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Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 11:00 am
by helivora
Hi,
I am an international student from India.
I have accepted my offer for fall 2008 at stony brook for graduate studies in phsyics. is there anyone else who is going to stonybrook?

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 11:07 am
by nowhereguy
Hi there. Just out of curiosity, what field are you interested in? I am also an international student and visited Stony Brook during the open house. The city (or should I say village?) is not nice, but you have NYC about an hour and a half away by train. The department, at least for high energy theory, is very, very good. In the end I accepted another offer, but Stony Brook was my first choice from a purely academic point of view. Hope you have a good time there :wink:

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 2:51 pm
by TheHawkBat
Hello,
I'm a domestic student, and I'm going to be attending Stony Brook next year. I guess I'll see you there helivora. I'm also curious as to what field you are interested in.

nowhereguy,
I also attended the open house, so I'm guessing we probably met. I was also mildly disappointed with the village, but I'm guessing I'll be able to keep busy enough for it not to matter, and with the city close enough by, I'm not too worried.

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 2:09 am
by helivora
Right now, i am interested in high energy physics only. but i would also like to explore computational physics. i rejected brown university in favor of suny sb. do you guys know if there is anything available in sunysb for computaional physics? i am not much interested in living in the city, i were i would have accepted my offer at the columbia uni for ms in ee. but i want to pursue a career in physics now, switching from my engineering background.

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 2:11 am
by helivora
@TheHawkBat
which field are you interested in? and what are your long term career plans?

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 3:42 am
by nowhereguy
I remember some people doing computational cosmology/astrophysics at Stony Brook. Given that the department is quite large, I am sure there are more people doing computational physics in other areas, just search in the their website. As for high energy physics, are you interested in theory or experiment? If it is the former, prepare yourself to work your ass off, because everyone at the open house told us that it is really hard to be accepted as a student at the Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics; they say it is extremely competitive. If you are interested in experiment, I am pretty sure they participate in all major collaborations in the field. Also, keep in mind that Stony Brook is one of the top places for nuclear physics, both in theory and experiment, and that lately there is some overlap with high energy physics (in the sense that nuclear theorists are using string theory techniques, for example). Just wanted to mention that in case you might be interested.

Have fun!

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 11:01 am
by bronco199
Hi - if anyone wanted to ask me any non-directly physics related questions about Stony Brook - please do! I grew up there from the time I was 6 until high school graduation, and I spent lots of time at the University working in an engineering lab, taking classes, and just hanging out. So, any SB-bound people, let me know if you want to hear about things to do, culture, places to eat, beaches, etc....

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 11:19 am
by TheHawkBat
@helivora,
I'm not 100% sure what I want to go into. Initially I was interested in condensed matter, but I think that is just because it is what I have the most experience with. I met with a bunch of the condensed matter people during my visit, and really liked them. Another option I'm going to consider is trying to get involved with nuclear stuff, as they are one of the top programs in that area. I believe I want to end up sticking in academia, and SB should be a good place to be if I still want to do that in 5 years or so.

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 1:47 pm
by helivora
Thank you guys. i am mostly interested in high energy phsyics-experiment. i would like to share a few thing here. i have an engineering background and i have not taken phsyics gre as there were dates problems in india. still i made it to stony brook and brown. other ppl around me could not make this. i was wondering, if i have a physics gre score, could i have done better? also, if anybody can tell me whether it is possible to do a phd in phsyics after an ms in electrical engineering? will it still take 5 years?

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 5:12 pm
by butsurigakusha
It is certainly possible to do a PhD in physics after getting a masters in engineering. However, I am not sure, but I would guess that the amount of time necessary for the PhD would not be shortened much, if at all. I suppose it is possible that some of the courses you took for your masters could transfer and apply for physics, or maybe if your research is similar to what you did as a masters student, it might shorten it a little bit, but I wouldn't count on it.

I have some friends are working on a masters in physics before going somewhere else for a PhD, and I don't think it is even certain that their masters work will shorten their length to PhD.

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 8:26 pm
by christopher3.14
butsurigakusha wrote:I have some friends are working on a masters in physics before going somewhere else for a PhD, and I don't think it is even certain that their masters work will shorten their length to PhD.
I think it depends on the PhD program. (I'm finishing up my master's in a month.) For example, at UIUC there are no true required courses (except breadth requirements in a specific field), so I didn't have to worry about re-taking any classes. However, at Columbia, there are required courses but you are allowed to take exams to pass out of 3 of them (QM I & II, E&M). So contingent on me passing those 3 exams, I think the master's would only have shortened my program by a single semester.

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 12:32 am
by helivora
christopher3.14 wrote:However, at Columbia, there are required courses but you are allowed to take exams to pass out of 3 of them (QM I & II, E&M). So contingent on me passing those 3 exams, I think the master's would only have shortened my program by a single semester.
I did read that in columbia, only 3 credits of other department courses can be taken. can you tell me if the ee department at columbia is liberal enough to allow me to take projects or thesis related to physics? and if i can do some extra work there regarding physics? i checked out the website, but i didnt see anybody working in quantum information or stuff like that. and i am not interested in solid-state. :(

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 11:02 pm
by christopher3.14
helivora wrote:can you tell me if the ee department at columbia is liberal enough to allow me to take projects or thesis related to physics? and if i can do some extra work there regarding physics? i checked out the website, but i didnt see anybody working in quantum information or stuff like that. and i am not interested in solid-state. :(
I have no idea -- I begin at Columbia this Fall. You would have to ask specific faculty members. As for quantum info, the only person, to my knowledge, doing research in that is in the computer science department.

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 11:56 pm
by helivora
so, u ll be joining columbia for graduate studies in physics? i m very much confused whether i should let go stony brook and go to columbia in the hope that i ll get into a top uni afterwards?

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 12:25 am
by christopher3.14
I thought you said you accepted an offer to do your graduate studies at Stony Brook?

And yes I will be joining the physics department.

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 7:32 am
by helivora
I have. but i ve also accepted my ms ee offer at columbia. the one i use to file my student-visa counts. thanks a lot for all the help. Right now, stony brook seems a reasonable option. i might take physics gre later and try for a transfer.

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 8:48 am
by VT
How can you accept two different offers!! :shock:
Is that allowed?

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 11:21 am
by helivora
yes, it is allowed. but ultimately you have to chose. i am supposing you are not an international student. you can order your i20s from as many unis as you want. but the one that u take for visa with you counts. you have to go to that university otherwise your visa gets canceled. although in my case ordering i20 from columbia cost me $500. so if i dont go there, its money down the drain.

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:15 pm
by collectedsoul
Hi helivora,
If you're still around can you please give me some details of your background - I'm from India and I'm thinking of applying for an MS in Physics next year.

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:17 am
by helivora
Hey,
i m still here. first of all, theres no such thing as MS in physics. if you are serious about a career in physics, your ultimate goal should be phd in physics and thats what they offer in US. unlike india, you can apply for phd in us without a masters degree. you just need a 4-years bachelors. and if you are bent on doing masters only then you should search for the universities that do offer MS degree in physics(very few do so). Anyway, as for the process as you might have read on any of the universities website, u need a 4-years bachelors degree (you're ok if you did engineering in india but if you did b.sc. then you ll probably need m.sc. because of this requirement) plus general gre, subject gre and a toefl score. besides these mandatory requirements, they look at your recommendation letters, marks and research background as well.
i hope this helps. lemme know if you have a specific question.

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 1:19 am
by helivora
And about my background, i am an electronics engineer from nirma university,gujarat. and i did not take subject gre because it was not offered in india last year 2 out of 3 times. but i have done some projects with the physical research laboratory.

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:03 pm
by collectedsoul
Hi helivora,
Thats really good to know. I'm an engineer as well (Comp.) and I was afraid that I needed a B Sc in Physics to make it to a good school. The reason I thought of doing an MS is that I have no experience in Physics beyond my XII standard. No research, no nothing. And I only have 59.6% in my Engg. I basically have two further questions:
1) If I get a good score in the Subject GRE will it offset my lack of research experience and my average undergrad score (esp. since its a Comp. Engg. degree and not Physics)?
2) Isn't it a major problem to go directly into a Ph.D. program without having done a B.Sc. in Physics (if only for the student)?

Re: Anybody going to StonyBrook?

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 11:55 pm
by helivora
Hey, sorry for the late reply.
As for your first question, ireally cannot say. but i think there is a discussion going on regarding this topic.
and for the 2nd question, they might give you some undergrad, or deficiency courses if they feel the need. otherwise the PhD program starts with basic grad coursework only.