Depth or Breadth: Getting into Graduate School

[WCL]

Well, I had always thought that it's nicer to have multiple degrees and stuff to get into grad school, but the more I lurk around here, the more I see people recommending additional mathematics courses and in-depth physics courses beyond the normal curriculum.

Currently, I think I'll be pursuing a double major in Chemical Engineering and Physics for the options I think it'll open up for me, but it'll be hard enough completing the required courses for it...Would it be stronger to drop one and just minor in math and physics or something?
I'm also pretty certain it would raise my GPA as well, since I'm looking at some hard years ahead of me if I continue what I'm planning to do. Do the top grad school consider the course load when looking at the GPA?

There's still time to change since I'm just a freshman in the first academic term, but I like to get things sorted out.

 

[fss]

Would it be stronger to drop one and just minor in math and physics or something?

It depends on what you want to study and how well you wind up doing.

I'm also pretty certain it would raise my GPA as well, since I'm looking at some hard years ahead of me if I continue what I'm planning to do. Do the top grad school consider the course load when looking at the GPA?

Yes, to a point. Top marks in a single area (physics) is better for getting into a physics graduate program as opposed to less-than-top-marks in physics and chemical engineering.

 

[twofish-quant]

Well, I had always thought that it's nicer to have multiple degrees and stuff to get into grad school,

It's not. Grad school admission committees really only care about how well you do on topics related to the department.

However, being well-rounded will hurt you a bit with grad school admissions, but it will help you with *life*. This happened to me. The fact that I took a lot of courses and spent lots of time studying non-physics things hurt me when I was applying to graduate school, but it helped me years later when I got my Ph.D., and was trying to figure out what to do with my life.

One thing that is an important but tough lesson is that your personal interests may or may not be those of the committees that evaluate you. The graduate school committee will not care if you get daily exercise and eat a healthy diet, but it's still good for you. These sorts of things *do* impact your long term career. You aren't going to get points from the graduate school if you wear your seat belts, but if you get into a car crash that's going to affect your academics.
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Currently, I think I'll be pursuing a double major in Chemical Engineering and Physics for the options I think it'll open up for me, but it'll be hard enough completing the required courses for it...Would it be stronger to drop one and just minor in math and physics or something?

You will find it easier to get into a big name graduate school if you drop one since ChemE graduate schools won't care how well you do in physics, and physics graduate schools won't care how well you do in ChemE.

HOWEVER...

I think you'll find it much easier to get a job after your Ph.D. if you have different unrelated skills. This is where my standard note that you should not expect an academic research position after your Ph.D. comes in. Also, if you just like ChemE and physics, it just makes your life better. That's really important because academia is tough and brutal, and if you don't do what you like you increase the risk of burn out.

Also, if your GPA is decent, then it will hurt your application but it won't kill it.

I'm also pretty certain it would raise my GPA as well, since I'm looking at some hard years ahead of me if I continue what I'm planning to do. Do the top grad school consider the course load when looking at the GPA?

Yes, but they care only about things related to the department. Also, remember that they don't care about you as a human being.

There's still time to change since I'm just a freshman in the first academic term, but I like to get things sorted out.

A few things:

1) the biggest thing that you have to worry about is burn out. If you graduate with a physics degree with decent grades and experience, you'll get in somewhere. Graduate schools need lots of cheap and exploitable labor, and that's where you come in. :-) :-) :-) The most important thing is not to burn out and that means to be able to be able to roll back gracefully. If you find that you can't double major than single major, and if you find out that you can't get into your top pick of graduate school then go for your second or third or fourth pick.

2) Do not structure your life to please admissions committees. As time goes on, you'll find more and more tension between what you want to do and what the committees want you to do. One problem is that if you make yourself the perfect graduate school candidate, or the perfect post-doc candidate, or the perfect junior faculty candidate, you'll find that you'll have to give something up for that.

3) Explore. Don't try to plan everything out. Take some physics course. Take some ChemE courses. You may find that for semi-random reasons you end up doing one or the other or both,

 

[Ryker]

However, being well-rounded will hurt you a bit with grad school admissions, but it will help you with *life*. This happened to me. The fact that I took a lot of courses and spent lots of time studying non-physics things hurt me when I was applying to graduate school, but it helped me years later when I got my Ph.D., and was trying to figure out what to do with my life.

One thing that is an important but tough lesson is that your personal interests may or may not be those of the committees that evaluate you. The graduate school committee will not care if you get daily exercise and eat a healthy diet, but it's still good for you. These sorts of things *do* impact your long term career. You aren't going to get points from the graduate school if you wear your seat belts, but if you get into a car crash that's going to affect your academics.

Yeah, I see you making this point quite often and I agree with it fully. I am namely scared garbageless of becoming one-dimensional just so that I can reach some of the goals I set out for myself as far as Physics is concerned. It's really hard to find that perfect balance, though.

 

[WCL]

I see...so I shouldn't worry too much about it, huh?
If I do continue, what can I do to strengthen my application? Anything I could do on my own?

Also, how much does taking graduate level courses or larger amounts of mathematics courses augment the application?