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[Phys-L] Liberal Arts colleges / student mathematical capability



Greetings,

Here at the U of Arizona Physics department, when
looking at graduate student admissions from small
usually liberal arts colleges, a pattern has been
observed. Students with good GPA's and letter of
recommendation have low Physics GRE's. It appears
that some of this is related to QM being taught
during the last semster of the senior year, thus
after the GRE's have been taken. Many of the
incoming grads from liberal arts colleges end up
taking remedial graduate classes (400/500
co-meeting classes). Some students from small
medium and large state institutions are no better.

It is quite possible to get a good undergraduate
preparation for Grad school at a small college,
but I think either the student has to take command
of the situation, or the institution has decided
that excellence is more important than graduation
in four year with 12 or 14 credits per semester
loads.


Thanks
Roger Haar
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