Physics B.S. Advice for Junior Undergrad

[illidari]

I am currently a sophmoroe about to enter my junior year as a physics undergrad. My school offered four different specializations within the degree and I picked the computation physics specialization.

I will have completed these by the end of this semester:
Calc I-III
Diffy Equations
Phy I-III

The computation track requires me to basically earn a computer science minor (one class short but simple enough to just add it in) + numerical calculus + a class I believe that teaches fortran.

A math minor at my school would require me to add any 2 upper level math classes of my choosing. I have been debating mastering in meteorology. One schools requirements that I want to attend stated they wanted math through partial differiential equations. Which means I need at least on more math course. I might as well take the second course to just say I got a math minor.

I believe the closest thing to a "partial differiential equations" course at my school is Boundary Bound Problems I (This sound like partial Diffy Eq. to anyone??). For my second course should I take Linear Algebra or Mathematical Modeling?


Now to my main question:
If I take 3 courses this summer + 2 courses next summer + 4 courses per normal semester I would graduate with the degree and two minors. Nothing stops me from taking 3 courses next summer and taking 5 courses per semester giving me room for 5 additional classes which is about the equivalent of a minor.

Would there be anything you guys could suggest that I minor in? Target specific courses and forget the minor? Or just get in and out of the school without adding the extra stuff?


I know this is my life and all but kind of hard for me to get advice. I remember my first year advisor refused to give advice beyond "Yes you are allowed or No that's not allowed".

 

[illidari]

bump?

 

[Cider]

Most schools only allow a certain amount of overlapping between things in working towards majors/minors. That is, only a few of the courses can satisfy more than one of the two things. You will probably want to check that out first, because if the number that can overlap isn't large enough, you'll have to take more classes than you've mentioned to get the minor.

 

[HeLiXe]

Hi Illidari,

In addition to the advice already given, I would recommend to check out the minor requirements for different fields you are interested in, and compare where they overlap with your degree. In my school, math and chemistry minors have a lot of overlap with a physics major, and there is so much overlap with chemistry and physics that one could double major with minimal additional classes.

 

[illidari]

They emailed me on the math minor pretty much saying "hey you are missing two courses...heres what we are offering".

I'm assuming the computer science one counts, I would be shocked if I couldn't get it with overlap courses. Officially only two courses of the minor I need, but the prereqs to them are the ones covered by the minor.

As far as chemistry that is a 28 credit hour with only 8 hours overlapping. Meaning I need 20 hours. I wouldn't see myself pulling that off and finishing at the 4 year point. Although I wouldn't be 100% against going another semester or maybe just that summer.

As far as double majoring I am seeing at least 50+ hours and after probably fine detailing everything I would need I wouldn't doubt it would be about 60 hours.

 

[HeLiXe]

50+ Wow that is so much. The overlap for double major with chem and physics at my school is like the overlap for the minor at your school. Glad to hear they got back to you about the minor. Good luck with your classes!

 

[creepypasta13]

I am currently a sophmoroe about to enter my junior year as a physics undergrad. My school offered four different specializations within the degree and I picked the computation physics specialization.

I will have completed these by the end of this semester:
Calc I-III
Diffy Equations
Phy I-III

The computation track requires me to basically earn a computer science minor (one class short but simple enough to just add it in) + numerical calculus + a class I believe that teaches fortran.

A math minor at my school would require me to add any 2 upper level math classes of my choosing. I have been debating mastering in meteorology. One schools requirements that I want to attend stated they wanted math through partial differiential equations. Which means I need at least on more math course. I might as well take the second course to just say I got a math minor.

I believe the closest thing to a "partial differiential equations" course at my school is Boundary Bound Problems I (This sound like partial Diffy Eq. to anyone??). For my second course should I take Linear Algebra or Mathematical Modeling?


Now to my main question:
If I take 3 courses this summer + 2 courses next summer + 4 courses per normal semester I would graduate with the degree and two minors. Nothing stops me from taking 3 courses next summer and taking 5 courses per semester giving me room for 5 additional classes which is about the equivalent of a minor.

Would there be anything you guys could suggest that I minor in? Target specific courses and forget the minor? Or just get in and out of the school without adding the extra stuff?


I know this is my life and all but kind of hard for me to get advice. I remember my first year advisor refused to give advice beyond "Yes you are allowed or No that's not allowed".

I wouldn't be so concerned with having an official 'minor' on your background. I'd rather take a bunch of classes I actually like rather than taking a few more that aren't interesting just because it satisfied the minor requirements. Linear algebra sounds more useful than mathematical modeling