Recent content by jkl71

It was pretty much a non-issue for me, I had taken the graduate courses that were available and had done some independent study on my own. As far as I can tell that's pretty much the same preparation the other theory grad students had. The only difference for me was I spent/wasted time doing...

I did (I also changed schools), basically it meant I was in grad school about a 1-2 longer than I would have been otherwise. I only published one experimental paper, but I guess you could say it makes my publication list a little unusual (since then I've done some work in biotech and added a few...

It's a tough choice, but the good news is all the choices are great so you really can't go wrong. IMO making connections (for letters of recommendation and the future) and developing a good understanding of physics are probably the most important things, I'm fairly sure you can do that at any of...

No, but I was only addressing the existence of 3-D black holes, not the inequality

There's a black hole solution in 3 dimensions (it does require a negative cosmological constant) http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9204099

I'll tell you what my experience is, but please keep in mind it's only one data point. I'm not really sure what you mean by a PhD in general physics, all PhD research I'm aware of is fairly specialized. Pretty much all my fellow grad students that I kept up with were theory (string...

In the context of the rest of your post I take it you mean virtually no careers actually using the knowledge gained while doing a PhD. Certainly the chances of getting a job using your physics background depend on how flexible you are in your definition of what it means to be using your physics...

There are two distinct concepts that I think often get mixed up, jobs people with a PhD in physics/astronomy are qualified for and jobs for which the skills acquired while getting the PhD makes them substantially more qualified. If you mean the former, that's quite a lot. Sure, people with PhDs...

I like Schutz, it's pretty basic, but well done. I also think it's better oriented towards physics. I think it's a little too basic to make it you're only text, but I guess it depends on what you're looking for as an end goal. I think Frankel is good, but I found it to be a bit idiosyncratic. As...

It sounds like you’re really sick of .NET, so this probably won’t work for you, but I’ll throw it out anyway and you can take it for what it’s worth. In my experience (which is mostly using Java, I haven’t done .NET in a while, but last time I did ASP was pretty similar to JSP) if you work for a...

I'm a lot like you've described yourself. My academic background if physics, but I write software for a living. It's a pretty good fit. Once you get some experience, it can be satisfying mentoring other people or helping them advance in their careers in other ways. You'll usually be working in...

I don't know much about the areas of engineering you mentioned, but I doubt majoring in physics would prepare you better than actually majoring in engineering. When I was an undergraduate the physics department promoted physics saying it prepared you for a variety of careers. That was pretty...

I think it's a great idea. Not only will you get to learn something not taught in regular classes at your school, but (as already mentioned) it will help you get a good letter of recommendation from somebody that really knows you. It could also have unexpected benefits. As an undergrad I also...

You certainly don't. I didn't and I think it may have been an advantage, the reason is that my first exposure to physics was being taught by people that had a very deep understanding of it. While I'm sure there are a lot of great high school physics teachers, I'd also guess there are a lot that...

UCSB has a great faculty and this is well known within the physics community. I don’t think going to UCSB will hinder him from getting into a top graduate physics program. I don’t know anything about the other departments there. While most people within the physics community know UCSB has a...