Boosting Chances for Masters in Medical Physics at SDSU

[Lawrencel2]

Hey all, I am just about a senior at a northern California university. I am going for a BS in the Advanced Physics area. I have a 3.2 right now and I am not too proud of it. I have been involved in one project/paper with my professor for an AAPT national meeting in Philly. But I feel like I'm losing interest in my classes, now that I'm in Quantum and E&m, due to the time commitment and its killing my motivation/passion.

Either way though, I am going to graduate soon and I was thinking about going for a masters at SDSU in Medical Physics (They are also CAMPEP accredited).I have no idea how selective the program is, but I was hoping to get into something a bit more applied and with a more direct impact on society, and my grades probably aren't nearly good enough for Med school.

Is there things I should be doing to increase my chances? Like Becoming Applied Physics? I was thinking optics/Lasers would be a bit more useful than two semesters of Quantum in this field.
Is there a way to look at what the average student in that department has when entering the school?

 

[Choppy]

I don't know much about the SDSU program, although a friend of mine is a professor there and I know he would make a good supervisor. Most (all?) accredited medical physics programs are quite competative. I don't know what that means in terms of GPA exactly, but meeting the minimum criteria is definitely not a guarantee of getting in.

Taking more applied physics type courses is a good idea if you have the option. Most medical physics work isn't too heavy on quantum. Courses that I would recommend include any kind of image or signal processing, mathematical methods, computational physics, a senior lab course, nuclear physics, optics, and electrodynamics. I personally wouldn't avoid a senior quantum course entirely either, but it wouldn't get that high of a priority.

 

[Lawrencel2]

Is there a way to get a more detailed description of the level i need to be at to stand a good chance? I want to stay in california if possible.. I have the more theoretical option a my school, which is basically upper division E&m Quantum and Thermo.

If I go applied I will have to take an optics, lasers, and computational class. I have already done one semester of E&M and one of Quantum. Did my modern physics courses as well.

I have little knowledge of graduate schools or what is required so i guess I am starting to freak out! I want to get a good job when i leave graduate school and i know now that pure physics is looking bad.

 

[Lawrencel2]

Im hoping for a bit more feedback from some others please :]