I think that the word “physics” is unnecessary in this sentence.
I did the very same, B.S. in Physics at a major university, after transferring from community college. Currently, I’m working as an aerospace systems engineer.
I actually found that the CC route gave me a significant leg up on those in my major who had done the full 4-year university path. The key difference is that at university, the 100/200 level physics core classes are designed purely as weed-out filters for the higher level courses, instruction and development took a back seat due to the high volume churn at those levels.
In cc, I benefited from my instructors at the 100/200 levels having a genuine love of the material and of teaching (instead of a rote lecture given in an audience hall by a T.A. in university). When I arrived at university, the 300/400 level course were relaxed in comparison and I felt very well prepared, while my university-grown classmates were struggling with (what I felt) basic physics and math concepts that were second nature to me and that they hadn’t mastered due to the “churn” of the weed-out focus of their classes.
Job hunting was the hardest however, I simply could not find work anywhere for a few years. Physics was admired, but as a pure science was often seen as not topical enough when competing with a straight engineering degree. I have struggled to work may way up into professional engineering from a foot-in-the-door position, and have had many hurdles with a “pure” science degree in an engineering world (pay grades, job qualifying, licensing, etc).
If I had to do it over again, I’d recommend jumping seriously on any internship or lab-monkey part-time work you can while in school, because your degree by itself will not be enough when you hit the job market.
I loved Physics, though, and wouldn’t trade my educational experiences for anything else.
Wouldn’t a minor (at minimum) in Computer Science or Programming increase one’s chance of opening up the job field? It seems there’s a lot of simulation/modeling work is being done in many fields…not just engineering, but in the geo sciences, gaming, etc.
Studying computer science can’t ever hurt you, but I could it see it being a little difficult to pack that particular minor into the standard physics curriculum and still finish in four years.
On reflection, I should clarify that I don’t mean to imply that studying computer science is like getting on-the-job training. It’s not, nor should it be. But it brings a valuable perspective that can be of use to people in the sciences and engineering.
Yes, but there’s a difference. In a lot of fields, as I understand it, the work also tends to be started the night before it is due. Physics majors in upper-division classes can’t, for the most part, get away with that.
I would guess this is likely to be true if the physics majors take the same intro physics classes that the engineers and maybe the pre-meds take. If you have intro physics classes just for physics majors, as we did at Maryland, they’re not as likely to be run as weed-out classes. They’re not easy by any means, but they are not weed-out classes (I took some weed-out computer science classes, and trust me, there’s a big difference).
I’m currently about 5/8 through a bachelor’s in Physics at Georgia Tech, and I love the heck out of it. I will definitely say that the most rewarding experience I’ve had so far has been working in a research lab (which is going pretty well at the moment). If you do decide to go into physics, make sure you look at research opportunities, as I’ve made tons of friends and learned a lot more about how the physics world works in the lab than I have in the classroom.
Physics was one of my undergrad majors when I was at Iowa State back in the 80s. At the time, the standard physics curriculum was almost sufficient to satisfy the math major requirements – you only had to take two additional math courses to get the double major. Which is of course what I (and most of the physics majors I knew at the time) did. FWIW, of the 100 or so physics majors & grad students I knew in the 80s, only one is actually working in the field; most of them are now in software or aerospace.
Early in my physics curriculum (1981/82), I discovered computers – our university had one of the very first DEC VAX 11/780s, and IBM PC was just entering the market. It was love at first sight; I spent lots of time programming, hacking, and tinkering with hardware, somewhat to the detriment of my studies. So as I was wrapping up my physics/math program, I added computer engineering to my list of majors, with an intention on going into hardware design. BTW, the three majors is the origin of my handle.
When I graduated in 1987, I received two BS degrees – one in physics & maths, and the second in computer engineering. I’ve spent the last 21 years in tech, the first three years in hardware, and the remainder in software. The physics curriculum has been very helpful in that it honed my problem solving skills, and the maths curriculum taught me more problem solving techniques and algorithms.
I had a doper in my department for two years and didn’t even know it. Damn. If Prof. Zangwill teaches an undergraduate course again, I’d highly recommend it. I hope you enjoy the remainder of your courses.
I majored in physics and math at the same time as 3WayGeek. I went to grad school, eventually earning a Ph. D. in a field with no practical application (General Relativity). I started having copious quantities of children, and never pursued academia, going in to industry. I’m old enough to have been in management and interviewed people, so I know both sides of finding jobs.
The biggest hurdle I found to finding a job was convincing an engineer that I wanted a job and did not want to pursue my research interests on their nickel. Once I got interviews, I was almost always successful. The biggest difference I’ve noticed between physics majors and programming majors is that physics majors can both help solve a problem and are much better at implementing the solution. They aren’t afraid of the math, and can picture the solution. When it comes to building hardware, engineers are generally best fresh out of school, but 5 years down the road, it is hard to know. Most surprising to me, is the fact that physics majors write better than engineers and programmers, almost to a person. I think I’ve worked with one engineer who could write as well as any of the physics majors. Perhaps it is because physics is one of the original liberal arts.
But all that is really moot to my way of thinking. School is not the time to compromise. Follow what interests you. You certainly are no worse off than a liberal arts major when it comes to finding a job, and if you aren’t going to pursue what you love while in school, when are you? Don’t live a life wondering what would have happened if you had pursued a passionate interest. As was pointed out above, you can always get another degree, such as an MBA, if you can’t find a job.
I’m in Schatz’s lab on the third floor of Howey, if you want to drop by. I work right next to the couch.
I’ll tell you about grad school in astronomy, or at least give you two bits of advice about it.
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Don’t go to grad school in astronomy (or anything for that matter) because you are afraid of the Real World and want to keep going to school.
Grad school in astronomy isn’t much like undergrad. In undergrad, you spend much of your time taking classes, and some time on research. In grad school, the emphasis is very much on research, not classes. They’re quite different.
Also, grad school is all the work of the Real World (in fact, more than a lot of jobs), but without the higher pay. There are definite advantages- pretty much nobody cares how you dress as long as your clothes don’t actually violate indecent exposure laws, and you do get to pick which 80 hours a week you’re going to work. The latter is good if you don’t take well to the 9 to 5 schedule, and there’s not the prejudice against people who don’t like to get up early that you might see elsewhere. But I wouldn’t go to grad school just because I found it hard to get up in the morning- it’s easier to set an alarm clock and catch up on sleep on the weekends. The Real World (or at least some businesses) seems to be getting better about casual dress and flexible hours, for anyone who was considering grad school for those reasons.
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When you pick a grad school, pick one with lots of potential research advisors.
It really and truly sucks to have a research advisor that you don’t work well with (for whatever reason). If you are in a department that does a lot of work in stuff you’re interested in, you can switch to a different advisor. If you can’t do that, you’ve got three options, all of them bad in their own way- live with it, transfer to another school (which is hard), or drop out of grad school.