What Are My Options for Studying Physics After High School?

[andrewrocks]

Short version:
Open University or other university?

Long version:

- Hello. Name is Andrew, I'm 19 years old I was born in Bucharest, Romania. I have a strong interest in Physics (I know, you were taken by surprise :p).
- I'm in my last year of high-school (12), here, I study Romanian, History, Geography and the like, and some theology.
- I did a little bit of Physics and Math, and I got about 9 out of ten. At least I think i did :). The rest of my grades are evenly spread from 5-10 (scale is 1 to 10, and 4 is fail and 5 is pass), and I have no interesting extracurricular - except, maybe, for the fact that I play in our Church's brass band (I don't get why people think it's ironical :P).
- The standardized test for college admissions in Romania is the Romanian bacalaureat. I would have to take tests for Romanian, History and Geography, which I... more or less abhor. Even if I pass the tests (they are quite difficult) I would get... disappointing grades. With that said, I would like to study at an university with good tutoring (there's no point in asking for prestige :D), after all, if I don't meet good teachers, aren't I better off studying by my self (I seem to be pretty good at it)?
- Out of the other, college admission tests, I noticed that I can take the SAT test, which looks really easy. Of course, if I got accepted to a university I would have to wait for about a year (right?). That would give me ample time to prepare, but I would miss that year (not being enrolled). And if I wouldn't get accepted in a decent university, I would've wasted a year. Even worst :D, what if I get accepted into a university and it turns out to just suck all the excitement out of physics. (I've seen it done. It's possible :) )
- The alternative would be to enroll at the Open University. I saw a cute course (the one with the rainbow. It wasn't really informative, but I liked it :) from OU and I think it would be enjoyable to learn from courses what are as well structured and designed at that was. (I'm only worried that there might be disadvantages to distance learning. I want to do research, don't I need experience to get accepted in a research program for a PhD?)) (I just noticed that I nested the parentheses :). I guess I'm better off writing code than plain English :) )

So, to sum up the long version :D.
I have an unimpressive "academic" record (I got plenty of excuses for that, but does anyone really care.. :) ) and I can't write an essay (yes, I know you know that). Would it be a risk to take a gap year and submit applications to universities (which?), or should I go for OU?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Hase_mit_Ostereiern_%282%29.jpg" thinks that helping me would would be awesome :)

Sorry: for the English up there ^, that my writing is hard to follow, that I only skimmed the forum rules

 

[andrewrocks]

bump :|

 

[chiro]

bump :|

I would not recommend you do an applied science like physics through distance especially for something like undergraduate physics.

Unless you are very keen and very very disciplined to do rigorous experiments on your own and actually had the kind of quality control that is needed in the physical sciences, then I can't see you getting the kind of knowledge and experienced required to excel in this field.

Something like say programming is different to physics. With programming, there's plenty of information out there on the internet and apart from your computer, some software tools and a lot of time, nothing is really restricting you from learning how to program.

Once you have the ball rolling and have done enough independent learning and have some way to demonstrate it, then a distance course would probably be appropriate.

In a nutshell for what you want to do, I would not recommend you doing physics by distance learning. Get into any decent university and take all the classes (especially the labs where you have to connect your math with your physics).

 

[bp_psy]

Short version:
Open University or other university?

Long version:

- Hello. Name is Andrew, I'm 19 years old I was born in Bucharest, Romania. I have a strong interest in Physics (I know, you were taken by surprise :p).
- I'm in my last year of high-school (12), here, I study Romanian, History, Geography and the like, and some theology.
- I did a little bit of Physics and Math, and I got about 9 out of ten. At least I think i did :). The rest of my grades are evenly spread from 5-10 (scale is 1 to 10, and 4 is fail and 5 is pass), and I have no interesting extracurricular - except, maybe, for the fact that I play in our Church's brass band (I don't get why people think it's ironical :P).
- The standardized test for college admissions in Romania is the Romanian bacalaureat. I would have to take tests for Romanian, History and Geography, which I... more or less abhor. Even if I pass the tests (they are quite difficult) I would get... disappointing grades. With that said, I would like to study at an university with good tutoring (there's no point in asking for prestige :D), after all, if I don't meet good teachers, aren't I better off studying by my self (I seem to be pretty good at it)?

The only advice I can give you is to change your attitude.You should start studying for the BAC and get good grade on all your tests.Physics at an university will be harder than whatever they will throw at you in the geography or history test.As far as I know University of Bucharest has an adequate undergraduate program. Try to get in there.

- Out of the other, college admission tests, I noticed that I can take the SAT test, which looks really easy. Of course, if I got accepted to a university I would have to wait for about a year (right?). That would give me ample time to prepare, but I would miss that year (not being enrolled). And if I wouldn't get accepted in a decent university, I would've wasted a year. Even worst :D, what if I get accepted into a university and it turns out to just suck all the excitement out of physics. (I've seen it done. It's possible :)

I don't know exactly how the testing works but if you have the means to study abroad you should look into it.For the second part I can tell you that you will that at any university in any field you will have a bunch of courses that will be painful. In the end you should realize that even though you hate the subject you need to know it. If you think that physics is just some ubber sexy field were you do only awesome stuff you will probably be disappointed.

- The alternative would be to enroll at the Open University. I saw a cute course (the one with the rainbow. It wasn't really informative, but I liked it :) from OU and I think it would be enjoyable to learn from courses what are as well structured and designed at that was. (I'm only worried that there might be disadvantages to distance learning. I want to do research, don't I need experience to get accepted in a research program for a PhD?)) (I just noticed that I nested the parentheses :). I guess I'm better off writing code than plain English :) )

So, to sum up the long version :D.
I have an unimpressive "academic" record (I got plenty of excuses for that, but does anyone really care.. :) ) and I can't write an essay (yes, I know you know that). Would it be a risk to take a gap year and submit applications to universities (which?), or should I go for OU?

If you are really interested in physics go at proper university.

 

[odinsthunder]

- The alternative would be to enroll at the Open University. I saw a cute course (the one with the rainbow. It wasn't really informative, but I liked it :) from OU and I think it would be enjoyable to learn from courses what are as well structured and designed at that was. (I'm only worried that there might be disadvantages to distance learning. I want to do research, don't I need experience to get accepted in a research program for a PhD?)) (I just noticed that I nested the parentheses :). I guess I'm better off writing code than plain English :) )

Don't listen to these other posters about the OU, they have no idea what they are talking about. I know plenty of folk who have done their Physics degree through the OU and gone on to get a PHD, one of who is now working for the European Space Agency training astronauts, another who got his PHD in Astrophysics in his fifties, another was just accepted into a masters program at Imperial, the list goes on and on. In fact it's regarded as superior to some 'redbricks'. I know that it is really expensive if you don't live in the UK though, and it isn't completely distant. You'll have to do some residential lab work at some point.

 

[Ryker]

I'd also advise you to study at a university in Romania, if you can't afford to go abroad. I think you should be able to get a decent enough education that will leave your options open for further studies, whereas with distant learning you're getting a cat in the bag. At a brick and mortar university you'll also be able to get more immersed in research and the physics environment, meet other people with similar interests etc. This can only help you in the long (and also short) run, and at your age I see absolutely no compelling reason to go for Open University rather than a university in Romania.

 

[andrewrocks]

Thank you all for your replies, you encouraged me!

 

[mal4mac]

Odinsthunder is right. The OU itself has a large campus with many full time PhD students (it's a serious university!) The residential lab work he mentions usually involves spending a week at a UK university - so you can do that instead of taking a holiday!

Still, at your age, it would seem more sensible to try first to get into a Rumanian university.

There is no more guarantee of great tutoring with the OU than there is in normal universities - the OU tutors are usually schoolteachers & lecturers from other universities (good and bad!) Some tutors are highly motivated, maybe they want to investigate the OUs excellent teaching materials to improve their own teaching. Others just want more money. So you are probably as likely (or not!) to get good tutoring at any Rumanian university.

As you have noticed, the *big* plus of the Open University is the course material - usually developed by a large team of very good people to the highest standards. (The OU uses BBC television producers, editors, graphics artists... and on... one course can have several million pounds investment...)

Why not do your best to get into a Rumanian University? If that goes wrong you can keep the OU in mind as a fall-back position... The OU is especially good at catering for older students, and students who have problems succeeding in other educational environments!

 

[andrewrocks]

Thanks ;)