statement of interest, looking for help!

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grm0109
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:36 pm

statement of interest, looking for help!

Post by grm0109 » Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:49 pm

Hey guys whats up my name is Rich I am a sophomore undergrad at East Carolina (I know doesnt match up to what you all are doing haha). Its part of my story though during high school i didnt give a crap about school, I actually thought I was going to be a professional wrestler till the end of junior year haha. I know. Anyway something finally kicked me in the ass and I realized I wanted to go to college so I came here to the best place I could get in with my dismal non-caring high school record, its actually a fairly good university leading into a great medical school. But I am over the whole doctor thing now. About six months ago I started to really get into astrology and more specifically astrophysics. I fell in love with it. And in this short time I have completely flopped my life towards wanting to one day be a professor and researcher in astrophysics. Big problem though this school not only doesnt have an astrophysics or astrology major, it only has one class on the matter! Haha not good. Even so I have been planning a move back up home to New Jersey to finish my schooling. I have applied to Rutgers, Villanova, and The College of New Jersey all three of whom I believe have good undergrad programs? I am still in the begining stages of figuring all this stuff out. I want Rutgers the most and I feel i have performed well enough here to get in as a transfer. But my problem is I feel a little left out or behind in all this stuff because all you people on here seem well are so much smarter than myself. I guess I am just looking for someone to take me under their wing and kinda gimmie some tips so I can get caught up as quickly as possible. Not someone to do it for me but just someone to say hey you might wanna try this or you might not want to go there. I am a sophomore in college I have never taken calculus I excel in physics I got a 1060 on my SATs but damnit I *** love this stuff and I know I can get do the work. Its what I want to do. Someone please give me a little insight into this world of astrophysics and everything that goes along with it educational wise. I want this baddddd.

nathan12343
Posts: 249
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 9:34 am

Re: statement of interest, looking for help!

Post by nathan12343 » Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:52 pm

Astrology is not the same as astrophysics. One is a superstition, the other is a science.

grm0109
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:36 pm

Re: statement of interest, looking for help!

Post by grm0109 » Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:54 pm

haha i know the difference i just categorize them together, i should have said interest for the universe in general and how it works my bad

evilclaw2321
Posts: 118
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 5:51 pm

Re: statement of interest, looking for help!

Post by evilclaw2321 » Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:58 pm

Yeah you definitely dont want to say to a prospective school that you want to do astrology because they wont take you seriously. AStronomy or astrophysics. If you're serious you for sure want to transfer to a school that at least has a program, it doesn't have to be the best program in the world just somewhere you can take the classes and that has some research opportunities. I also changed my major about half way through my undergrad from something totally different to astrophysics. Be prepared for a lot of work but if your serious than just do it. Try and keep your GPA up and once you're there talk to professors and get involved in research early.

grm0109
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:36 pm

Re: statement of interest, looking for help!

Post by grm0109 » Sun Feb 01, 2009 2:03 pm

i dont know what i was thinking haha i meant astronomy not astrology sorry dudes
and thanks man! yeah I am def gna try to get into research as soon as i can at rutgers, ill prob have to stay an extra year there to make up time but it wont matter if i am doing something i like to do!

kaosgrace
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2008 4:19 am

Re: statement of interest, looking for help!

Post by kaosgrace » Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:30 pm

My recommendation for you, as another person who screwed up bigtime relatively early in her education: three things.

First, understand that switching to a science-oriented major is a big (though not necessarily bad) decision. You're basically starting over as a freshman, since you haven't taken calculus. Don't worry that you've wasted the two years you've already spent in college; all those courses you've likely taken will count as distribution requirements, leaving you with much more time than most physics majors to take upper-level electives in your junior and senior years. Nevertheless, you should definitely understand that you're now on the six-year program.

Second, the very first thing you should do starting next term (or sooner, if by some chance you have a nearby community college on the quarter system where you could take some spring quarter classes) is take calculus and the first-year physics sequence. Assuming you're qualified to start the calculus sequence, you should do so in the summer; most physics sequences have the first calculus course as a prerequisite (though at some schools it's a corequisite) and since you're already behind by two years, you don't want to add another semester.

Third, don't bother transferring to a top school yet unless you happen to have a lot of extra money you're not doing anything with. You have at least four years to go. Also, you don't want to be adapting to a big new school at the same time that you're adapting to a serious science and math curriculum for the first time in your life. If I were you, I'd do what I did and enroll at a community college (seriously!) - if you haven't already seen calculus in high school, you'll get way more out of it in a 30-person non-competitive community college class with others new to the subject and an instructor who focuses on teaching than you would in a 300-person lecture-hall course graded on a curve with a bunch of students who had AP Calc in high school and a professor who views teaching freshman calc as a burden and an interruption in their research.

grm0109
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:36 pm

Re: statement of interest, looking for help!

Post by grm0109 » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:32 pm

kaosgrace thanks so much for putting in time to write that! I find a lot of that helpful except I guess I didnt mention in my intro above that I am actually currently a Bio-Chem double major so I've been exposed to hard sciences like ive im currently in organic II and general physics II. So basically for me changing universities is actually a good thing b/c currently I am out of state and rutgers and tcnj are a lot cheaper cuz I will be in state and also ECU has nothing related to astronomy or astrophysics and RU and tcnj both have the program so I figure I wont be thatttt far behind it will definitely take about 5 years total for me to finish. the thing that really worries me is calc i agree with you def not looking forward to taking calc I and most likely calc II at rutgers or tcnj, i want to take it over the summer however I am hoping to get some internships and my local community colleges only offer the course during the day..while i am working. so who knows
thanks for your opinion though! my bad for not making it clear on what ive already got under my belt

kaosgrace
Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2008 4:19 am

Re: statement of interest, looking for help!

Post by kaosgrace » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:58 pm

Hm. Good to know you've been exposed to the hard sciences. You say you're in general physics 2 without having taken Calculus, so I assume you're in an algebra-based course, like the ones chem and bio departments usually require? If so, I'm afraid you're going to have to take it again, this time in a calculus-based format; there's not really any way around that requirement. However, it's vaguely possible, given that you will have completed the algebra-based year, that you may be able to take some of the sophomore-level physics and astronomy courses concurrently with the freshman calculus-based sequence. I suggest e-mailing the transfer advisors at the departments to which you are trying to transfer and seeing what they can work out for you.

tokamak
Posts: 25
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2007 4:40 pm

Re: statement of interest, looking for help!

Post by tokamak » Wed Feb 04, 2009 8:27 am

[
grm0109 wrote:Hey guys whats up my name is Rich I am a sophomore undergrad at East Carolina (I know doesnt match up to what you all are doing haha). Its part of my story though during high school i didnt give a crap about school, I actually thought I was going to be a professional wrestler till the end of junior year haha. I know. Anyway something finally kicked me in the ass and I realized I wanted to go to college so I came here to the best place I could get in with my dismal non-caring high school record, its actually a fairly good university leading into a great medical school. But I am over the whole doctor thing now. About six months ago I started to really get into astrology and more specifically astrophysics. I fell in love with it. And in this short time I have completely flopped my life towards wanting to one day be a professor and researcher in astrophysics. Big problem though this school not only doesnt have an astrophysics or astrology major, it only has one class on the matter! Haha not good. Even so I have been planning a move back up home to New Jersey to finish my schooling. I have applied to Rutgers, Villanova, and The College of New Jersey all three of whom I believe have good undergrad programs? I am still in the begining stages of figuring all this stuff out. I want Rutgers the most and I feel i have performed well enough here to get in as a transfer. But my problem is I feel a little left out or behind in all this stuff because all you people on here seem well are so much smarter than myself. I guess I am just looking for someone to take me under their wing and kinda gimmie some tips so I can get caught up as quickly as possible. Not someone to do it for me but just someone to say hey you might wanna try this or you might not want to go there. I am a sophomore in college I have never taken calculus I excel in physics I got a 1060 on my SATs but damnit I *** love this stuff and I know I can get do the work. Its what I want to do. Someone please give me a little insight into this world of astrophysics and everything that goes along with it educational wise. I want this baddddd.

first of all you need to come off whatever drugs you are taking....i am guessing speed/meth



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