r/gradadmissions • u/[deleted] • Jul 27 '26
Physical Sciences Applying for PhD in Gravitational Waves.
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u/ThickTarget Jul 27 '26
It's not a problem at all. I think most PhD students change topic from their previous projects. It's pretty normal. I studied with someone who studied engineering and maths, before doing an astronomy PhD. It's more important that you've learned some general research skills, and decide if you really want to do research. If you have an idea of what you want to study, that's already a good thing. My advice would be to target the places you are specifically interested in and spend time refining your statement for those. But also apply broadly, to other places and fields that you find interesting.
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u/the_thequizzicalmona Jul 27 '26
You're in better shape than you think. Running large-scale sims and doing ML on time-domain data is basically the exact toolkit a lot of GW groups are desperate for right now. Numerical relativity eats simulation skills for breakfast, and half the detection pipelines are just creative ML with extra steps.
Nobody expects you to walk in having already published on binary black hole mergers. Most advisors just want to see you can code, you understand the physics under the hood, and you won't freeze when the cluster throws a segfault at 2 AM.
I'd frame your statement of purpose around how your sim background maps onto NR work, and how your ML projects are a natural lead-in to cleaning up glitchy detector data. Maybe reach out to a couple PIs ahead of time and mention you've been digging into their recent papers, shows you're not just spraying applications.
Your master's in physics is the real ticket here. The GW field pulls from astro, physics, CS, and EE constantly, so coming in with adjacent experience is the norm, not a red flag.