PhD in Applied Physics or Electrical Engg

[vron247]

Am still not clear which path to choose. Both departments got good program and research. I have admission from both departments.

Am bit worried from job point of view after graduation. Do industry/academia treat PhD Applied physics equal to EE for job offers? To give more insight if I choose applied physics I will be working in semicondutor material research and in EE it will be signal processing.

Once I choose a path there is no going back. Any pointers in this direction will be helpful.

 

[sweetpotato]

As an electrical engineering major, I have to say that semiconductors and signal processing are very different fields. Rather than think about what PhD degree is "better", think about which of these fields of study you are more interested in. Semiconductors will have a lot more to do with physics and possibly materials science, and signal processing is more related to math and computer science. Just to give you some idea of what I mean, I'm concentrating heavily in signal processing for my undergraduate degree, and most of my classes involve a lot of programming (usually in Matlab) and a lot of math (usually linear algebra).