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camjohn
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I'm going to be a freshman this year at UCSC. My initial plan was to double major in physics and pure mathematics, but I recently changed my mind after realizing that I want to obtain an education applicable to the real world (creating things and doing research on energy). Once I switched to applied physics, I found out that UCSC created a new major -- robotics engineering -- just last year. I felt like an idiot for having just found this out, given my strong interest in robotics, but I instantly became intrigued by the idea of double majoring in robotics engineering and applied physics. When I finished the plan, I was thrilled to discover that the double major was indeed possible in five years, but that wasn't the only thing I discovered; such an extensive double major requires 20 units of engineering/physics/math virtually every quarter.
Is twenty units of technical courses doable? I understand that it will clearly take a lot of work, especially since I'm a very social person and will be going out on weekend nights, but is it possible? My next step will be to go to grad school and get a PHD in phyiscs doing research in the applied physics area for energy generation and manipulation, perhaps solid state physics? I'm not quite sure, and that'll be in years to come so I understand that I have to time map that out. But it is related to my other question: will the double major hurt my grad school admissions? Getting a 4.0 with the double major would be totally impractical, but I imagine that I'll still be able to get around the 3.5 area. Will my clearly extensive coursework and massive amount of undergraduate reserach (UCSC is one of the best schools in the world for undergraduate natural sciences/engineering research, and I have to complete an extensive research project for each major :0) make up for the difference of what I estimate to be .5 points on my GPA?
Lastly, does anyone have some insight on the robotics field? Isn't the technology quickly emerging, and thus demand for those with the skill rapidly increasing?
If anyone wishes to see the curriculum for each major, I've posted each here.
Robotics: https://ua.soe.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/RE_11-12_0.pdf
Applied physics: http://undergrad.pbsci.ucsc.edu/programs/physics/apphbs.html
Thanks for the help everyone
Is twenty units of technical courses doable? I understand that it will clearly take a lot of work, especially since I'm a very social person and will be going out on weekend nights, but is it possible? My next step will be to go to grad school and get a PHD in phyiscs doing research in the applied physics area for energy generation and manipulation, perhaps solid state physics? I'm not quite sure, and that'll be in years to come so I understand that I have to time map that out. But it is related to my other question: will the double major hurt my grad school admissions? Getting a 4.0 with the double major would be totally impractical, but I imagine that I'll still be able to get around the 3.5 area. Will my clearly extensive coursework and massive amount of undergraduate reserach (UCSC is one of the best schools in the world for undergraduate natural sciences/engineering research, and I have to complete an extensive research project for each major :0) make up for the difference of what I estimate to be .5 points on my GPA?
Lastly, does anyone have some insight on the robotics field? Isn't the technology quickly emerging, and thus demand for those with the skill rapidly increasing?
If anyone wishes to see the curriculum for each major, I've posted each here.
Robotics: https://ua.soe.ucsc.edu/sites/default/files/RE_11-12_0.pdf
Applied physics: http://undergrad.pbsci.ucsc.edu/programs/physics/apphbs.html
Thanks for the help everyone
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