<p>My math grades are the lowest, but I was planning to major in physics would it be better if I apply as undecided or should I pick a major not many people want to do? It would be nice if I could get feedback on ofthese would be good schools for physics. </p>
<p>University of Richmond
Occidental
Barnard
UVA
Virginia Tech
George Washington
Penn State
Smith</p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Whether selecting a major at frosh application time matters in terms of admission depends on the school. You need to check each school to see if it matters. If it does matter, changing later after enrolling may require going through another competitive admission process.</p>
<p>Physics is not generally a super-popular major, although it requires strong math ability. Engineering majors appear to be more likely to be enrolled to capacity. But whether physics or engineering majors are enrolled to capacity (and are thus hard to gain admission to) depends on the school.</p>
<p>Being weak in math is not a good start for either physics or engineering. I’m not familiar with all schools, but most will require at least 4 semesters of college level math, and that includes Calc I, II, and III plus a course in Differential Equations. Some engineering majors will require Matrix Algebra. Physics often/usually requires math even beyond that.</p>
<p>There are many, many college educated people, even some who have Ph.D’s, who could not complete a bachelor’s in physics. It is one of the most difficult undergrad degrees. I don’t want to scare you off, but you need to go into the program, should you choose to pursue it, with your eyes wide open as to what it entails in the math department.</p>
<p>Here is the Academic Plan for a Physics Degree (General) from Penn State. I’m sure it’s fairly typical.
<a href=“http://www.phys.psu.edu/undergraduate/degrees/General_Option.pdf[/url]”>http://www.phys.psu.edu/undergraduate/degrees/General_Option.pdf</a></p>
<p>Extracting from the sheet, here are just the math requirements:</p>
<p>MATH 140 (GQ) Calculus with Analytic Geometry I (4)
MATH 141 (GQ) Calculus with Analytic Geometry II (4)
MATH 230 Calculus and Vector Analysis (4)
MATH 220 Matrices (2) or programming (3)
MATH 4xx (3)
MATH 4xx (3) </p>
<p>My head hurts just looking at that, and I have a degree in engineering.</p>
<p>At Smith you don’t specify your major when you apply and you don’t need to decide until the end of your sophomore year. They have a nice, well-funded engineering program and a small physics program (about 5 graduates a year, but many go on to get PhDs in physics or other fields). But I’ll agree with MrMom62 that students in these majors are typically those who have already performed well in math. Both of the majors at Smith require 4 semesters of math starting with Calculus I.</p>
<p>I understand you need to do well in math for those subjects, which I am confident I can do in college. My grades were low because of personal reasons. I was just asking if I should apply undecided or as a physics major.</p>
<p>You need to check with each school to see if specifying a major makes any difference in admission selectivity.</p>
<p>Even if it does not, indicating an interest in majoring in physics may cause you to be directed toward more appropriate frosh advising at orientation (in terms of recommendations for choosing courses). I.e. knowing that you are interested in majoring in physics, they may say “choose an appropriate math course based on your math placement, and start the physics for physics majors sequence if you have the math prerequisites for it”, rather than “just take some courses that interest you so that you can figure out what major you want to declare later”.</p>