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    Are there faculty at your institution that do research in theoretical high energy physics? How did you get into work in experimental particle physics?
    – Bryan Krause
    Commented Feb 2, 2023 at 21:29
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    It's absolutely best to start in grad school. Your background is good, with some HEP work under your belt already even as an undergrad. Ask your current faculty advisor if they have any contacts on the theoretical side. Then, apply to the schools where they are---or even just apply to grad schools with HEP-Th researchers that seem like a good fit, and reach out to those professors with whom you'd like to do research. If they think the fit is good and would like to work with you, then that's about all there is to it.
    – Jerome
    Commented Feb 2, 2023 at 21:30
  • You might want to search out an REU for next summer (if it is not too late - too far removed from the process). See nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list_result.jsp?unitid=69
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Feb 2, 2023 at 21:33
  • Look through the faculties websites -> see which ones work in theoretical physics and teach undergrad courses -> take their courses -> do exceptionally well in their courses (do not miss a single office hour, ask additional not hw related questions) -> closer to the end of the term, at the end of a lecture come to the one you like the most and beg him to let you work in his lab (of course, without any salary), tell him you want to do your undergrad thesis on any of his topics. I assume you want to get to the Ph.D. level. The easiest Ph.D. is when you work on the same topic since the undergrad. Commented Feb 2, 2023 at 22:30
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    "Junior" means 3rd year? As in freshman, sophomore, junior, senior?
    – Boba Fit
    Commented Feb 3, 2023 at 0:44