Recent content by Choppy

The problem with self study is that there's no evidence that you completed a full curriculum, and no record of feedback or evaluation on that material. Anyone can say they've self-studied a subject. Sure, occasionally you'll find someone who actually has gone through all the problems in a series...

Unfortunately one of the challenges with research is that when you're working on a problem, particularly when it's a problem of significant interest in the scientific community, (a) other groups are also working on it and (b) someone might publish their results before you. I can't speak to the...

I agree with StatGuy2000's post above. If you're not in a place where you're happy, looking for opportunities to advance out of it is ideal. I'd underscore the idea of investing time into researching potential EE master's programs... Do you have the prerequisites? How much skill remediation...

For what it's worth, be wary of the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset. Fixed: I'm bad at physics. I will always be bad at physics. Growth: I'm not as good at physics as I would like to be, but I can get better. While this idea does tend to oversimplify things (there are limits to...

The devil lies in the details here. What's the difference between a BA and a BSc in physics at your school? Generally speaking, most CAMPEP-accredited medical physics programs only require entering students to have the equivalent of a minor in physics. This allows the programs to accept...

There's no universal inoculation to exam stress, I'm afraid. However I can think of a few things that might help. Experience The more of these kinds of exams you do, the more you'll get used to them. I get that doesn't help much for this specific one, but just the fact that you're participating...

When it comes to studying there is no single best way to do that applies universally for everyone. You need to figure out what works for you. That said, here are a few pro tips... Problem Sets Physics is very much about developing skills in problem solving. It's one thing to acquire a basic...

Getting into grad school will be an uphill battle if you're sitting at a 2.7. But something to really consider is... why? Admittedly GPA doesn't tell a whole story and there are a lot of reasons why someone might not have great marks, but it's worth putting some serious thought into why...

First off, I get that this is not easy. It can sound straight forward when posting on an internet forum, but actually finding contacts, approaching people, initiating conversations, etc. is challenging--even more so if the skill set for this doesn't come to you naturally. Kudos for persisting...

Hmm - there's something off here and it's difficult for us to really offer a lot of constructive advice. Sorry that it's been such a tough slog for you. As has been said, there are no guarantees when it comes to employment following a degree. Professional degrees such as engineering, law, or...

Some other directions that might fit in the Venn diagram... Corporate Educator Larger companies like Siemens/Varian employ people with backgrounds in physics to run courses on various products they offer, and I'm sure they're not the only ones. I'm sure there's one side of the spectrum that's...

These kinds of situations are difficult to really make a call on. On the surface of it... sure, a supervisor who presents your independent work as their own without attribution to you as the original author... that's a red flag. On the other hand if it's presented as "Look at this awesome work...

When facing a decision like this, it's easy to get caught up in the believe that it's an optimization problem, that in the grand scheme of things, there's only one best choice. In my experience, that's not true. You do your diligence, to make sure that you're choosing between good options of...

I think that should be milliSieverts in your sentence. 1000 microSiverts is 1 milliSivert, which is roughly the average annual effective dose from background radiation, and quite survivable in the long term. In a Star Wars scenario, you're talking about accelerating charged particles to a...

I'd be wary of this advice. Are you sure it's not the opposite... that people without art degrees can still pursue masters degrees in art? Admissions for graduate school in physics tend to be quite competitive. You have a lineup of students with high aptitudes for the subject, most of whom have...