Advantages of going from Engineering B.S. to Physics Grad school and vice versa

[MathGangsta]

A little background: I'm finally going back to school to finish my degree. I'm a sophomore and need to decide which path will be the most valuable. I'm a practical person with a Physics/Math envy. I understand the material most when I get to the experiment. Endless book learning will make me never actually learn something. I've met some people that are the opposite in my classes. They understand the most from the theory and despise experiments. They also tend to be Math/Physics majors. So I absolutely *need* an experiment for my own benefit.

I know there is a blurred line of certain areas of Electrical engineering and Physics. Specifically, Optics, Semiconductors, and various EM fields. At my school, there are several professors that I know that got an Physics B.S. but have EE PhDs. Also in the Physics department there are several professors that got their B.S. in EE.

With that said, what would be the advantage of changing from EE to Physics or doing the opposite?

Also, I don't know if I will ever go for a PhD or not. It's too early to decide that. This question is merely out of curiosity as to the advantages of changing fields later on.

 

[eri]

It's a disadvantage more than anything else; either major would leave you behind with respect to the other at the graduate level, and you'd have to make up undergraduate coursework. If you like doing things more than thinking about things, go with engineering - most physics classes don't have a lab associated with them, especially at the upper level.

 

[MathGangsta]

I want to apply the knowledge that I gain from physics to something practical. With that said, it sounds like I should just do engineering. But the problem is the topics I'm interested in has a very physics-y flavor. Many of the topics I find fascinating are applied quantum mechanics and optics. I've read a bit about photonics, microdevices, nano-instrumentation, etc.

I don't care about having a title "Physicist" or whatever. I also understand that I need a PhD to "do" physics. Although, I want to be a physicist hiding under the title Engineer, with perhaps a Master's degree in the end.

These fields are obviously a specialized branch of EE, so would a EE with certain physics classes be the best education package or physics with a couple EE classes?

This might be strange but realistically I know that even if I tailor a degree to fit exactly into the perfect package I still might *not* end up in the desired field. That's where the EE degree will become vital and could possibly get me a job in another field. Where as a physics degree with only certain optics EE classes will seem to pigeon hole me pretty bad.

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to take some physics classes in place of EE classes if I were to major in EE? For instance, take physics E&M instead of EE E&M. Would this approach help at all?

Another question: what fields in EE would *specifically* require more knowledge of Physics than EE? Or is this just an approach to the academic material? The reason I ask this is because I've read quite a bit from other forums that the physics trained people still up under the title Engineer.

Note: I'm leaning EE for the job opportunities within the entire field. According to AIP - Figure 2a only 32% of physics grads end up in engineering. It would be quite frustrating to not even end up in a technical field after graduating. So engineering is feeling like the safest bet.

 

[MathGangsta]

Let me give an example of how I would approach a certain topic. If I was working within a particle accelerator group I would want to be the one designing and developing the accelerator itself. Running through experiments and seeing if the accelerator is doing what we need it to do. I wouldn't want to be the one gathering the data from the experiment and figuring out how the new found particle reacted. While the second job would be exciting I know there's only a handful of people in the world that are actually *doing* that job. I would much rather just be surrounded by physicists/scientists as an engineer myself and annoy them with questions during work. Hahah =)

 

[General_Sax]

Note: I'm leaning EE for the job opportunities within the entire field. According to AIP - Figure 2a only 32% of physics grads end up in engineering. It would be quite frustrating to not even end up in a technical field after graduating. So engineering is feeling like the safest bet.

How many physics grads want jobs in engineering?

 

[nlsherrill]

I want to apply the knowledge that I gain from physics to something practical. With that said, it sounds like I should just do engineering. But the problem is the topics I'm interested in has a very physics-y flavor. Many of the topics I find fascinating are applied quantum mechanics and optics. I've read a bit about photonics, microdevices, nano-instrumentation, etc.

I don't care about having a title "Physicist" or whatever. I also understand that I need a PhD to "do" physics. Although, I want to be a physicist hiding under the title Engineer, with perhaps a Master's degree in the end.

These fields are obviously a specialized branch of EE, so would a EE with certain physics classes be the best education package or physics with a couple EE classes?

This might be strange but realistically I know that even if I tailor a degree to fit exactly into the perfect package I still might *not* end up in the desired field. That's where the EE degree will become vital and could possibly get me a job in another field. Where as a physics degree with only certain optics EE classes will seem to pigeon hole me pretty bad.

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to take some physics classes in place of EE classes if I were to major in EE? For instance, take physics E&M instead of EE E&M. Would this approach help at all?

Another question: what fields in EE would *specifically* require more knowledge of Physics than EE? Or is this just an approach to the academic material? The reason I ask this is because I've read quite a bit from other forums that the physics trained people still up under the title Engineer.

Note: I'm leaning EE for the job opportunities within the entire field. According to AIP - Figure 2a only 32% of physics grads end up in engineering. It would be quite frustrating to not even end up in a technical field after graduating. So engineering is feeling like the safest bet.

Seems like your more concerned with landing a job that has a more engineering edge than scientific edge, so it seems EE would be best for you.

Both fields are diverse, but its pretty clear that physics covers more areas, and in more theoretical depth. If you were interested in this, then maybe as an EE you could take some upper level physics courses as electives. The EE's at my school for example only have to take a semester of E&M, and its a course at the 300 level. The physics students have to take 2 semesters of E&M at the 400 level, so they will be exposed to more electromagnetic theory than an EE. However, I know a few EE/Physics double majors who are taking the physics E&M sequence and the EE department waived their 300 level E&M class by doing this.

I don't think any field of EE would require more knowledge of physics and EE. That doesn't even make sense if you think about it.

 

[DrummingAtom]

Would majoring in EE and doing undergrad physics research be of any benefit?

The engineering kids at my school are very techy and are quite annoyed with physics. On the other hand, the physics kids don't care at all about engineering. I have yet to meet someone that is in the middle.

 

[MissSilvy]

Interesting, I was wondering about this as well. In my case, it'd be a B.S. in physics and either physics or engineering grad school. I've taken courses in all sorts of sciences and a lot in pure math but in the end I just figured out that I enjoyed solving problems.

It'd be a disadvantage but not impossible. Personally, I've heard it's harder to get into physics grad school as an engineer than the reverse, if only because they tend to demand more research experience than the average engineering grad school. And I see physics grads get hunted into working with various engineering groups in our university regularly. This could be just at my school, but if you're that interested, I'd schedule a meeting with a dean or your advisor and look into it.