OP here - I want to clear up some confusion. He was invited to apply to be a TA and grader after profs saw his performance freshman year. Being a TA really is just being a lab assistant for lower level physics classes, and the grading is again grading homework and other less substantial assignments. Full profs grade major things. He is under the impression that it is something that reflects well on him, being chosen as a sophomore.
His school is small, about 3500, with an engineering program so there are lots of kids that have to take the basic Mechanics and other lower level physics classes. I’m not deliberately being cagey about the school name, I just don’t want all his personal life linked up in one post
He was undecided when he applied and we are strong supporters of a liberal arts education and knowing he would probably major in something like math or a science, he decided this was a great choice. As it turns out, he is double majoring in math and physics and minoring in Philosophy.
Undoubtedly a larger school or more prestigious physics program would offer him more, but I am hoping if he does not get admitted to his transfer choices that he still can be prepared for a PhD program.
Honors in physics is given to those students who are accepted by the University Honors Council and successfully complete and defend an honors thesis in physics.
And:
The Department of Physics and Astronomy encourages students to participate in research projects; research serves as an important complement to the classroom study of physics and astronomy. The department offers research opportunities in atomic and molecular physics, chaos and nonlinear dynamics, astronomy and astrophysics, theoretical quantum optics, laser spectroscopy, nuclear physics, positron physics, biological physics, condensed matter theory and computer simulation, and statistical physics.
I’m thinking the description of a TA in a large research university is different from a small rural LAC. By definition there are no grad students at a LAC (although technically he is at a University with a very small grad program which does not include physics). So TAs are used to tutor and assist in the lower level classes. In the dark ages I was a TA in my major which meant sitting in on the Intro to Econ course and holding study sessions and review hours and so forth for underclassmen.
In a large univ, a TA is a grad student who probably teaches the bulk of some classes, correct?
Finally, the school is a site for REU summer research, which he is hoping to be accepted to.
No- TA’s who are grad students will lead discussions and labs plus teach the beginning semesters of a foreign language (the same as having a HS teacher for that in my experience). TA’s do not give the lectures or create the syllabus. The professor in charge does that. The TA’s are assistants who help teach while also taking graduate classes in the same field. They are a nice bridge between students and professors for asking questions. I would be disappointed in having an undergrad be the one to go to for help in any class. It does not matter if a lecture is given to 10, 50 or hundreds of students- it is a passive listening experience, not an interactive one. However, even intro courses bring up many different issues in discussion groups and I would expect someone to be thoroughly well versed in the subject matter- much beyond what the course covers. This happens when the TA has completed the major and been accepted into the graduate program.
Does the school offer a double major in physics and EE? If so, they may have courses set up which are allowed to be interchanged. It might give him an opportunity to be around a different set of students and make connections that way. Our ds chose to take electromagnetics sequence in the EE dept instead of the physics dept b/c they cover some topics in more depth.
@surfcity I am confused by your statement, “Finally, the school is a site for REU summer research, which he is hoping to be accepted to.” Does this refer to where he is currently attendting or the school you think he wants to transfer to?
If it is the school he wants to transfer to, I hope he gets the opportunity. However, if it is the school where he currently attends, I do not believe he is eligible. (I am not 100% positive, so someone please correct me if I am misunderstanding) My understanding is that they cannot complete an REU at their home institution.
Based on your description, it is not hard to make a reasonable guess for the school. It appears to offer most core junior/senior physics courses once per year, except for the second semester quantum mechanics and electromagnetism in alternating spring semesters.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek, he is applying to the school where he is currently attending. In fact the head of the physics department is who first brought up the subject. I see nothing on the college’s site or the NSF site that says you should not apply to REU at your undergrad school. Just that pamphlet you linked to but the author does not say why. I can only guess that maybe he is encouraging kids to develop a wider network and/or research perspectives? Why would you not be eligible? The application and NSF sites do not indicate any prohibition.
@Wis75 - as I indicated above, I think the working definition of TA at these smaller schools is not the strict Teaching Assistant position that they are at places with grad students. All students are taught by profs, and all profs have office hours and are extremely available to all their students. But in the labs I think it is probably helpful to have some “extra hands” to help with demonstrations and so forth. And I know my son liked having an upperclassman he could contact occasionally when he was a freshman and had minor questions. And now he is the (almost) upperclassman who the freshman can see in the caf and ask a quick question to. That’s all.
The purpose of REUs is to offer students research opportunities they can not experience at their home school.
ETA: fwiw, REUs are also typically very competitive and students usually apply to several, not just one. if the deadline hasn’t passed, he might want to apply to 5 or 6 more.
re REU’s. Perhaps it is good to do an REU elsewhere- but what if your school offers an experience only in the summer and it isn’t offered elsewhere? Not all students will get into an REU- they are competitive. The subject matter varies along with the competition.
I would much rather have grad student extra hands because they have so much more knowledge and experience than any undergrad. I also know it is of more benefit to learn than to teach for undergrads in labs. Schools with grad labs offer so much more than just undergrad lab settings- part of being in Honors at a large research U was being able to spend some time in those grad labs as a part of undergrad courses. There were also many different research areas to be exposed to. Add exposure to more professors and their fields of research. Upper division classes are not typically large but do offer peers.
OP- if your son seriously is questioning his college he should transfer. Or he should at least go through the process and make up his mind at the last minute. His professors may want him to stay because they enjoy having someone of his caliber around.
I agree with wis75 that his professors might want him to stay bc they enjoy having a strong student around. It makes attending an REU elsewhere a good idea so he could talk to people in other depts and get a balanced perspective.
Oh we know the REU is not a given. He is applying to at least 4 that I know of, and I am not holding my breath that he will get in.
Anyway, as to my original question, I guess there’s no way to predict transfer chances We all are still very happy with his original choice of school. I genuinely feel he would not have had a good fit at a big institution in all the other aspects of college. He visited a few and did not feel comfortable. He does love where he is, but is going to test the waters and see if perhaps a transfer is possible. Either way, I think he can get into a PhD program if it is meant to be. He will have to do the work and get the recs wherever he is.
^Sometimes a smaller college is right for the first year or two, but need something else later. That doesn’t mean the original choice was necessarily wrong. Good luck to him!
@surfcity I hope the right REU opens for him, and he also completes his UG to what will fulfill his career goals - be it at his LAC or another school. Sounds like his current school offers him the opportunity to complete the double major with minor. A larger school it may be difficult to arrange the courses like a smaller school.
Good to gather facts and information which can help in the decision process.
Re#13, if 100 was not enough to qualify then it would not appear on the list of “top producers”.
It would appear at the top of a different list, which would be titled something like “top proportions of students going on to get science & engineering PhDs”. The National Science Foundation titles the proportion list as “Top 50 baccalaureate-origin institutions of [time frame] S&E doctorate recipients, by S&E doctorate recipients per hundred bachelor’s degrees awarded in all fields 9 years earlier”. Whereas they title the list I printed above as “Top 50 baccalaureate-origin institutions of {time frame] S&E doctorate recipients”.
One can variously conclude whatever one wants from each of the two lists, I won’t quibble about that here, But they are not the same. So suggest don’t call something one, when it is actually the other. Suggest that if you are dividing the total number by something else, to make some sort of a proportion, and then using only the proportion, say so. As the National Science Foundation does. Because it is in no way implicit. And it is not the same. Lest you mislead.
