<p>Hello. I've posted many questions recently, and was blessed every instance with helpful answers (great thanks to boneh3ad and others!). Very few remain now, thanks to the much help. </p>
<p>Initially I planned for a physics/mechanical engineering major because I thought the two well complement each other and have a lot of overlapping courses. But according to many, the two are very distinct discipline from each other.</p>
<p>But thankfully for the two basically have the same materials during the first two semesters, I was able to adjust my schedule so that I can choose whichever I am more attracted to when the time comes. </p>
<p>So my questions are: How are they related (other than that ME is applied physics)? Will a profound understanding gained from one discipline effectively transfer to the other?</p>
<p>And I've planned my schedule so that I have most of the semesters to have 4 STEM courses each. But I may have a few semesters with 5 STEM classes. Do you think 5 STEM classes for a single semester is too much?</p>
<p>It seems that research activities are VERY important if one wants to get into grad school. Do I need to take research courses during my semesters? Or is it like an extracurricular activity?</p>
<p>And lastly, If I get into grad school for physics with a mechanical engineering degree, will I be significantly behind others?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Well mechanical engineering is founded on the classical mechanics branch of physics, which is only a portion of the physics curriculum in a typical physics program. A profound understanding of mechanical engineering topics will likely give you a pretty good idea of how the rest of classical mechanics works, and with relatively little effort you could probably transfer your basis in mechanics to the physics applications. Going the opposite direction is probably about the same. Note that mechanical engineering goes into many, many more applications that physics ever typically will, and so there will still be plenty of foreign terminology were you to switch. Going the other direction would again be similar, but instead you’d have the problem where you have all these mechanical applications and then you run into something like a condensed matter application or a particle physics application and have no clue what you are doing.</p>
<p>Of course, underlying all of it is math. If you master the math, you won’t likely have a problem tackling different applications. You can go quite far on a solid understanding of calculus, linear algebra, ordinary and partial differential equations and vector calculus (plus a few others depending on your niche).</p>
<p>5 STEM classes for a semester is definitely a lot, but whether or not it is too much depends on you. One thing to consider is that your college years are an opportunity to do a lot more than just study and earn a degree. In particular, there is such a huge opportunity for personal growth. You don’t want to spend all of it studying in the library if you can help it. In other words, even if you can handle that load, should you? Leave some time for personal time to meet friends, maybe meet a significant other and have some fun. It’s college. Work hard and play hard.</p>
<p>Research is definitely an important factor for many graduate programs, and if that is your goal, you absolutely 100% should get involved with undergraduate research. Often a school offers an actual research course, but those may or may not be as useful as simply finding a professor who does research that interests you and asking if he has any need of an undergraduate researcher. If you end up sticking in that lab for long enough, you may luck out and even get a publication out of it. When you do it this way, it is extracurricular and more like a part-time job than an actual class (including the fact that you will typically get paid).</p>
<p>Last, I’ve never done it personally, but you will be behind if you go to grad school for physics with an engineering degree or if you go for engineering with a physics degree. It would probably be slightly more dramatic if you are an engineer-turned-physicist, but that change is still fairly common and both are doable.</p>
<p>Bonehead’s advice is good. A friend of mine majored in physics undergrad at an LAC, then got his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Stanford. It does happen.</p>
<p>The basic plan of taking the freshman set of classes and then deciding is, IMHO, the way it should be for all college students. Certainly a good plan for you. Many other people are just like you and have several interests coming out of high school. I know, I was one.</p>
<p>The problem these days is that many colleges (especially the CA schools that I am familiar with) require that you declare a major on your application and you are admitted to that department. Changing departments can be difficult at some of these schools. Better for you to find a school that admits to the school, not just one department. You typically then choose your major at the end of your freshman year.</p>
<p>However, for some majors, including both mechanical engineering and physics, the frosh student must start on the important math and physics sequences in the first semester to avoid delaying graduation. Mechanical engineering may require additional course work started early (e.g. computing for engineering, introduction to engineering design, etc.). This is the case regardless of how or when one’s major is declared or changed.</p>