Admissions Physics Masters Application - coming from a different field

[Jen Beckley]

I graduated a few years ago with a Biology Major and Physics Minor. After completing a M.Ed. I have decided to apply to physics masters/bridge programs and have been discussing it with old advisers who were very encouraging. I was hoping someone else had switched fields and could give me some advise on the application process, especially the resume/cv and/or personal statement piece of the application. I would love to hear someone else's experience.

 

[ZapperZ]

I graduated a few years ago with a Biology Major and Physics Minor. After completing a M.Ed. I have decided to apply to physics masters/bridge programs and have been discussing it with old advisers who were very encouraging. I was hoping someone else had switched fields and could give me some advise on the application process, especially the resume/cv and/or personal statement piece of the application. I would love to hear someone else's experience.

You are not really that far off-field with a physics minor.

You did not indicate what your ultimate goals are, so it is difficult to advice you on the right motivation to describe in your application. Presumably, you want to leverage your biology background, which may be an advantage. Since a lot of research work right now is in bio-physics area, you can easily play up your interest in such cross-breeding field, especially if the schools you are applying to has such programs.

I will also say that if you have the opportunity to work in a school with research program in bio-physics that make extensive use of beamlines at a synchrotron light source, you should grab that with both hands. It isn't just the opportunity to work at such a facility, it is also the experimental skills that are involved in doing experimental work at such a facility. You'll learn quite a bit of stuff, and many of these are often valuable skills that will make you very "employable" after graduation. Including and indicating such interest in your application might not only be an advantage, but also shows that you've done background research on the research programs at a particular school.

Zz.