<p>If I plan on going to a masters or PHD program after my undergrad, should this affect my college selection strategy?</p>
<p>Does prestige of the school suddenly matter more now, should I save money and go to a cheaper school, etc.?</p>
<p>I'm probably going to do engineering undergraduate, engineering or physics graduate.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>My first response is below. Here’s my new first response. For most h.s. seniors, it’s too early to be worried about these things. Enjoy your college years and take advantage of all your college can give you. Think about grad school when you’re a first semester sophomore.</p>
<p>Original response: In general, here’s the plan: do so well in undergrad wherever you go that phd programs will pay all or most of your cost of attendance. In the humanities, the field I know, that generally means applying only to the top 20 or 30 phd programs in your field and ignoring those that offer only a masters. More important than attending a prestigious u/g college is attending a college that will prepare you well in the field in which you intend to pursue a phd. Often but not always this will mean colleges with phd programs in your field; many prominent LACs are an exception to this rule; and it’s still about what you do rather than where you do it. Having said that, I did well at a large western university honors program in the humanities that had a phd program and, when I applied to schools back east, that background helped to make me stand out from all the applicants with bachelors from elite eastern schools and east-of-the-Mississippi LACs. One of the directors of graduate studies at a school I didn’t attend told me she wanted to see what I looked like, as if I was some exotic species. My u/g experience taught me I had some helpful skill sets and that I could write well, but the first year of grad school was still a kick in the teeth. However, only a couple people I met seemed to be prepared for that kick and the rest of us dropped out or faked it until suddenly we weren’t faking.</p>
<p>For physics PhD study, you want to do physics as an undergraduate, or at least complete the non-overlapping upper division physics courses alongside an engineering major. These include quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, advanced mechanics, statistical and thermal physics, and advanced physics lab.</p>
<p>For PhD program admissions, the reputation of your undergraduate school in your major as to whether it produces good PhD students can matter. Note that this is not necessarily related to your undergraduate school’s baseline selectivity. For example, a not-very-selective big state flagship that has some top students who go on to be successful PhD students in your major may be viewed in a more favorable light than a school with higher baseline selectivity which does not have a track record of producing good PhD students in your major. In other words, what matters is how the school’s best undergraduates in your major are, not how the worst students at the school are.</p>
<p>PhD program admissions also look at research and faculty recommendations resulting from such. So consider undergraduate research opportunities at the various schools.</p>
<p>good advice from ucbalumnus. To add a bit to what is said of coursework in physics, the math courses required of physics majors are more advanced than those required of engineering u/gs, which usually stop before linear algebra.</p>
<p>The minimal math requirements for engineering and physics are the same, including multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations.</p>
<p>However, physics majors are often recommended to take some additional more advanced math courses like real analysis, complex analysis, and abstract algebra, which engineering majors generally do not take.</p>
<p>I stand corrected, RMIB. My information was not up-to-date about linear algebra in the majority of engineering departments. Thanks for pointing out my mistake, ucbalumnus.</p>
<p>A physics PhD program at a top university will be fully funded (tuition + stipend). For a terminal masters degree program, you probably won’t get any support from the university at all. However, if you land a good job first, your employer might help pay for courses in a masters program.</p>
<p>Which specific schools are you considering? A higher sticker price does not necessarily mean higher net cost. If you qualify for need-based FA, a more prestigious school might wind up being cheaper. On the other hand, if you don’t qualify for n-b aid, state universities will be cheaper than prestigious private schools (and often have better engineering programs).</p>
<p>I really appreciate the advice.</p>
<p>So is engineering -> physics an unrealistic transition from undergrad to graduate study?</p>
<p>In that case, is it preferable simply to do engineering -> engineering? Speaking in a pragmatic sense. </p>
<p>I have far too many schools on my list, and am hesitant to strike many that don’t have good engineering programs, but have good physics programs and are very prestigious. I still get the impression that going to, let’s say if the admissions officers are feeling extremely generous that day, Brown physics would be preferable to Maryland engineering, particularly if I want to leapfrog into a high ranking grad school.</p>