The advice I always give regarding going for a PhD in physics is "if you have to ask, don't."
Job wise, you will assuredly be better off going to grad. school for engineering, or economics, or anything else with direct application to the business world. As the quote goes, "a PhD trains you for...
How many hours did I spend on homework? As many as it took until I was done, and no more.
For lower level classes, especially physics, this tended to be a lot less than 1 hour of study per hour of class time; I don't think the ratio ever surpassed 1:1 until I hit grad. school. As for the...
I'd give two bits of advice here. The first is, don't choose your career based on considerations of money, or on what your parents think you should do. Choose based on what makes you happy.
The second is, don't discount the role that money and cordial relations with your parents can have on...
I don't see anything particularly wrong with the proof, although I agree with Marne that "by closure under addition" may not be the best way to justify that step.
However, there is an easier way (in my mind, at least) to demonstrate the proof, and it doesn't require the use of cases. Try...
Hmmm. Most open? None of them are all that open, but probably the most popular quantum gravity theory these days is LQG. CDT seems to be picking up some interest, too, although I haven't seen much in the way of jobs in that area. As a said above, there are still quite a few String Theory...
At the undergrad level, take whatever courses you can find that interest you. The purpose of these electives is not to prepare you for doing research in that area as a grad. student, it is merely to give you a taste of these areas of research so that you might be able to better decide where you...
I went to a place like this. Well, maybe not so bad; we at least used Griffiths for E&M, although we used no textbook for QM and I did not have an upper level mechanics or stat. mech. class, due to timing and a lack of available students. I was the only one to graduate with a B.S. in Physics...
Luckily, the arXiv should contain the vast majority of all of the new and recent publications you might be interested in. The problem will be looking up some of the older references not on the arXiv.
I don't really have a good suggestion for that, other than "try to find a way to maintain an...
Let's see: 9 years ago, I returned to school after a three year hiatus to finish up my physics degree. At the time, I was in the same boat: I had finished the lower level coursework, but taken no upper level classes. 9 years down the road, I'm now at the end of my first year as a postdoc and...
A vacation doesn't mean you have to actually go somewhere. In fact, for recovering from this kind of burnout, not going somewhere is probably preferable. Just take some time off.
I hit this kind of a wall during the spring of my fourth year. Took me about a month to get over it, but after I...
The problem with a generic physics B.S. is that it doesn't prepare you for the S, T, or E parts of a "STEM career."
Technology and Engineering jobs are going to be looking for people with specialized credentials, and there are virtually no science jobs available for those with only a B.S. You...
In my research, I've personally used Fortran, C++, Python, and Mathematica for various tasks. Mathematica primarily (although lately I've been transitioning to almost exclusively Python).
Fortran still has a place if you are doing lots of number-crunching, but personally I wouldn't use it by...
Will your lack of physics related research count against you? Compared to what? If you mean, would your application be stronger if you had worked full time, completed your physics degree, and somehow found time to add in extra research, then the answer is obviously yes. If you mean, would...
Yes; although all told I'm not worried about the cranks arguing with me - I'm worried about what happens when they argue with everyone else. Seems like most of the tragedies in human history can be ascribed to a lot of people listening to someone who sounded convincing.
I agree that the first...