Recent content by Cake

You can ask the teacher. You can read ahead in the book(I'm assuming you at least have a book). You can ask people who've taken the class before. You still have resources available to find out. Pretty much any experimental work you're doing in high school with your engineering and physics...

Ha, you didn't sound dumb. You sounded like any other high school kid. Don't sweat it. Your study habits may be flawed. If you aren't studying the material and trying problems yourself before you go to lecture you're not doing it right. The mindset of, go to lecture, copy recitation problems...

100% of physics jobs use programming. You can't get away from it in any STEM field. My brother-in-law who has his PhD in Ecology even uses python scripts to solve differential equations.

If this doesn't make you hyped I don't know what could:

It's entirely possible to minor in ECE or ME and go on to graduate school for it. Won't be top tier, but it'll be enough to get a job. I'm doing the same thing with computer science-taking a minor in case physics isn't for me in 4 years. Others on here have done the exact same thing and gone...

A new take on an old classic

I'm minoring in CS for this very reason (and as a backup plan if I don't want a PhD after 4 years). Thanks for the constructive advice.

That's funny because I just looked at that in your signature. It seems digestible though-and right up my alley. That puts me at ease.

That makes a lot of sense. I'm no stranger to luck playing a role in success. And I'm definitely not considering not doing research, it's more of a stress over uncertainty that bugs me. And I have no delusions of a professor just coming up and inviting me. I'm no stranger to the outreach and...

Is it safe to say that his stuff is more in the realm of independent study/projects? That's something I really would like to get into myself and how you described it is exactly how I pictured it. Or is he tag teaming with his professors and are they deeply involved?

This response is only less cool by two orders of magnitude :P No but seriously, thanks. I just get nervous when I see people post here and elsewhere about publishing 3 papers or more as undergrads and I'm just like, "AAAAH HOW DO I EVEN!" It's a little unnerving.

So I'm sitting on a happy GPA and an acceptance letter to transfer to a nice school for the rest of my undergrad, my dreams of a PhD looking bright, and this terror just grips me like a swimsuit out of water. I've never actually talked to a professor about how research works. I've read a lot...

I second Purcell and K&K, but will say that taking Calculus 3 concurrently while you're reading Purcell is a big help. That's what I'm doing right now, and I don't know if I'd be getting as much our of the book if I wasn't taking the calculus class at the same time. Also the cool thing about...

Even if you take your prerequisites at an online school, you're still transferring the credits. So it's no different than going to a community college. You need to check your school's policy for allowing you to take credits at other schools. If you've been accepted they may not want you to just...

Online schools will be more expensive than most 4-year schools. Go to a local community college and apply. You're guaranteed admission and with the salary of a chef you should get sizable grants from the government to attend at little or no cost. Never take a math class online. It'll be watered...