WHETHER TO DO A RESEARCH IN PHySICS OR SHOULD I OPT FOR ENGINEERING

[garvit.arora]

Presently i am in class 11th...and recently i have done my boards exam and i hope to get good marks specially in physics...now..as only two years are left for my entrance exams i am fully confused . I was always interested in Physics and so I left myself only two options- Physics Honours(research) or Engineering. When I was in high school,I did a few extra things in physics,like relativity and much more and now I fear that I might have to miss out all these wonderful aspects of Physics if I continue with Engineering.

So,deep inside,I want to do Physics Honours and do some kind of research. I always want to become particle physicist because i love all these things...i want to do research mainly in string theory, subatomic particles etc.But my parents said I might have to struggle very hard to establish myself if I took up Physics Honours...and as i am livind in India there is very little scope for any kind of job...in India there are only two good orginisations for any kind of research in physics and they are also government agencies , so their salary scales are not so good...therefore i do not want to stay in india, i want to go abroad,do a Ph.D. in physics and then settle there to continue my research...so now they are more or less forcing me to take up engineering.

Can anybody give me any idea of what I could do to while staying in india...like can i do any kind of research after i have done my engineering...or can i do M.sc after i have done my M.tech...and what are the scopes in research in particle physics in india...pls tell me ...really confused

 

[DEvens]

Don't close doors.

There are many different kinds of engineering. My PhD supervisor did an engineering bachelor degree in an area called "engineering science." Then he did his PhD in physics, and now does research in gravity and particle physics. Depending on what kind of physics you want to do, and what kind of engineering you do, you can make some transitions.

Many undergrad degrees have a lot of overlap. Nearly any science or engineering degree is going to push you along in calculus. I took thermal hydraulics from the engineering department, then put it to use in my honors project studying (very simplified) star interiors. You can learn algebra in the math department, the physics dept., or the engineering dept.

If you did chemical engineering it would probably be harder to move over to a particle physics PhD. But if you did an engineering degree with tons of math and theory and so on, it might not be that hard.

In the other direction, a physics degree is pretty good in industry as well. You can learn how to make a computer model of a complicated physical system in the physics department, and then you can sell that skill in many different industrial applications. It's quite rare for a physicist to be unemployed.

Look at the universities, both in India and in other countries, that you might like to attend. Look on the web, use Google. Find their physics and engineering departments and send them email asking about admissions requirements and possible scholarships and so on. Find out what sorts of degree programs and specialty areas they have. Get their list of courses for each degree you might be interested in. Hopefully one or two will stand out as the place you want to go.
Dan