Which Master Course Should I Choose for a Career in Theoretical Physics?

[Casaubon]

Dear Forum-Community,

Provided that I got offers from the Imperial College London for the Master Course "Qauntum Field and Fundamental Forces", from the University of Cambridge for "Master of Advanced Study" (Part III of the Mathematical Tripos) and from the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics for "Perimeter Scholars International" - which one should I choose?

In fact I'm extremely tending to the latter one, but I want to hear your opinions.

What do you think about the courses, about your future opportunities in research and can develop yourself to the best?

Best
Cas

 

[lasm2000]

Do you already hold such offers? Otherwise is a rather empty intelectual exercise here!

My personal advice would be to do the Tripos III. If you do well, you will probably end up doing a PhD at DAMTP. There is simply no way that end up better than that. Slightly second will be the QFFF at Imperial, for similar reasons, although the QFFF itself is not like the tripos III in being the "applicants pool" for the PhD.

Actually, I would place PSI at the end. It will certainly be a very rewarding experience. But you will need to apply for a phd around november, and honestly while their "no exams" politic is great in reducing some of the garbagety "just pass the exam" attitude. It means that when u apply to any university you will end up with references letter talking about only how chatty you were at tutorial sessions! Even if you go to PSI and want to stay around, you will end up enrolling at, say, McMaster, or Western Toronto, Waterloo. That means you will spend up most of your time in the environment of such institutions. Surely, they are good institutions, but I bet you will get a more exciting environment at damtp or Imperial.

So that is my "educated guess", in terms of a PhD after the masters I would do: 1. Tripos III 2. QFFF 3. PSI