Recent content by unit_circle

What's the textbook being used? If it's a typical "modern physics" course (which is what I read from the description) than it will be a book like Krane, Tipler, or Beiser. If that's the case, then 1st year calculus and physics is sufficient. Also if it is a course like I'm describing I would...

This thread comes up here all the time. People seem to think that a degree somehow entitles you to start at a decent job right away. Nothing is futher from the truth. It's not about WHAT you know, it's about WHO you know. An example is my brother. He only has a high school diploma, but he's...

Haha, you know Murray Gell-Mann called em "half ass-trophysicists." He also called solid state physics "squalid state physics." All in all, he's not very nice sometimes.

I think that Jackson is a "rite of passage" to become a physicist. I watched a talk by David Gross (Nobel Prize for QCD) once, and he said that he defined a physicist as "someone who hand studied E&M using Jackson," and that "excludes all the engineers." The problems are legendary for the amount...

You will also be a damn good physicist.

This sounds just like me. I went back to school after being gone for 6 years. In high school i took geometry and algebra II, but I forgot most of it. A few weeks before I went back to school, I started reviewing a high school algebra book. I retaught myself rudimentary algebra, but when I...

I'm a high school drop out who got a GED and went back to college. Now I'm applying to grad schools in physics. It's never too late to get an education. Always be honest on your applications, you can find a school that will accept you. In fact, use the fact that you dropped out as a strength...

How is a combined 1490 not fantastic? Perfect quant and probably like 90 percentile for verbal. Am I missing something? Most graduate applicants (in all fields, not just physics) would kill for scores like these.

Well, when you have who many people consider to be the most eminent living physicist, Steven Weinberg, that tends to push you up in the rankings no matter what your standards are for admissions for American students. To the OP: I think 5 is too short of a list, especially since you said fees...

Arizona and Rochester are both great schools for optics, they have separate programs in the optical sciences, so their physics programs also have strong research programs in optics. You could apply in optical science or physics.

Umm, no offense intended but I think you have it exactly backwards. Usually private institutions charge the same tuition no matter what state you are from, or country for that matter. State schools charge more tuition for out of state residents than in state residents.

I think that orginally (early 20th centuury) optics and solid state did not have much use for field theory. However, this has changed. The BCS theory of superconductivity, effective field theories, and cavity QED are all examples where field theories have had application to solid state and...

One thing you could do is take the April test, and then when it's done cancel your score. Then take it for real in the fall. I wish I would have done this w/ the October and November tests, i.e. take October for practice, cancel, and then take it for real in November.

I think ETS is getting wise to the "examine the limits" trick as well. I tried to use this trick many times on the October test and almost invariably at least TWO answers would limit to the correct values.

You mean you don't have what it takes to do a bunch of basic, yet tricky, math problems under extreme time constraints and with the tremendous pressure of knowing that it can influence your admissions prospects. I took the physics test, and I did not do as well as I thought either. But I don't...