Testing Maximizing Your Pre-Med Education: Essential Courses for Med School Success

[Warhawke]

Hello, everyone!

I just finished law school and am awaiting for hopefully favorable bar results so that I can start practicing law of the intellectual property sort. I have been clerking at an intellectual property law firm that specializes in patent prosecution and litigation. For those unaware, in order to be a patent prosecutor, i.e. someone qualified to write and file patents, you must pass the USPTO's patent bar. You don't have to be a lawyer to do it, but you have to have an academic background in science before you can qualify. The law firm I have been working for will only hire patent prosecutors, meaning that to be brought on full time, I would need to qualify for and pass the patent bar.

The academic requirements are, in part and paraphrased, as follows:

• Category A applicants possesses a bachelor’s degree in one of thirty-two scientific or technical subjects, including biology, chemistry, physics, and most engineering disciplines. Notably, a master’s degree in one of these subjects is not by itself considered sufficient training. (Part III.A)
• Category B (option 1) applicants have successfully completed one of the following: (1) 24 semester hours in physics; (2) 30 semester hours in chemistry; (3) 32 semester hours comprising 8 hours of physics or chemistry and 24 hours of biology; or (4) 40 semester hours comprising 8 hours of physics or chemistry and 32 hours of some combination of biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, or, in some cases, computer science. For a course to qualify under this option, you must have received a grade of C- or better in the course and it must be applicable towards a science degree—“physics for poets” won’t do. (Part III.B.i–xi)

This presents a bit of a problem for me, as I hold two undergraduate degrees in English Literature and Business Administration, not science or engineering. While I have significantly more than a layman's understanding of certain scientific and engineering fields and certainly enough knowledge to continue working in patent prosecution, I lack any type of formalized training that the USPTO would recognize for purposes of the patent bar. As it stands, I have 8/24 hours of major-level physics completed (category B-1), but I would need to spend two years of full-time academic work to get those last 16 hours thanks to a never-ending chain of course prerequisites, and I simply don't have two more years to take off of work, without an income, just to stay working where I am now.

Are there any accredited online physics courses for degree-seeking students that I could take to satisfy the patent bar requirements for 16 more hours of degree-level physics?

Before you snarl in rage, I know " online physics courses" is a dirty term and an affront to the physics community at large. I don't need a degree to contribute academically to the field, though; I just need a check-box complete so that I can sit for the patent bar. It doesn't have to be particularly good or well-respected, so long as it's an accredited physics program. Nor do I care if the courses are cohesive -- this is simply, and unfortunately, a means to an end. While I'd love to pursue a full degree and the vast repositories of knowledge that come with it, it just doesn't make sense given my goals. Maybe one day I can go back and get a full degree after the fact, but for now I just need a quick and dirty shortcut.

Google and an old thread here from 2011 pointed me in the direction of Open University in the U.K., but thus far no one domestic or abroad has been able to confirm if courses taken there would actually count under the USPTO rubric.

Does anyone out there have experience or advice that might help? Will Open University credits count? Or are there other U.S.-based online physics degrees out there at which I should be looking?

Thank you in advance for any help or insight you can provide!

 

[mdeanc]

Hi all at PF,
Hoping to get some help selecting final year subjects. I am interested in QIT. At the moment, I'm planning to go to grad school for theoretical physics. However, i am also trying to have a backdoor into a masters of computer science as it is a more realistic career track - i am also quite interested in AI. I am not sure how easy this transition would be without taking discrete maths and algorithms from selection (1), but including these subjects would mean i miss out on the math major.
Toss up is between:
A) Physics major and math major
B) Physics major with math minor and comp sci minor

Taken so far:
First year
Differential calculus
Integral calculus
Intro to stats
Linear algebra
Physics 1
Physics 2
Intro to programming - includes c and matlab

Second year
Vector calculus
2nd class on linear algebra - proof based
Intro to PDE
Real and complex analysis
Statistical model
Statistical tests
Physics 2-1
Physics 2-2Planning to take:
Third year
Physics 3-1
Physics 3-2
Physics 3-3
Physics 3-4
PDE's
...
Here is where i need suggestions for my last 3rd year subjects:
1) Discrete maths or intro to algorithms and data structure or non linear ODE's or mathematical computing - (can choose 2 of the 4 but i would need to select both ODE's and math comp to finish a math major)
2) Abstract algebra (2nd year) or theory of computation - (can choose 1 of the 2)

Appreciate any help you can offer.

 

[pdm]

Hi,

so I actually wanted to study physics but because of some problem I basically dropped out. I just couldn't handle the workload at the time. So I took a semester off and sorted my dang out. Now, I can't really study physics anymore here, so I started a CSE bachelor. See: http://www.rw.ethz.ch/the-programme/bachelor.html [some information is only available in German]

Anyway, while studying you focus on a specific topic like biology, financing, big data, statistics or physics. You can even choose stuff like atmosphere physics if you want. I know that I could for sure go into quantum information theory or theoretical astro physics and such - at least, in the CSE master.

But I'd like to do a bit more of the physics stuff. I'd like to have the options to be more of a "normal" physicist than just a pure computational physicist. I know that I'll lack the whole experimental stuff (at least at my university you do a lot of experiments) but I didn't really like the first such course I did too much. So I'm quit fine if it stays theoretical.

Anyway, I'd like to be able to apply for a physics master, for that, I'd like to take extra courses (even ones which don't give points) - like one course each year or each semester. The question is, what should I take?

I really liekd the whole relativity, electrodynamics stuff and I'd also like to dive into plasmaphysics (although there isn't a course which heavily focuses on this). I'm also wondering if I should take some additional math courses.

If anyone has an opinion on it, I'm pleased to hear it. :) Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[Guan]

I'm looking for master's degree program in Nuclear Engineering and now, I'm looking at Russian universities.

I wonder if anyone here is familiar with Russian Nuclear Engineering graduate program, especially
MEPhI (https://eng.mephi.ru/). It is quite a well-known university in Russia offering various specialization training and academic courses related to nuclear power.

I notice that in Russia, there are two sub-discipline under the nuclear energy program: MSc. in Nuclear Power Engineering & Thermal Physics, and MSc. in Nuclear Physics & Technology.

I have just emailed a professor from MEPhI, Russia to find out more about their MSc. in Nuclear Engineering program, and here's his reply:

https://www.dailywritingtips.com/forum/misc.php?s=dbd39e90fcbb225800d7452156c81f40&do=bbcode#quote

Dear Peh Hoo Guan,

I'm glad to hear you got interested in NKM course at EdX platform and our educational programs in general.

Regarding two programs you mentioned: Nuclear Physics and Technology focuses on the nuclear processes occurring in the core and the main courses include Nuclear Reactor Physics, Experimental Reactor Physics, Mathematical Modelling (Monte Carlo) etc; while Nuclear Power Engineering and Thermal Physics focuses on thermal-hydraulics rather than nuclear processes.

Master program at MEPhI lasts 2 years of which about 1.5 years are classwork and about half year of working on the thesis that is defended at the end of the study. Reactor training is not included in the educational program due to the safety requirements, but there are some exercises on the sub-critical assemblies. Yes, there's the laboratotory of mathematical modelling (Monte Carlo). Internship depends on where you are working on your thesis. If it's a professor at MEPhI then you stay at the unversity. Outside of MEPhI options are also possible.

Regarding you last question about working as teaching / research assistant - I copy this mail to the head of department Theoretical and Experimental Physics of Nuclear Reactors Mr. Nikolay Geraskin and deputy director of Insitute of Nuclear Physics and Technology Mr. Georgy Tikhomirov who are in charge to answer it.

Kind regards
Evgeny Kulikov
Associate professor
NRNU MEPhI

[/quote]

I wonder if it is quite normal that students are generally not trained in the practical hands on aspect of operating a research reactor? Or, you really need to attend reactor operator training licensing course before you get to tweak with the control panel.

And, what should I expect to learn in typical MSc. Nuclear Engineering program, and, what practical/hands-on skill that I would learn?

I'd appreciate if anyone could advice me on this.

Thanks.