<p>Will this be difficult? I'm in love with both subjects very much, but I don't know how difficult they will be.</p>
<p>Do I need to be exceptionally well in math to do good in physics? </p>
<p>What about philosophy?</p>
<p>What do you guys think about this double major in terms of future benefits and opportunities.</p>
<p>What school do you attend? Some colleges have much more rigorous physics requirements than do others.</p>
<p>Well I plan to attend New York University or University of Miami.</p>
<p>You do need to be strong in math to do well in physics. Would you consider a physics major with philosophy minor? I’m a physics junior, btw, and math minor.</p>
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<p>Are strong proof skills needed?</p>
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<p>No. Pure mathematics (proofs, analysis, etc.) is an entirely different beast than that which physicists, engineers, etc., use. However, strong computational math skills are needed.</p>
<p>Philosophy and physics is a very appearing combination , intellectually. You’ll work hard and have an interesting time wrestling with the philosophical implications of modern physics. Pragmatically, there isn’t a huge market for BA/BS in physics and hardly any for philosophy. But, at least some employers will value your proven ability to think and learn. You will need to be very strong in math, but you don’t have to be a brilliant math-minded thinker.
All the being said - I wouldn’t take on much debt for this major.</p>
<p>Seriously?^
Physics PhD’s dominate wall st. quant jobs. If you get a PhD in physics from a highly-regarded institution and know your finance well enough, you can start a career making 6+ figures: way more than most majors and their respective jobs.</p>
Physics Philosophy major is no joke, not by a long shot. I did that major myself, and it’s rugged. Physics
professors I know considered philosophy to be more difficult than physics. So you have to ask yourself, am I really up for taking something that’s HARDER than the already incredibly difficult physics ? Philosophy essays for example are harder to write then other essays, because one mistake can easily turn an A paper into a D paper, and this probably will not happen with anywhere near the regularity in other courses, the reason, structure and logic are all paramount in philosophy, and distinct disciplines in it besides. Don’t forget you will need a math major to boot, and again, we’re talking advanced calc, not exactly easy. Best of luck for sure …
This is a double major that I considered when I first started college. I ended up deciding against it though. I’m not majoring in physics, with minors in math and astronomy. Math is definitely very important for a physics major. At minimum, one will take calculus 1-3, ordinary differential equations, and linear algebra. One should also take partial differential equations, and several other math classes depending upon the field one is interested in. These courses often include topology, probability, real analysis, complex analysis, differential geometry, and others. Many schools offer both abstract and applied versions of these courses. In most cases, physics majors will ultimately benefit more from the applied versions. However, courses like linear algebra and real analysis are by default very proofy and theoretical, so there’s likely to be some degree of pure math as well.
I’ve taken a couple of philosophy classes to fulfill GenEd requirements. Although I’d still love to take more of them, it simply isn’t a major that would mesh well with my physics major, regardless of how intellectually fulfilling it would have been. A lot of my interest in philosophy initially lay with the relations between philosophy and physics. There certainly is a great deal of relation between the two, but as I’ve learned more physics I’ve realized that philosophy and physics most often really have nothing to do with one another. One of my required GenEd courses is an upper level advanced composition course, and I’m going to be able to fulfill it with a philosophy/physics course called Space, Time, and Matter. It’s basically on the philosophy of physics, and it includes a development of the historical connections between philosophy and physics, and how they really used to be the same thing in many respects. It also discusses the philosophical aspects of various fields of physics including interpretations of quantum theory and discussion of the big bang. It should be a really cool class.