Grad options aside from physics?

Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the various graduate school options available to individuals with a bachelor's degree in physics, exploring alternatives to pursuing a master's or PhD in physics itself. Participants share insights on potential fields of study, including education, medical physics, engineering, and other STEM-related disciplines.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that law school and medical school are viable options for physics graduates, although they may not be the most common paths.
  • One participant notes that a popular choice among their peers was a master's in education, followed by medical physics, neuroscience, and computer science.
  • Another viewpoint emphasizes that many STEM master's programs, such as optics and various engineering disciplines, are accessible, but may require additional preparation in electronics or programming.
  • A participant expresses a personal interest in medical physics while also considering engineering and economics as alternatives.
  • Additional fields mentioned include computational neuroscience, bioinformatics, and quantitative finance.
  • Geophysics and seismology are also proposed as potential graduate study areas for physics graduates.
  • One participant highlights that physics majors often perform well on the MCAT, which could support applications to medical school, and mentions the possibility of transitioning into engineering or computer science with some additional coursework.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree that there are multiple graduate school options available to physics graduates, but there is no consensus on which paths are the most favorable or common. Various competing views on the best alternatives remain present throughout the discussion.

Contextual Notes

Participants acknowledge that the suitability of different graduate programs may depend on individual backgrounds and experiences, as well as the need for additional coursework in certain fields.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be useful for current physics undergraduates considering their graduate school options, as well as those interested in interdisciplinary fields that incorporate physics principles.

Cathmore
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
What other options does one have for grad school with a bachelors in physics outside of doing a masters/PHD in physics? Law school and med school are technically possible I suppose, but what other grad degrees could a physics degree lead to?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
The most popular masters among my undergrad classmates was a masters in education. I think the second most popular was medical physics (which is different from traditional "med school"). Some other ones I can recall were neuroscience and computer science.

You options are pretty open and depend more on what you have done and how you have distinguished yourself than just your physics BS degree.
 
Any masters program that is willing to take your money. More practically, any STEM MS makes sense: optics, a myriad of engineering subdisciplines and/or computer science, but these last two may require some additional ground work on your part if your background in electronics or programming is not up to par with the students that traditionally go into them.
 
I am currently considering medical physics as my number one option, but it's always good to know there are other things out there. I've also considered doing engineering or economics. I guess I'll have to look into some programs and schools outside of medical physics and see what schools would also potentially accept me into such things.
 
Computational neuroscience, bionformatics, quantitative finance to name a few.
 
Geophysics/seismology
 
Cathmore said:
What other options does one have for grad school with a bachelors in physics outside of doing a masters/PHD in physics? Law school and med school are technically possible I suppose, but what other grad degrees could a physics degree lead to?

Physics majors tend to be at the higher range of scores for the MCAT (only behind BioMedical Engineers), need to check those stats though. Physics can definitely lead to law school (a friend of mine did this, he wanted to go into politics for science advocacy as far as I understand). A physics bachelors can lead to engineering or computer science masters programs with some coursework bringing you up to the speed of the engineering/CS undergrads (though a physics background makes you better qualified than them for certain kinds of engineering). As has been mentioned certain fields of biology and finance would work too.
 

Similar threads

Switching from Biology undergrad to Physics grad....
  • · Replies 17 ·
Replies
17
Views
5K
Other Extra Year of Study for Graduate Physics Research: A Possibility?
  • · Replies 9 ·
Replies
9
Views
2K
Programs How To Keep Options Open For Astroparticle + Advanced Propulsion Physics?
  • · Replies 18 ·
Replies
18
Views
2K
Schools How good and well-known is the physics program at RPI?
  • · Replies 11 ·
Replies
11
Views
1K
Other Physics PhD after working for few years
  • · Replies 12 ·
Replies
12
Views
3K
Moving from nursing to physics
  • · Replies 14 ·
Replies
14
Views
3K
Programs Physics Masters at undergrad school before PhD?
  • · Replies 17 ·
Replies
17
Views
3K
Admissions Graduate school admission chances
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
3K
Is a Low CGPA a Deal Breaker for Grad School Admissions?
  • · Replies 18 ·
Replies
18
Views
5K
Admissions Research experience for physics grad school application
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
3K