This will be meaningful only for short-term activities.  If you spent 10 or more weeks in this activity, please pick “10+” and we will use your Start and End dates to estimate the number of weeks.
• Hours per Week: the approximate average number of hours spent per week engaged in this activity (i.e., 40-60 for full-time, 20-30 for part-time, etc.)
• Organization/Institution Type, Name and Country: indicate the type of organization where this activity took place, as well as its name and the country where it is located.  If this research was done at an academic institution you attended, please use one of the names you gave on the “Academic History” page.
• Description: a brief description of your most notable accomplishment during this activity (max 50 words).  A more complete description of this experience may be included in the “Statement of Objectives” and/or the optional “Personal Statement”.

Example A, optical systems engineer at NASA

• Title = Optical systems engineer at NASA
• Type = work
• Organization = NASA
• Description = I worked at NASA for a year designing and building optical telescopes for small spacecraft.

Example B, US Army Engineer Platoon Leader

• Title = US Army Engineer Platoon Leader
• Type = Military
• Organization = US Army, Army Corps of Engineers
• Description = Led a platoon of 40 combat engineers through pre-mobilization and deployment in support of US security missions overseas.

The MIT Department of Physics strives to admit students who have the potential to succeed at MIT academically; who will drive forward their fields as future researchers and teachers in academia and as leaders in industry; as well as who will make contributions to and be upstanding members of our department community. In your statement of objectives, please summarize your interests, academic and scientific achievements, research experience, and the research you hope to undertake as a doctoral student. We will evaluate applications holistically. While your research objectives and qualifications should be the central focus of your statement, we also encourage applicants to write about a broad range of objectives. Our students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, and we invite you to share any information that helps provide context for your application. Additionally, we welcome you to briefly discuss your extracurricular commitments here (or in your Personal Statement) if you would like to explain them in further detail or share information about your involvement that is not conveyed elsewhere.

Suggested length: 2 pages, 12-point font, single spaced.

This statement is a place for you to provide information that you would like the admissions committee to consider that you have not included in your statement of purpose and is strictly optional. There are a number of reasons applicants may choose not to fill in this box, including that all relevant information is conveyed elsewhere in the application.

The MIT Department of Physics is committed to upholding our Physics Community Values of respect, inclusion, collaboration, mentorship, and well-being. These ideals are essential for all of us to better contribute to teaching, research, our campus community, and the advancement of society.

Members of our community come from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. Within this statement we welcome you to provide any other information that you feel is necessary for the admissions committee to fully contextualize your academic achievements and to evaluate your application holistically. This may include extenuating circumstances, significant challenges that you have overcome, a non-traditional educational background, or any other information that you feel is relevant.

We also invite you to discuss your commitment to increase participation by a diverse population in higher education, your understanding of the experiences of groups historically underrepresented in the physical sciences, or your potential to bring a critical perspective to your academic career. We welcome you to share any aspects of your background that you feel exhibit your ability to contribute positively to our physics community, including details of your past contributions to mentoring, outreach, advocacy, or service.

Suggested maximum length: 500 words.

The information you provide here will be used to organize your letter writers.  An ideal recommender is someone who knows your academic or research work well (i.e., a research advisor) and is excited about writing a letter on your behalf.  You may include more than 3 letters, but letters beyond the third are optional and may not help your application.