Is grad school discouragement normal for beginning physics students?

[Cluelessluke]

Hey everyone! I am finishing my very first semester of grad school in physics and I'm just trying to get a feel if my emotions and thoughts are normal for a beginning grad student in physics.

I'm taking beginning grad courses in classical, quantum, and EM. After this semester, I know I find quantum much much much much more interesting than EM. So I've been putting a lot more effort into the quantum class (not purposefully, but I just enjoy it a lot more). My grades are usually above average or on par with my other classmates for the most part but everyone once in awhile everyone will understand a concept that just won't click for me and its very discouraging, like that I don't belong in this program.

I just got my quantum final exam score back and out of 15 people, 9 got A's and 6 got B's. I was one with a B. The professor said that he thought I didn't do as well as I could but this score is still very very discouraging and now I'm worried that at the end of the year I won't pass the qualifying exam. This is all very stressful.

I'm just wondering if stress and discouragement like this is normal for beginning grad students. Thanks for your time.

 

[twofish-quant]

My grades are usually above average or on par with my other classmates for the most part but everyone once in awhile everyone will understand a concept that just won't click for me and its very discouraging, like that I don't belong in this program.

Something that you have to realize is that in any group of people, half of them are going to be below median. At some point, you are going to end up in the bottom half.

I'm just wondering if stress and discouragement like this is normal for beginning grad students. Thanks for your time.

It's normal for beginning grad students, finishing grad students, post-docs, junior faculty, and senior faculty. Something you should be aware of is that no one cares what your grades are in grad school.

 

[Shackleford]

Something you should be aware of is that no one cares what your grades are in grad school.

What?

 

[twofish-quant]

What?

As long as you pass the courses, go through the qualifiers, and get the Ph.D., then your grades in graduate school is going to be totally irrelevant for your future. When it comes time for looking for post-docs, people will care what your research results were, and what your grades in your coursework will be ancient and irrelevant history.

(Note that this means the difference between a B and A. If you are failing the courses, then that's something different.)

 

[story645]

What?

I'll 2nd quant here. Both of my advisers have told me numerous times to not freak out about my grades and to just focus on learning the material. They, and my professors for my classes, are far more concerned about the quals (and final exams somewhat) then they are about any individual score. One of professors even said flat out that unless we needed a recommendation from him*, it was probably more worth while to spend the time on research then to put in the hours to get an A+ vs. an A.

*That's actually the one place where your grades half matter: if you've got a fellowship that requires a certain GPA (but the ones at my school pretty much require the same bare min. you need to stay off probation) or are applying to a national fellowship, then grades can kind of be important.

I'm just wondering if stress and discouragement like this is normal for beginning grad students.

Hell yeah. My school's wellness center runs seminars on this all the time; yours might too. I feel like an idiot about twice a week, twice an hour when I'm dealing with a really rough homework assignment. Good study groups and understanding advisers help me, but figure out what you need for your support system and then go out and get it if you can.

 

[twofish-quant]

Also the fact that grades basically don't matter in grad school can work both ways. You can get an A+ in a course and be seriously unprepared for the qualifying examples or research work.

 

[Shackleford]

As long as you pass the courses, go through the qualifiers, and get the Ph.D., then your grades in graduate school is going to be totally irrelevant for your future. When it comes time for looking for post-docs, people will care what your research results were, and what your grades in your coursework will be ancient and irrelevant history.

(Note that this means the difference between a B and A. If you are failing the courses, then that's something different.)

Okay, this is assuming you meet the minimum requirement of a B, which is the case for most graduate programs. Is there significant curving in grad school?

 

[G01]

OK. So what you are experiencing is entirely normal. Through most of my undergrad I got almost all A's.

My first year in grad school, my highest grade was a B+! It's totally normal to feel stressed and to feel like you aren't learning as much as you should.

I had to take the quals twice. I did not pass the first time. There are several people in my year who are on their third, and last, attempt at them. They are not dumb people. Grad school is just hard!

As for grades, I can only tell you what it is like at my school:

It is VERY HARD to fail (< B-) a grad course in our department. I've seen it happen, but it's rare, and usually because someone stopped doing the course work entirely. My department views courses as a place to expose you to lot's of material. The point is to understand as much as possible in that short time. If you do the work you'll pass. You won't get an A, but they won't kick you out of grad school for bad performance on a final exam, either.

Once you graduate from any PhD program it's true that grades won't matter. No one asks a PhD what their GPA was before they hire them! It's like the old adage: Q:What do you call someone who graduates at the bottom of their class from Medical School? A: Doctor!
On the other hand, it is possible and common for students to fail the Quals! The Quals are viewed as the step in your education where you integrate all the physics you have inside your head, organizing and making sense out of everything. You make connections that you didn't realize as an undergrad or first year grad. The Qual problems are a bit harder than undergrad problems, but a bit easier than problems given in the courses. 95% of students pass the Quals eventually. Though most people will tell you that you should spend several months studying exclusively for the Quals. This is why it's good to take them at the beginning of your second fall semester if possible. That way, you will have the summer to prepare.

 

[twofish-quant]

Okay, this is assuming you meet the minimum requirement of a B, which is the case for most graduate programs. Is there significant curving in grad school?

Grad school classes are basically pass-fail, with A being high pass and B being low pass. Unlike undergraduate courses, the schools really don't have any incentive to have you flunk a class, so if they think that you aren't going to pass the class, they just won't admit you.