<p>I'm thinking about majoring in physics at Tech.
But some people I've talked to, and some rumors I've heard say it's really hard. And some have even said that it's the hardest major offered.</p>
<p>Do you GT-veterans know anything about the physics program at Tech?
How hard is it, how strict is it, how much work is it? That kind of thing.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Every student will tell you that their major is the hardest at Tech. There’s a simple reason: most students only experience 1 or 2 majors in their college career.</p>
<p>How difficult physics is as a major is up to you. If you’re a genius, but horrible at physics, it will be a tough major. If you’re an idiot savant at physics, it will be easy, etc.</p>
<p>But you might want to think about why you’re interested in a physics major - it’s not that common. Here’s the last 3 spring’s hiring data:</p>
<p>Spring 2009: 50% hired at an average salary of $35,000
Spring 2008: 17% hired at an average salary of $36,500
Spring 2007: 0% hired</p>
<p>Unless your financial future is set in stone, you might want to go for an engineering degree first. Choose an engineering field of your choice, get at least a bacherlor’s degree, then get a PhD in physics.</p>
<p>From what I have heard from others, a lot of the difficulty of upper level physics classes come from conceptual and mathematical difficulty, as opposed to a huge workload, like in engineering.</p>
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<p>I’ve heard the same. How difficult physics is as a major is up to you. I had an exchange of ugly faces with a fellow GT grad working at CompUSA after I graduated. I was making a purchase with a GT alumni credit card. Guy ringing me up said he went to tech, graduated with a physics degree. I made one of those snaggle faces because I would have a hard time earning a degree in Physics. He asked me what I graduated in and I said “Computer Engineering.” He returned the face right back at me. Different stokes for different folks.</p>
<p>I’d wager to say Physics is one of the harder majors</p>
<p>I have taken some graduate Physics classes. Those classes tend to be difficult because of the concepts rather than the work (which is exactly the opposite of engineering for me). If you want to know how Tech students with a BS in physics fare after graduation, Stephen Fleming, the new head of the venture capital organization that is associated with Tech (whose name escapes me at the moment) has only a BS in Physics.</p>
<p>Sample size of 1…</p>
<p>I was simply trying to point out that the Physics degree, despite what engineers would probably tell you, doesn’t have to limit your career choices. I can’t imagine many people graduate with a Physics degree at Tech and so the statistics you posted could hardly be significant as well. 0% for spring 2007? Come on…</p>
<p>Just as an FYI to the OP (though he/she did not explicitly mention career outlook), both my advisor (Physics BS/PhD) and Fleming both worked as engineers for a time. I know, I know, G.P., sample size of 2!</p>
<p>My post above was not a sample, it was the entire population: all Physics majors graduating from Tech.</p>
<p>I’ll repeat:</p>
<p>Spring 2009: 50% hired at an average salary of $35,000
Spring 2008: 17% hired at an average salary of $36,500
Spring 2007: 0% hired </p>
<p>As for a physics major that made it big, should we consider the overused examples of Bill Gates and Michael Dell? Both dropped out of college and became multi-billionaires. Maybe that’s what we should suggest to the OP…</p>
<p>There’s a reason that most of the Physics majors at Tech double major in either engineering or management.</p>
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<p>You can define population however you want to support your argument. I personally considered the population in this case to be anyone who has ever graduated with a BS in Physics from the school.</p>
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<p>Yeah getting a BS-level engineering job really is making it big… The point remains that Physics majors still can get jobs and that those jobs don’t have to pertain to Physics.</p>
<p>I haven’t talked to any Physics BS majors myself and so I can’t comment on the veracity of your statement about double majoring in engineering/management.</p>
<p>There is a difference between Sample and Population. When you analyze the population, you’re not giving a probability of what can occur, you’re explicitly stating what occurred. In 2007, not a single Physics graduate left Tech with a job. They self-reported that they were 100% unemployed at graduation. That’s not a “well, you might have been unemployed if…”, that’s a “you were unemployed”.</p>
<p>you can’t ever trust college placement/starting salary surveys (such as the one G.P Burdell put up) from any school. I have a friend who works for a college, and one of his jobs is making salary surveys. The thing is, the only way to get information for these salary surveys is to ask recently graduated students, and those students are hard to track down, and most don’t want to answer the survey after they have been tracked down. The best survey my friend has ever saw had only a 20% response rate, and most of the time these response rates are far lower, around 5-10%. To prove my point, here is the full information given for physics grads from the 2009 survey: <a href=“Georgia Tech | External Redirect Landing Page”>Georgia Tech | External Redirect Landing Page;
<p>one person responded to the survey. What did you say G.P burdell? sample size of one?</p>
<p>It would be much better to look at national average starting salary information if you want to know how much you can make with a certain major. National surveys show that Physics is right below engineering/CS for starting salaries, with an average starting salary of around 50,000. This is because Physics grads are sought after because they have the skills that many employers in the software, engineering, and finance fields find valuable. My dad, who majored in physics, got a job in software engineering (he took 3 relevent courses) and has been very succecfull in the software industry. You can be very succesfull with a degree in physics (unlike the other sciences, especialy biology).</p>
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<p>It’s not a sample size when it’s the entire population.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure GA tech has more than one physics student per year.</p>
<p>Most, surprisingly not all, physics majors graduating from GT pursue advanced degrees and do not get a job directly after their BS. As is the case with most of the hard science majors here.</p>
<p>I know, personally, quite a few graduates (albeit they’re chemists, not physicists) who have reported being unemployed when in reality they were just going to graduate school. And those are only the ones who actually bothered to report back to Tech, some don’t report back at all.</p>
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<p>Not seeking employment.</p>
<p>You know what, you guys are right. There are actually dozens of students that graduate every semester and start with 6 figure salaries. Those students just like to hide from the surveys that are 1) handed out at graduation, 2) sit in your Oscar account, 3) are emailed to graduating seniors, 4) are now handed to you when you submit a graduation request. That’s why none of them have shown up in the data for the past 3 years.</p>
<p>Whoah! Chill with the attitude! Nobody’s saying that there are dozens of grads making six figures. I’m just saying that the surveys done by the school are clearly inadequate to judge the student population. According to the survey, one student replied. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that yes, most students ignore the surveys handed to them. Wouldn’t you? Filling out the survey doesn’t actually benifit you in any way, and just takes time. I know I probably wouldn’t fill out a salary survey. </p>
<p>I’m just trying to say that you can be succesfull with a physics degree, just like somebody can be succesfull with a Math degree, or economics degree. You don’t have to major in engineering to have cash. National surveys clearly show that physics students make very good starting salaries of around 50k. Here’s a couple sample surveys to prove it:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>[Best</a> Undergrad College Degrees By Salary](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/degrees.asp]Best”>Common Jobs for Majors - College Salary Report)<br>
says physics grads make 51.1 K</p></li>
<li><p>[Salary</a> Statistics](<a href=“http://www.ccse.umn.edu/salarystats.html]Salary”>http://www.ccse.umn.edu/salarystats.html)
says physics grads make 52.8 K</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’m just trying to say that physics majors can expect to be employed, and can expect to make more than 30K. Just because the one guy who responded to the georgia tech survey only makes 30K doesn’t mean all physics majors do</p>
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<p>The surveys are handed out to students while they’re in the 3 hour graduation ceremony. What else are you going to do when they’re calling names of thousands of people you don’t know?</p>
<p>Woah! That’s a lot of info. I appreciate it a lot from both of you guys.<br>
I won’t be too optimistic about making “good money” as a physics degree owner, but I’ll try not get too depressed either. (Although, truth be told, I was estimating average salaries around 40k, not 50). </p>
<p>Now, that said, I feel bad saying this because you guys have done all this research, but I fully inted to go for a PhD in Physics as well. You wouldn’t happen to have any stats on that, would you?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>And I love the Futurama reference.</p>