Holding off on core physics classes until final spring semester?
Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 5:11 pm
Hello all,
I'm wondering if anyone has any insight or experience with my situation. I switched from engineering to physics in the middle of my 3rd year, so I will be taking an extra year. Currently, the way my 5-year plan works out is that I will take stat mech (Schroeder) and classical mech (Taylor) my final semester here. Of course, this means that I will not have taken two of the four "foundational" subjects in the undergrad curriculum until after I've applied to grad school!
Now, I do have some leeway with getting these classes slightly earlier, but at a price -- either dropping some electives or overloading some semesters. Stat mech is easier to fit in, as I can switch it with a math elective (abstract algebra, which I want to take, but don't have to by any means!). On the other hand, by taking classical mechanics before the spring, I give up a taking this undergraduate intro to QFT course. Since it requires a full year of quantum mechanics, plus the school only offers it on certain semesters, I have absolutely no leeway with moving the QFT course around. Again, I want to take it because I am interested, and perhaps it will prime me for grad QFT, but not because I have to. However, I wonder if it might seem better or worse than I haven't taken Lagrangian/Hamiltonian mechanics at the time of my application because of this elective? I go to a big state school in the US, somewhere in the top 20 for physics I believe, so I would hope that there's no doubt that I will have to take classical and stat mech in order to graduate, but I'm not sure if it will look strange that, at a rough glance at my transcript, I do not have those classes listed anywhere. Perhaps I should have at least one, but not necessarily the other?
P.S. With regards to not having exposure to the Hamiltonian formalism before taking QM/QFT, I do a lot of self-studying and I've done the first few chapters of Griffiths independently over the winter, so at this level I am confident that I at least understand enough -- and if I don't, I've already ordered Taylor's book, as well as Lanczos's as supplement, which I hope to peruse over the summer. My school also does not have classical mechanics as a requirement for QM (but I believe that is the case for most programs anyway).
Thanks for reading, sorry this went on a bit long.
Edit: I plan to apply for theory (tentatively cosmology), if you think that makes any difference.
I'm wondering if anyone has any insight or experience with my situation. I switched from engineering to physics in the middle of my 3rd year, so I will be taking an extra year. Currently, the way my 5-year plan works out is that I will take stat mech (Schroeder) and classical mech (Taylor) my final semester here. Of course, this means that I will not have taken two of the four "foundational" subjects in the undergrad curriculum until after I've applied to grad school!
Now, I do have some leeway with getting these classes slightly earlier, but at a price -- either dropping some electives or overloading some semesters. Stat mech is easier to fit in, as I can switch it with a math elective (abstract algebra, which I want to take, but don't have to by any means!). On the other hand, by taking classical mechanics before the spring, I give up a taking this undergraduate intro to QFT course. Since it requires a full year of quantum mechanics, plus the school only offers it on certain semesters, I have absolutely no leeway with moving the QFT course around. Again, I want to take it because I am interested, and perhaps it will prime me for grad QFT, but not because I have to. However, I wonder if it might seem better or worse than I haven't taken Lagrangian/Hamiltonian mechanics at the time of my application because of this elective? I go to a big state school in the US, somewhere in the top 20 for physics I believe, so I would hope that there's no doubt that I will have to take classical and stat mech in order to graduate, but I'm not sure if it will look strange that, at a rough glance at my transcript, I do not have those classes listed anywhere. Perhaps I should have at least one, but not necessarily the other?
P.S. With regards to not having exposure to the Hamiltonian formalism before taking QM/QFT, I do a lot of self-studying and I've done the first few chapters of Griffiths independently over the winter, so at this level I am confident that I at least understand enough -- and if I don't, I've already ordered Taylor's book, as well as Lanczos's as supplement, which I hope to peruse over the summer. My school also does not have classical mechanics as a requirement for QM (but I believe that is the case for most programs anyway).
Thanks for reading, sorry this went on a bit long.
Edit: I plan to apply for theory (tentatively cosmology), if you think that makes any difference.