<p>Hey everyone, I posted this in another section, but I think this might be a more appropriate place for it.</p>
<p>I'm looking ahead towards the courses I'll be taking towards the end of my undergrad, and I'm realizing that there are a lot of upper level courses that I really want to take, but won't have time to fit them in during my undergrad. So, how do electives work in a typical PhD program? I know most grad school curricula have a certain set of required courses that I'll have to take, such as advanced quantum mechanics, advanced EM, advanced classical mechanics etc. Will I have a set amount of hours per semester that I can use for elective courses too? There are still going to be a number of upper level math and physics courses that I'll want to take, and I'm just hoping that I'll still be able to take a decent number of classes in grad school.</p>
<p>Any help would be much appreciated. :)</p>
<p>Once you finish your core courses and pass your qualifying examinations there is not much reason to take a lot of elective courses. The Ph.D. is all about research and learning from the literature, not classes. You might take courses relevant to your sub-field but taking a lot of electives will only slow your research progress.</p>
<p>The way mine works is you have a certain amount of core courses, and then there are required electives. So it might look something like this</p>
<p>Year 1:
Core 1
Core 2
Core 3</p>
<p>Year 2:
1 Math elective
2 Physics Electives</p>
<p>And usually you base those electives off of whatever research you end up pursuing. </p>
<p>Maybe some other programs don’t have required electives (that you get to pick)??? But mine does. I wouldn’t spend too much time doing electives that aren’t going to count for anything though.</p>
<p>The electives I’m referring to aren’t random courses, they’re courses that would definitely pertain directly to my research. I’m still somewhat undecided on what field to go into, but it will most likely be either cosmology or particle physics; or some combination of the two. I’d really like to go on to research string theory. The courses I would want to take would be upper level math courses like partial differential equations and topology, and I’d also want upper level physics courses like quantum field theory, an advanced general relativity course, particle physics, and some advanced cosmology/astrophysics. </p>
<p>I’m primarily looking at Berkeley right now for grad school, and they have a two course graduate sequence in string theory. That would be a sequence I’d want to take. Given that these are courses that would basically pertain directly to the research I’d be doing, would it really be considered out of the ordinary to take them?</p>
<p>Berkeley has a required core of 19 units, consisting of advanced quantum mechanics, advanced electromagnetism, and equilibrium statistical physics. Then they have 19 units of elective credit, which amounts to roughly 5 courses. On top of those 5 elective courses, there would probably be another 5-7 courses that I ideally would want to take. In the description of the Berkeley PhD program, it says that students are allowed to fill in gaps in their undergrad education, with adviser approval, but are expected to have completed all of their coursework by the end of their third year. So does that mean I’d be able to take a few extra courses, given adviser approval? Assuming of course that they were all courses pertaining directly to the research I was going to do.</p>
<p>[physics</a> @ berkeley - Expected Progress to PhD](<a href=“Home | Physics”>Home | Physics)</p>
<p>edit- After taking these additional courses though, I would of course stop taking electives, and dedicate my time solely to doing my own research. The first two semesters have a required 2-3 courses each semester, and it sounds like I’d be able to add an extra class each of those semesters. If I then took 2-3 courses each semester the following year, plus a course or two over the summer sessions, I would likely be able to complete all of the courses I wanted to take by the end of the first semester of third year. The average time to graduate in the Berkeley PhD program is given as 6 years.</p>
<p>There are usually a few elective credits; this is really going to depend on your physics PhD program. Some programs allow more freedom in courses, and some less. But I would say don’t expect to be able to take more than around 5 elective courses.</p>
<p>Your advisor won’t like you taking an additional 5-7 courses. That’s 2-3 extra semesters of coursework - grad students typically only take 2-3 classes a semester. Your advisor is not going to like that, first of all. Second of all, the point of a PhD is not the classes.</p>
<p>What I suggest you think about is selecting the 5 elective courses you most want to take, and fitting those into the course schedule. Then maybe you can take 1 or 2 extra classes, but 7 more courses is far too many. The rest of the stuff you can learn by reading and doing research. This is the way you learn how to learn in a PhD program. Coursework is only one way to learn, and you will be moving beyond that model.</p>
<p>DO NOT take 4 courses a semester. Grad courses are not like undergrad courses. You’re supposed to take 2-3 courses a semester. Research will take up more time than you expect it to; you will put in long hours in the lab. The summer sessions are for research. Don’t make the mistake of treating this like an undergrad major; classes are the least important part of your education.</p>