Aki said:
I"m in grade 12 now, and I'll be going to university next year.
I got accepted to Engineering, but now I'm not sure if that's what I really want to do. I love theoretical physics, and I don't mind majoring in that, except I'm not sure what are some career options. I don't like lecturing people, and I don't want to teach. So if I majored in physics, what can I do later in life?
Hi i majored in theoretical physics while being in college. If you want to have a specific example, read https://www.physicsforums.com/journal.php?s=&journalid=13790&action=view
(scroll down to the 'life of a physics phd student')
The link that Gokul provided is quite general in content and most of it you already know. Here you have a specific realtime example of someone who majored in QFT and went on to do a phd in nano-technology.
Majoring in theoretical physics gives you a very solid base (more then majoring in more experimental fields) that allows you to more easily understand physical processes in other fields. Someone with an experimental background will have much more difficulties with that. It will be quite easy for you to make the transition to a more technological field if you want to. The reason being that it will be very easy to learn the concepts necessary to get the work done.
For example i have seen theorists that became engineers. They made the transition quite smoothly because theoretical physics is much more difficult conceptually then experimental physics and engineering. In my case, i had to learn some of the more practical engineering systems that are used for MOSFET caracterization, but trust me that is not difficult.
Besides, here is a little anecdote. When working with the simulation software, we encountered the option plasmafrequence. Ofcourse, my colleague and I asked our promotor what it was used for and he started his explanation by using the concepts of plasmons (you know, conduction electrons that move back and forth, according to the frequence of an incident electric field, the particles associated with this gradient in electron-density (ie the waves of the electron density) are the plasmons). Well, if you studied theoretical physics, this will be very easy to understand but if you are an engineer, it will take you much more time.
My suggestion to you : go for the theory as much as possible, while being at college. The experimental part will come later when you actually are doing something specific.
marlon
