- #1
pioneerboy
- 30
- 1
Hello everyone,
I am brand new here in the PhysicsForum and this is my very first message. So it's apleasure to meet likeminded people sharing the same interest and probably also profession. The latter is also the reason why I finally registered in this forum and I sincerely hopethat I am given some honest edifying, encouraging advice and recommendations concerning my present difficult situation. Excuse my lengthy message. Rest assured that it will stay the only one in my membership here in the forum.
Still I refused to give up the studies. The stretched studies over years had, of course, an increased demoralising effect. Some bad marks in combination with faculty regulations made me bending and twisting to still get an undergraduate degree in the end. But after a pair of some more unsufficient marks I regocnised that I would not be able to get a degree even in the maximum study time. Before being forced out of studies (life-long and country-wide), I took my hat myself and left the university this Summer.
Now I find myself in some strange place of not knowing in which direction I should go, at an age when most are already independent with a job and qualifications, while being strongly insecure of my own cabilities. I am also struggling with society that effort and will to learn is not rewarded with anything else than ECTS and those that worked hard but still failed end up with nothing but more or less lost years. Besides some other options, I would like to discuss the following ones and also my wishes.
How do you evaluate this possibility and to end up building aerospace stuff from space probes to rockets?
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/40-year-old-considering-phd.123504/
https://communities.acs.org/thread/7572
https://phys.wordpress.com/2006/04/05/youre-never-too-old/
I learned that there are individuals out there who are interested in getting a higher degree and study again at unusualy high ages, not with the hope of improving their salary but for the sake of curiosity in nature. So, while getting a physics undergraduate degree at the moment seems out of reach, it is still my dream of doing so in the future - maybe with 40...I don't know. The guys in these discussions are all talking about having done their undergraduate many years ago and doing a graduate degree or PhD at their current age. What are my chances of doing so while not having achieved an undergraduate degree? By the way, in the whole discussion and all career paths, I would be willing to go abroad to pursue my happyness...so to say.
By the way, I have been very motivated in conducting experiments and taking into account as many error influences as possible - so I was a bit an experimental perfectionist. I have also done the undergraduate thesis in the field of my interest in asteroid observation. Maybe this opens some doors? My main problems have been the very theoretical lectures like statistical thermodynamics, quantum physics, classical field theory...you get the picture. But I studied hard for each lecture (maybe just wrong?); maybe this shows that I am willing to work and learn once I am into a topic. I would also be interested to learn about differential geometry, radiative transfers, general relativity (during my studies, I got in contact with these big branches of physics: classical mechanics, Newtonian Gravity, special relativity, electro-magnetism, and quantum mechanics. At least I want to understand the very basics of general relativity as well, but QFT and the like can avoid with good conscience).
But at the moment, I am just tired of having studied 5 years with increasing difficulties and getting no degree as reward. I will take some time to recover. But I just refuse to accept that anything is over for me for all time, because I was at this point with 2 other dreams already. One could say it's just the system, but I am convinced that at some point, a red line is crossed and one should refuse to be jostled around. So, at some point, I want to be able to give a comeback in professional physics.
What are your recommendations? I hope for some constructive advice.
Thank you so much for any help!
Regards,
Lucius
I am brand new here in the PhysicsForum and this is my very first message. So it's apleasure to meet likeminded people sharing the same interest and probably also profession. The latter is also the reason why I finally registered in this forum and I sincerely hopethat I am given some honest edifying, encouraging advice and recommendations concerning my present difficult situation. Excuse my lengthy message. Rest assured that it will stay the only one in my membership here in the forum.
- CV:
Still I refused to give up the studies. The stretched studies over years had, of course, an increased demoralising effect. Some bad marks in combination with faculty regulations made me bending and twisting to still get an undergraduate degree in the end. But after a pair of some more unsufficient marks I regocnised that I would not be able to get a degree even in the maximum study time. Before being forced out of studies (life-long and country-wide), I took my hat myself and left the university this Summer.
Now I find myself in some strange place of not knowing in which direction I should go, at an age when most are already independent with a job and qualifications, while being strongly insecure of my own cabilities. I am also struggling with society that effort and will to learn is not rewarded with anything else than ECTS and those that worked hard but still failed end up with nothing but more or less lost years. Besides some other options, I would like to discuss the following ones and also my wishes.
- (mechanical?) engineering --> rocket science :
How do you evaluate this possibility and to end up building aerospace stuff from space probes to rockets?
- (mechanical?) engineering --> astronomical technology / optical engineering --> telescope building :
- Too old for a physics comeback? :
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/40-year-old-considering-phd.123504/
https://communities.acs.org/thread/7572
https://phys.wordpress.com/2006/04/05/youre-never-too-old/
I learned that there are individuals out there who are interested in getting a higher degree and study again at unusualy high ages, not with the hope of improving their salary but for the sake of curiosity in nature. So, while getting a physics undergraduate degree at the moment seems out of reach, it is still my dream of doing so in the future - maybe with 40...I don't know. The guys in these discussions are all talking about having done their undergraduate many years ago and doing a graduate degree or PhD at their current age. What are my chances of doing so while not having achieved an undergraduate degree? By the way, in the whole discussion and all career paths, I would be willing to go abroad to pursue my happyness...so to say.
By the way, I have been very motivated in conducting experiments and taking into account as many error influences as possible - so I was a bit an experimental perfectionist. I have also done the undergraduate thesis in the field of my interest in asteroid observation. Maybe this opens some doors? My main problems have been the very theoretical lectures like statistical thermodynamics, quantum physics, classical field theory...you get the picture. But I studied hard for each lecture (maybe just wrong?); maybe this shows that I am willing to work and learn once I am into a topic. I would also be interested to learn about differential geometry, radiative transfers, general relativity (during my studies, I got in contact with these big branches of physics: classical mechanics, Newtonian Gravity, special relativity, electro-magnetism, and quantum mechanics. At least I want to understand the very basics of general relativity as well, but QFT and the like can avoid with good conscience).
But at the moment, I am just tired of having studied 5 years with increasing difficulties and getting no degree as reward. I will take some time to recover. But I just refuse to accept that anything is over for me for all time, because I was at this point with 2 other dreams already. One could say it's just the system, but I am convinced that at some point, a red line is crossed and one should refuse to be jostled around. So, at some point, I want to be able to give a comeback in professional physics.
What are your recommendations? I hope for some constructive advice.
Thank you so much for any help!
Regards,
Lucius