I want to go back to school for Physics

[Taylor Bottles]

Hello All!
Ill get straight to it. I went to a small private university for my first degree. I did not complete that degree and now I would like to go back to college for a BA in Physics.
What are, realistically, my best options? Where should i start in my pursuit for this?
I don't know where to start, and I'm hopping to get some guidance from you all.

Thanks!

 

[jedishrfu]

Welcome to PF!

To start what degree were you pursuing? how long ago?

If you have the requisite math courses it may be easier to start where you left off by course transfers...

 

[Taylor Bottles]

My degree was in Cross-cultural studies. Not a related field and unfortunantly I'm confident I'm lacking in the requisite mathematic course work.

 

[jtbell]

I would e-mail the admissions office at whatever schools you would like to pursue your "new" degree at, and ask for their advice, i.e. whether you should apply as a transfer student or under some other status. It probably depends on how long ago your previous studies were. If they were fairly recent, you should be able to receive transfer credit for some of your old courses so that you don't have to take all the general-education stuff again.

 

[johnbbahm]

Part of the answer deals with what you are trying to accomplish with a BA in Physics?
If you are in a job that need any 4 year degree for promotion, and love physics, sure.
If you want the degree so you can look for employment, You might look into what jobs are available
for a BA in Physics.
From the old credits perspective, Excelsior (the old Regents College), might be worth a look.
http://www.excelsior.edu/home

 

[Taylor Bottles]

All awesome suggestions! thank you all! I do have an additional question, my main objective is to do research on the correlation between astrophysics and religion. Do you all have any thoughts on what programs or paths i should take to try and tackle this research?

 

[eri]

I'm not sure what you mean about the 'correlation between astrophysics and religion'. That job is for people with a PhD in religion or philosophy. That's not a field of science, it's a field of history or philosophy. You certainly don't need a physics major for it; many people writing stuff about that have no scientific background (and it clearly shows).

 

[Taylor Bottles]

Haha that's exactly why i want the physics degree. Id like to combine those fields.

 

[abstrakt!]

Haha that's exactly why i want the physics degree. Id like to combine those fields.

Taylor, my man. I am afraid that the field of astrophysics has absolutely nothing to do with religion from a scientific perspective. It is merely concerned with describing the physics of astronomical and celestial objects/mechanics/phenomena/etc. I am not sure that I understand what your goal is here...

It is quite difficult to attain a PhD research position within the field of astrophysics and I would venture to guess that astrophysics applied to religion (or vice versa) will have sufficiently small prospects such that we could say it is approximately equal to zero.

Perhaps you could elaborate on what your ultimate goals are and we could do our best to provide you with the proper information.

Peace my dude!

 

[Taylor Bottles]

I'm not surprised to get that response. Sure, of course i understand that the understanding is that it has nothing to do with religion or the spiritual. But my objective is to learn the physics, explore it, believe, and understand it, and do the idiotic and try to see how the spiritual may tie into it. Its a personal endeavor you could say, but I'm no fan of ignorance, so I'm not about to explore that possibility without learning the science. I'd love to live in a world were i can theorize that both have a place with each other. I guess that's my goal!

 

[Hercuflea]

Formula for success:

Go to a local, cheap public university.
Take physics/calculus/science courses, do all your homework and make straight A's.
Transfer to large well-respected university in 1.5-2 years.
Finish degree and get prestige.
Profit??

 

[russ_watters]

Profit??

In this case, I'm not sure that that is one of the goals. Taylor, are you hoping to find a job at this? Related, are you employed now? Are you hoping to do the schooling full time or part time? This will impact the approach. If this is intended as a hobby, you might consider just reading a few books. Or, a step up, find a college that will let you audit a few key courses. I know people who have supported Astronomy hobbies this way.