<p>"Applied physics is a combination of physics and engineering. How much engineering is the major? What are the main things you're learning/going to learn in engineering? Are these very flexable?</p>
<p>Also, what's the work load like? I was thinking of getting at least a minor in BEM (the Business Economics and Management option), is that feasible with still some semblance of a social life? Or is the work load now tying you to your room/library/classes/meals more than say 14 of 17 hours of the waking day (suppose on average 7 hours of sleep?)."</p>
<p>The main things you'd learn in engineering depend on which courses you take; there are several "tracks", including optics/photonics, bioengineering, solid state electronics, fluid mechanics, plasma physics, and some that are more like materials science. </p>
<p>These "tracks" are year-long classes, and you only have to take one. I think I'm going to take the fluid mechanics one when I'm a senior. I might also take "states of matter" (APh 105, if you want to look it up in the catalog; it's one of the materials science ones.) </p>
<p>Note: From here on, your mileage may vary. Depending on how you schedule your classes together, which profs you have, how well prepared you are, etc., you may have an easier or harder time. </p>
<p>The work load is quite reasonable if you can stay organized and focused. I'm considering taking a double major in BEM (we don't have minors... I wish we did though), and I think I'll be able to graduate without taking more than 48 (5 classes and a PE, silkscreening, or something else fun) units at a time in future terms. The work load may vary from term to term. So far, I've only had one term that really limited my sleep. I think this happened because I took too many humanities/ss courses (an average of one per term is required to graduate, but I took two that term :P). </p>
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<p>The applied physics major is different from the physics major in the following ways:</p>
<p>Labs:
Physics has to take Ph 3 (freshman physics lab, basic mechanics and electromagnetism stuff), 6 (more advanced electromagnetism stuff) (or APh 24), and Ph 7 (play with radioactive things).
APh can take 3 of the following: APh 9 (a solid-state electronics lab, we made LEDs, capacitors, diodes, transistors, etc. on silicon chips using photolithography. Also an introduction to microfluidics), APh 24 (Optics lab), Ph 3, 6 and 7.
There's more flexibility in terms of what labs an APh major can take.<br>
Both majors require either a thesis or 2 terms of an advanced lab in the major. APh 77 has holography, fiber optics, X-ray diffraction, plasma, fluid turbulence, high-temperature superconductivity, and black-body radiation.
Ph 77 has NMR, laser-based atomic spectroscopy, gamma and x-ray spectroscopy, muon decay, superconductivity, positron annihilation, and others.</p>
<p>Required physics classes:
Physics: Ph 106 (Classical Mechanics and Electromagnetism), Ph 125 (Quantum Mechanics). Also requires 90 units (10 1-term classes) of advanced Physics, Astrophysics, APh, or select Applied and Computational Mathematics courses.<br>
Applied Physics: Ph 106 and either Ch, APh, or Ph 125 (Quantum mechanics, but the Chemistry and APh versions are specialized for those fields). In addition, Applied Physics majors must take one of the tracks I mentioned earlier in this post. </p>
<p>Note that Ph 106 and 125 are advanced courses; Ph 1 and Ph 2, core courses that everyone must take, cover these topics at a more basic level. </p>
<p>I feel that there is more flexibility in the applied physics major. Instead of being required to take a lot of physics courses, I am free to take classes in whatever departments I want, e.g. next year I plan on taking year-long courses in materials science and discrete mathematics as electives. </p>
<p>I took a look at the requirements for Cornell's engineering physics major, and they look pretty similar. </p>
<p>For nanofabrication, APh 9 (that solid-state electronics lab I mentioned earlier) has a lecture component where the professor likes to talk about nanofabrication techniques. However, I think a better way to learn it is through research with a professor. Axel Scherer, Jim Heath, Michael Roukes, and others have research groups involved in nanofabrication, and are willing to have undergrads work in their labs.<br>
There is also a class APh 109 (Introduction to the Micro/Nanofabrication Lab) which I'm taking right now. We do scanning electron microscopy, electron-beam lithography, microfluidics, atomic force microscopy, and some solid-state electronics fabrication. For most of these things, we use a clean room, which I think is really cool. I highly recommend the class for the lab experience. </p>
<p>Hope I answered your questions to your satisfaction: if anything needs clarification, speak up :)</p>