Physics major

<p>Can anyone provide any insight into the workload/lifestyle of a physics major? Do they have time to do any EC's? Thanks.</p>

<p>My son will be a sophomore and is planning to major in physics. He took Physics 6H and 7 last year, and is taking 8 in the fall. He hasn't been overwhelmed by the workload in physics and has time for EC's, sleep, socializing, etc. If you have specific questions, I'd be happy to ask him and get back to you.</p>

<p>Physics, as at almost all colleges, is one of the more demanding majors. In part, this is because it requires all of the Physics courses plus the full math sequence.</p>

<p>Having said that, the Physics department at Swat seems to be quite good. The number of majors is small enough that just about everything is taught in seminar settings and most, if not all, Physics majors do research with a professor, including paid summer research.</p>

<p>The intro course for potential Physics majors (006H) is a pretty fun seminar on Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. This is usually taught by John Boccio, who my daughter says is just infectiously excited by teaching Physics.</p>

<p>The hard stuff starts with 007/008 which is the advanced intro survey course for majors.</p>

<p>If you are considering Physics as a major, then take 006H in fall of freshman year and find out if a Physics major is right for you. My daughter loved the class, did fine in it, but decided that being a Physics major wasn't her thing. The course served its purpose very well.</p>

<p>The number of majors is small enough that just about everything is taught in seminar settings and most, if not all, Physics majors do research with a professor, including paid summer research.</p>

<p>The number of majors is increasing, mainly due to the new facilities. Altho Physics6 is taught as a seminar, 7 and 8 are not. My son had about 30 students in Physics7. As far as summer research, the increase in students is making research opportunities scarcer. For this summer, not a single rising sophomore was able to do summer research at Swat and only a limited number of rising juniors.</p>

<p>Shellfish-are the students upset about the lack of research opportunities? Is your son impressed with the caliber of the professors?
Finally, is it his experience that the pre-meds take physics at other colleges and is that simply because they are desperate for As or is the physics program incredibly difficult at Swarth? Thanks so much.</p>

<p>Sorry, I meant Shellfell-guess I was still thinking about last night's meal.</p>

<p>Mommamia- The students were upset about the lack of research opportunities this summer, and I hope my son's beginning to realize that opportunities won't just fall into his lap (somewhat his experience before Swat). He likes the physics profs he's had contact with so far and doesn't find the program incredibly difficult yet (he just finished his freshman year). There are different levels of physics courses at Swat, so a non-physics major pre-med would not have to take the same physics courses as the physics majors take. Physics majors take 6,7,8; a non-physics major pre-med would take 3 and 4.</p>

<p>I'm not sure the number of Physics students doing paid research has changed. The description at the department website suggests that they accommodate most rising seniors, but typically not rising sophmores. Remember, these are paid positions: $3750 for ten weeks during the summer.</p>

<p>Also, there are two different "intro" course sequences in the Physics department at Swarthmore. Most pre-meds (and other majors with a Physics requirement) take Physics 003 & 004. This is your typical general survey course covering the various topics in Physics. These are large lecture classes.</p>

<p>Physics majors take a different sequence: 006, 007, and 008. The 006 freshman seminar covers Special Theory of Relativity and Quantuum Mechanics and is capped at 12 students per section. There were three sections last year, meaning a total of 36 potential Physics majors. This course is really designed to give incoming freshmen a chance to make an informed decision about continuing on a Physics major track. It meets once a week for three hours at night and is structured around student presentations every week. Basically, every student presents a problem set to the class each week, sometimes presenting in small groups. It is a very collaborative course with regularly scheduled "study sessions" during when students help each other prepare their problem sets and with copious use of the professors office hours before the presentations.</p>

<p>007 & 008 are then the general survey courses, taught at a higher level than 003 & 004. These would be the two biggest physics classes that a Physics major would take at Swarthmore. Current enrollment for this fall's section of 008 is 19 students.</p>

<p>The next two courses in the sequence are 014 and 050. These had 23 and 18 students, respectively last spring. In checking every other Physics class offered this coming fall, I found one with 12 students enrolled. All of the others have fewer than 10 students. This includes the Physics 111 (Analytical Dynamics) and 112 (Electrodynamics) seminars, where two sections are offered, each capped at 10 students. So basically, a Physics major starts out with a 12-student seminar, then takes a series of four "big" lecture courses with enrollments declining from 30 down to 18 as they progress through the sequence. After that, everything is small seminar format with single-digit enrollment.</p>

<p>If you are referring to the Phoenix article about the number of kids taking science courses at other schools, note that the article was retracted in its entirety by the newspaper the following week. I don't think it was accurate. Having said that, pre-meds taking some of the pre-reqs elsewhere, especially in summer school, is reasonably common just about everywhere. Orgo Chem is frequently among these, with students spending the summer focused on that one course. I would assume this is true at Swarthmore, too.</p>

<p>Yes, Interesteddad, the dept. website says that research opportunities are limited for rising sophomores, but that's what the website has been saying for a few years, including the years that the new building was under construction and many profs did research in collaboration with profs at other colleges so they didn't have to use Swat's limited facilities (that's what we were told on the science building tour during Parents' Weekend). With profs being able to relocate their research back to Swat, the expectation was that research opportunities would increase. Swat also needs to listen to the advice of the Pres. of CalTech (a Swat grad) who gave the address at the dedication of the new science building. He advised that if Swat wants to continue to turn out top-notch scientists, a stronger focus on research opportunities is needed. Personally, I don't think the dept. anticipated the significant increase in the number of potential majors.</p>

<p>I guess I'm asking what you think is a reasonably number of paid research positions?</p>

<p>As I understand it, substantially all rising senior Physics and Astronomy majors at Swarthmore have paid summer research postions ($3750 with housing) at the school and some number have those positions for two years - as rising Juniors and rising Seniors.</p>

<p>I'm not sure that it would be a reasonable expectation to accomodate rising sophmores with paid positions, even before they declare a Physics major. Or, maybe that would be reasonable? I don't know.</p>

<p>My experience is that there is a lot of money available for many different kinds of summer internships and projects. For example, my D is receiving some grant funding from a Swarthmore fund for her summer work in Boston and, in fact, the staff at Swarthmore worked with her to structure her grant proposal so that it would fit the criteria of funding to the greatest extent possible. This is for a rising sophmore, keeping in mind that the major funding in her area is only available to rising juniors and seniors.</p>

<p>My feeling is that if you're going to upgrade your facilities to entice potential science majors then you need to be prepared to provide a full educational experience, and that includes research. These summer positions weren't just handed out but required applications, transcripts, and interviews. My S interviewed with 2 profs, got good feedback from one of them, and therefore felt hopeful of getting a summer position. Not only did no rising sophomore get a position, but very few rising juniors did as well. That is a bothersome trend, particularly for those students considering grad school.
It would be difficult for a physics student to develop his/her own summer project (without the use of lab facilities) as your D was able to do. My S could definitely have done more to search out other opportunities for this summer at other schools, but his options through Swat were exhausted.</p>

<p>Shellfell:</p>

<p>I agree that it would be great for Swarthmore to provide paid summer internships for rising sophmores in the sciences. I just don't know whether that is a realistic goal. From what little I know of science internships (whether they be at colleges or the CDC or NASA), these programs invariably prioritizse rising juniors and seniors. It's tough for rising sophmores across the board in the paid research positions.</p>

<p>It's certainly not essential for grad school admissions. That will be based, to a far higher degree, on the senior thesis, which is the culminating project of research done in the summer before senior (and perhaps, Junior) year, along with Physic 094 (the independent research course during the school year).</p>

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These summer positions weren't just handed out but required applications, transcripts, and interviews.

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<p>Tell me about it! The application procedure and interviews my daughter went through this spring for a little grant money were unbelievable. As is typical in the classroom at Swarthmore as well, she submitted the package and then a staff member sat down with her and walked through ways it could be better tailored. She then revised it and re-submitted before interviewing with a panel of of staff regarding her project. It was a terrific learning experience for her that far outweighed the resulting dollars (although I suspect she would describe it as a pain in the ....).</p>

<p>Interesteddad- My only expectation at this point is that my S will use this year's experience to better plan for how he'll spend next summer. Hopefully, he's learned that the earlier he checks out opportunities and the more of them he applies to (not just counting on Swat), the more likely he is to be doing something he really wants to do next summer.</p>