The
Road Ahead
Physics
as a Career Choice
| The Road Ahead | Cracking
the Job Market
We imagine that you, the reader, are contemplating
entering college or have only recently begun college classes,
and we have structured this site with that in mind. Of course
this does not apply to every visitor, and indeed, we expect that
even beginning students will return here many times before they
graduate. So skim the contents to get oriented and use the resources
as they fit you best.
For the beginning student, the bullets below
offer advice about how to get the most from a college program
that is focused on a physics career. Obviously this is not everything
you need to know. For the rest you should make use of your instructors and advisors.
Starting out:
Steps Along the Way.
Outside Reading Outside reading provides a context
for the ideas that will be developed in your courses. Reading
about physics is important since you will form questions as
you read. When you take a class that answers these questions,
your interest will already be developed so the concepts will come
easier and you will retain them longer. The most important thing
to know about outside reading is to follow your interests.
For news of science on the web try, the Physics
Today Home Page, and Physics
News at Brown University. Classes and Advising Obviously
you will want to do well in your course work. This is where the
main content of your education lies. But you are not alone, and
are not expected to do this alone. For your classes, visit your
instructors, form study groups (see below), and make use of the
resources available at
BC. For help selecting courses and planning your schedule seek
advice (from a person!) about the courses you should take. Taking
classes only when you are ready for them is a fundamental
secret for success. An example of a four year curriculum can be
found at University
of Washington Physics. Obvoiusly you will have to modify this
to account for your classes here at BC. Transfering to a Four Year College or University
If you are interested in physics you will want to
transfering to a four year college or university after you have
finished at BC. The physics transfer page contains information
for students who plan to transfer, whether in-state or out-of-state.
Running
Start students should seek advice from their high school advisors
and International Students should consult with International
Student services here at BC. All students should consult with
their instructors for aditional information. Professional Societies Most
disciplines have professional societies associated with them.
Membership usually includes a subscription to the society journal.
This is a vary good place to get a feel for what is happening
in your field. For physics the main societies are the American
Institute of Physics (AIP), American
Physical Society (APS), The American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Astronomical Society (AAS),
and the National Academy of Sciences
(NAS). As a student you will
be interested in the student section of the American Physical
Society called the Society
of Physics Students (SPS), and their associated honor society
Sigma
Pi Sigma. There is a chapter at the University of Washington
(UWSPS) for
students who expect to transfer there. Internships Internships are
growing in importance for the career minded student. Here is a
place to gain practical laboratory experience, to see how physics
is done and to get paid for doing it! Resources for internship
information can be found at the AIP
internship site, at the University
of Washington, and at a site maintained by Sonoma
State University (summer
and part time jobs). Our science
advisor at BC maintains up to date internship information.
Study
Groups Research into the progress of students
in science and Engineering shows that students who study in groups
do significantly better than their peers who study alone. In addition
to the students you meet through group activities in your courses,
you can work with fellow students in Club
Phys. You should find study partners for all your courses,
for your whole academic career. Know Yourself What qualities
make a good physicist? Do you have these qualities? The answers
to these questions cover both your interests and your abilities.
Both of these are developing so the answer may be changing as
you go through school. Conversations with your instructors and
self examination are your two main windows into this realm. There
is a very good site at Cornell
Career Services (Cornell University) that can help you begin
this self examination. Some observations about qualities that
presage success in physics are discussed below in the section
"Is it for me" (graduate School). Finally, the National
Academy of sciences has an excellent online book: Careers
in Science and Engineering. Mentoring An important part
of your education should happen outside of the classroom. Your
contact with professors and others in your field is one of your
main sources of information about the professional life you will
lead. You need this information both to help you achieve your
educational goals, and to know how to set the professional goals
that will guide you afterward. Finding a mentor, one instructor
who takes an interest in your developing career, is the best thing
to do early on. However, you can be just as successful by utilizing
many sources. The important part is to get to know these people,
and gather information from them about the life and values they
have. Planning for the Job Market.
As you enter your senior year you want to begin developing
your contacts for work after college. If you have been using these
pages, you know where to go already. If not, start on the page
Cracking The Job Market to begin your search. What About Graduate School? What
is graduate physics like? what can I do with a graduate degree
in physics? How should I pick a graduate school? and What field
should I study? These questions are addressed below. What you
need to know now is that it is already time to start getting answers
to these questions. You will need to begin now and continue gathering
information all the way up to your graduation and acceptance to
the school of your choice.
Top of Page
Graduate School:
Weighing the Choices and Getting Ready.
What Does a Graduate Degree Mean?
Graduate programs offer more than just additional
classes in your discipline. In physics in the United States there
are two principle alternatives, a Masters Degree (MS or MA) and
the Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.). A masters
program will include course work that helps you to bridge the
gap between your introductory course where the problems and systems
are mostly idealized, to applications and techniques that account
for more of the complexities of nature. You will extend your knowledge
to include many more real world examples and be able to handle
a much harder class of problems. Also your mathematical sophistication
will rise to new levels. In addition you will be exposed to physics
as it is practiced today. Most undergraduate programs can only
provide a taste of physics more modern than 1935. In your graduate
course work you will learn the details about the developments
in the last half of this century. Finally you will learn how to
search the literature (experiment and theory papers) so that you
have the skills to continue your learning in any specialty area
of physics. The student with a masters degree may have many qualities
but is expected to be able to solve any solvable problem
that has been clearly defined by whoever is asking the
question. The Doctoral student has been prepared in much
the same way as the Masters student, perhaps different course
work or experiences but principally the same academic goals, although
usually with slightly higher standards. In addition the Ph.D.
holder is someone who has carried forth a research problem from
formulating the question, to constructing the research methods
(and devices if the student is an experimentalist), to evaluating
the results and forming a conclusion that contributes to our body
of knowledge. One way to express the difference between the masters
and the Ph.D., is that the person with a Ph.D. can be given problems
that are not clearly defined, that may not have a solution,
and this person should be able to define the problem, determine
if a solution is possible (and why) and finally provide an answer.
Obviously individuals may have this quality or ability already.
The Ph.D. holder has demonstrated this ability for at least one
difficult problem to the satisfaction of the physics community.
Is It For Me? This
is not a question to answer all at once. You should begin by evaluating
yourself and your interests as suggested above in the "Know
Yourself" bullet. Compare the results of that examination
to the description of qualities for successful graduate students
presented here. Ask your instructors for an outside view. They
have the experience, both in the field and with you, to help you
develop a perspective. The two leading qualities
of the physicist are curiosity and an analytical mind. Do you
love to find out how things work? Are you an explorer, one who
likes to see parts of nature that few others have seen? And do
you naturally like to take things apart, to quibble about details?
Do you have an easy time with evidence or logic and argumentation?
These are good indicators for success in physics. Physics
combines intuition about the physical world with mathematical
descriptions of nature. Strength in both areas is the leading
predictor of success. However you may still succeed if relative
weakness in one of these qualities is compensated by strength
in the other. Math has become the language of
physics. your conversations with your peers will switch between
math and English to the point where you will no longer notice
the distinction. Students who are somewhat weaker in math have
become good experimentalists if they are analytical and have exceptional
physical intuition, but Michel
Faraday (1791-1867) is perhaps the last great physicist to
succeed on intuition alone. However your current performance in
math may not be a good indicator of your likely success. You may
not have enough experience to base a sound judgment upon. Wait
until you are through differential equations and then talk to
your physics instructor about that experience before you decide.
Physical
intuition covers a wide set of poorly defined abilities. Perhaps
the leading quality is physical modeling, the ability to form
a mental picture or mental structure that behaves the same way
as the physical system under study. Also people with strong physical
intuition are often those who have been looking at the objects
around them since their earliest years and wondering how they
worked. As tinkerers, these people are generally very good with
their hands. Physicists
are generally sociable people, but the work will often require
long hours in isolation, building devices or making calculations
(often on the computer). If you do not like to work alone for
long periods without human contact you will want to find ways
to compensate or make this a key question as you inquire about
particular research areas. Is Graduate School the Right Strategic Choice?
Deciding to go to graduate school involves factors
outside of academic ability and your desire to pursue knowledge.
These factors comprise economic issues and stragies for designing
your career. A student that becomes employed at the end of four
years has about a seven year head start on the Ph.D. student in
establishing his or her career. So you would want to compare starting
Ph.D. salaries to those enjoyed by a bachelors student with seven
years experience (plus the net earnings in between). Then too,
the job market fluctuates. Employment rises and falls. Sometimes
the masters degree is very dificult to market (you cost too much
but cannot do enough) and at other times it is an easy sell. You
will want to gather information about how graduates are faring
in the job market. Visit the statistics pages at AIP,
Duke,
and Cornell.
This is a good topic to raise both with your instructors and with
the science advisor. At best you will all be gazing into the crystal
ball since you need to predict the situation that exists when
you graduate. Where Should I Go? Selecting
a graduate program is a different question for each student. It
first depends on your field of interest, so you will want to learn
as much about the direction of physics research as possible before
your senior year. Then you must evaluate the graduate
programs available. You can find a ranking of graduate schools
at US
News and World Reports and a clever searchable one at Physlink (Old
data, 1994.). But this will not tell the whole story. You also
need to research several schools in more depth. Ask your instructors,
read program brochures, and visit the campuses. It is especially
important to get personal observations from several physicists
and graduate students before you decide. How Do I Prepare Myself? Here
we refer you to a very nice summary at Sonoma
State University, and Careers
in Science and Engineering.
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Physics as a Career Choice | The Road Ahead | Cracking
the Job Market