Recent content by pjfoster

Just to give you a heads up, the REU program is through the US government, and consequently most (if not all) of the programs require US citizenship or permanent resident status. Not to discourage you, but look closely at the requirements of any REU programs you're applying to.

I don't know how it is in ChemE, but last year I was in a similar situation. I applied to 11 programs(I think) and got into one.

Hi guys. I'm a junior Phyics/Math major at University of Iowa. Last summer, I did an REU in biophysics and fell in love. I'm looking into graduate schools in this area, specifically top schools like University of Chicago, MIT, Harvard, etc. There's a plethora of sites showing admission...

I'm assuming you're a Physics major? As far as REU's go, I believe part of the purpose of the REU program is to give students from smaller liberal arts schools a chance to work in a research lab. I did an REU at Illinois this summer and my roommate was from a smaller liberal arts school in the...

If we're only talking about the two "Theories" you've mentioned, yes this seems to be something first studied at the graduate level, possibly though research under a professor researching this field.

Depends what you mean by theories...you start learning Newtonian Dynamic Theory your first semester of undergraduate physics. By senior year of undergraduate, you should have a basic grip on EM Theory, and basic Quantum Theory...as far as String Theory and Quantum Gravity, I don't think you get...

Yeah, from what I understand undergraduates aren't really expected to publish. The most important part of research as an undergraduate is to a) Learn as much as possible about what real research is like and b) to make a good enough of an impression on the prof so that they'll be willing to write...

My REU was my first one. I think you have a better shot at getting one if you've already done 2-3 years at university. Also, check with the profs at your school. Many should be willing to take on an undergraduate to work in their labs, especially if you're willing to work for free.

I don't know if this is helpful or not, but last summer I had a 3.7 GPA and did an REU at the University of Illinois in Urbana, a top 10 physics school.

Go Hawks! I happen to go to Iowa as well. As far as pre-med goes, you can do it with any major. You could go out and choose something like Dance if you really wanted. However, being a physics major myself, I would have to highly recommend checking out the Applied Physics track. There's a track...

So I'm currently a junior Physics/Math major, but I heard some good general advice this summer that I wish I had heard earlier. There's three main things that college students do; study, sleep, and party. You only have the time to do two of these things reasonably well, although to be fair it IS...

This is just my personal thoughts - with no concrete evidence to back it up- but it would seem to me that the GRE could be considered to be more important than a GPA simply because it is standardized. The amount of work required to get an "A" in a given class could be fairly different between...

Just to throw in my two cents, I go to a large state school and have had lots of transfer students in my physics classes. This is only my personal experience, but it seems that people who transfer from CC's have two main problems. 1) At my school the course prereq's are structured so that it is...

I'm relatively new to biophysics as well, but I've worked in a biophysics lab for the past summer using flourescent resonant energy transfer to understand the movements of a particular motor protein. Biophysics is a very hard subject to pin down. I've heard it said that "Biophysics is what...

No, you're completely right. They are far from masters of all fields. The reason I suggested those areas is that they are some of the (I believe) relatively few areas that encompass all of the areas of his interest. However, becoming a true master of one field takes most of a lifetime, and to...