Recent content by Fizicks1

I have just completed my undergraduate degree, and will be taking the GRE and applying to graduate school this fall. I'll be applying to terminal master's programs because of my lackluster GPA, a 3.3. This is in hopes of continuing my recent track of improved grades, and hopefully...

What about one's GPA?

Thank you Zz and Mpresic for your help. @Mpresic- You got into a PhD program with a 2.4 GPA? Was it for physics? Forgive me if I'm being too direct, but isn't the cutoff for a PhD program a 3.0? Or perhaps you did some serious research and/or have published? I might still apply to a few PhD...

Ok, so I hate to be one who bumps their own thread, but over 150 views and no one has any input? Does nobody here know anything about the admissions of terminal master's degrees in physics?

My original plan was to apply for grad school (PhD) for physics after my undergrad degree, but things didn't go as planned. Simply put, I performed poorly in my first few semesters, and while my grades improved towards the end of my undergraduate studies, they were not enough to compensate for...

I was wondering what the most competitive field is in physics right now, in terms of graduate school admissions, and also in physics research? Condensed matter is definitely the field with the most number of physicists working on, but is it necessarily the most competitive? For example...

I am quite a stranger to cosmology, so please go easy on me if what I say below is actually very stupid/ignorant! From the little exposure I've had to cosmology, it seems to me that in cosmology, a lot of approximations are taken, as well as a lot of huge assumptions made. For example, I've...

Thanks guys. All very helpful responses.

I was reading through Harvard's graduate school admissions FAQ, and a paragraph said:"The physics department's admissions committee reviews each candidate's entire application, including statement of purpose, transcript, experience, GRE scores, and letters of recommendation -- the statement of...

Thanks The_Duck for the response. I have indeed taken an EM course, in fact I'm finishing the second half of Griffiths this semester in my second undergrad EM course. Also luckily I do have some experience with contour integration, from a course on mathematical methods in physics I took last...

I want to start self-learning particle physics, and was wondering if any of you can give me some pointers as to what to do in terms of books to read, maths to learn, etc. Some background: I have taken undergrad level quantum mechanics 1 and 2 (completed Griffiths), and also a course on...

Well, I wasn't aware that real analysis was a prerequisite of functional analysis. Thanks for pointing that out. Your condescending tone wasn't appreciated though. Thanks for the detailed responses, Fredrik and Micromass! It was very informative, as well as helpful to my future choices...

You are right, going through proofs and learning how to prove is very important as a physicist. In freshman year, all the proofs of the theorems I learned in multivariable calculus and linear algebra I've gone through (unless the proof was beyond the scope of the course). I also took a course...

Thanks. What about real analysis? Thanks for the reply, but that was...kinda vague, to say the least. Yes, calculus plays a vital part in physics, but if I can carry out all the computation, why do I need to prove all the theorems? Some more detail would be much appreciated!

I know complex analysis is of immense help in physics at it aids us in calculating certain integrals much more easily. But what about real analysis and functional analysis? Are these branches of mathematical analysis of much use in physics? If so, in what branches of physics and how?