EPTyou're flipping a coin with your life.
Practicality of Physics Major vs Engineering? - Page 5
| Forum Index > General Forum |
|
Terranist
United States2496 Posts
you're flipping a coin with your life. | ||
|
Memnon
Canada37 Posts
On October 10 2011 07:44 TexDrum wrote: Hmm, there seems to be a lot of conflicting opinion actually. I love all of the responses though, thank you everybody! I seem to be gathering that even if you major in physics, my graduate work can give me a lot of different job opportunities. It still seems like engineering is the most practical though, but I don't think anybody answered this yet. If they did and I missed it, sorry! But what kind of degree would be best for somebody looking into either 1) space work with NASA/private sector companies who are getting into space flight etc. or 2) nanotechnology? Both of these fields (although totally different) interest me. There seems to be a misconception here in this thread that physics won't get you a job. Physics can get you both of these, as well as a lot of other fields in case you change your mind. 1) Over the summer, one of my friends who is doing a physics degree (geophysics, but hey) got a job at Guelph (Canadian university) working for NASA. 2) One of my other friends who is doing a pure physics degree is thinking of doing his grad work in nanotechnology. Also, I need to say that the physics degree is much more broad than an engineering degree. What you should do is talk to your prof(s), tell them what you're interested in, and ask them for advice. Odds are they will know who is doing stuff you are interested in and where they are doing it. | ||
|
LaNague
Germany9118 Posts
You can get into the engineering business with ease, you can start a high salary job at banks/company consultant thingies, insurance companies, stay in the uni, work in hospitals to oversee the CTs and other stuff... Basically physicists are the best at calculating anything, high profile companies recognize that and thats why you can get a good job easily. similar to that, people that studied math get a job easily here as well. Not so much because companies are in dire need of someone who knows every math theorem and can work with them, but because those people learned to think in a specific way that is very good at consistently and solving any problem you can come up with. | ||
|
Arnstein
Norway3381 Posts
On October 10 2011 23:09 LaNague wrote: Hi, i dont know how the situation is in the US, but if you geta masters degree or better in physics in germany, you are set. You can get into the engineering business with ease, you can start a high salary job at banks/company consultant thingies, insurance companies, stay in the uni, work in hospitals to oversee the CTs and other stuff... Basically physicists are the best at calculating anything, high profile companies recognize that and thats why you can get a good job easily. Yup, same in Norway. I know a guy that got a master's degree in fysmat(short for physics and mathematics) at NTNU in Norway, and he is economic-something now, and makes over a million norwegian kroner a year(ca. 175 000 USD). | ||
|
Toadesstern
Germany16350 Posts
So if you got the chance to see a lecture just hop in and listen. I don't know what it's like in the us but in germany there's noone controlling if you're actually a student at all, except for exams of course. I'd say go there and try something basic physicists have to do during the first year :p Edit: Oh i just figured. Maybe that's really just that way in germany because we don't have to pay for university. | ||
|
Beeza
United States5 Posts
Personally, I have focused very much on theoretical (plasma/astro)-physics, and for the sake of my future job prospects, I often wish I had chosen electrical engineering. Many of my peers switched to engineering departments either due to failing the physics doctoral exam or just plain becoming tired of the physics graduate coursework. Learning E&M from Jackson or QM from Landau (two standard graduate textbooks) is exhausting, and it is quite easy to lose sight of practical applications. I do enjoy investigating how the world works on a very deep level, but a theoretical physics phd is a risky thing to do. *EDIT* If you are positive that you are willing and capable of attending graduate school, but unsure of the exact field you want, then I would recommend possibly an undergraduate degree in physics. With a physics bachelors degree (focusing on experimental physics), switching to graduate engineering coursework is much easier than making the transition from an engineering bachelors degree to graduate level physics. | ||
|
zeek0us
United States67 Posts
First of all, engineering is just applied physics. Depending on the engineering field, you focus on a particular area of physics and delve into its applications and examples rather than exploring the science in detail. The foundation of all engineering is physics (or maybe chemistry, but that itself is just applied physics), but engineering ignores the physics that isn't pertinent to the particular issues at hand. Engineering study provides very practical knowledge, it's just not as broad and basic as pure physics study. That said, if you want a degree that sets you up for a job right away, get an engineering degree. Essentially, a B.S. in engineering is full qualification to be an engineer. The curriculum is designed to make you a fully qualified engineer when you graduate, so it's almost like a mix of study and vocational training. Once you have your engineering degree, there's no need to get any further education (although doing so typically increases your pay grade) and you can walk right into any number of entry-level jobs. To be a "physicist", you need a PhD. That B.S. (def not a B.A. if there's a choice) in physics is a solid education that can be applied to numerous things, but it doesn't make you a "physicist" in the way that a B.S. in engineering makes you an "engineer." A physics degree does mean that you have a solid mathematics foundation and have all the education necessary to do any number of jobs, but it doesn't really entail any specific, practical training. The only specific training a physics degree gives you is for continuing on to be a physicist. As far as opportunities, they are what you make of them. An engineering degree is a pretty well agreed-upon measure of your ability, and you'll likely be able to land an entry-level engineering job without much trouble. A physics degree is more of an "I'm smart, I'll be able to do handle what you throw at me" degree, but it's up to you to find opportunities where you can try to parlay that attitude into a job. IOW, people won't be looking for applicants with a B.S. in physics, but it's unlikely that the degree would disqualify you. You'd just be more of a wild card, although a physics degree is somewhat less rigid than an engineering degree because it doesn't involve much specific job training. If you go back to school for an advanced degree, you'd probably want engineering for an M.S. (master's still doesn't make you a physicist, but it ups your pay grade as an engineer) or physics PhD (so you are a bona fide physicist and can do all kinds of things). If you're planning to land a steady job with as little headache and time spent looking as possible, get a B.S. in engineering. If you want a broader scope of options when you graduate, go for a physics degree. If you aren't sure when you get to school, it would be easier to go from physics to engineering than vice-versa. Whatever you choose, get involved with professional societies, get to know professors, attend job fairs, try to get an internship . . . stop playing StarCraft long enough to get some studying in . . . and you'll be fine. | ||
|
Veritask
260 Posts
| ||
|
Felvo
United States124 Posts
| ||
|
VirGin
Norway278 Posts
| ||
|
JayDee_
548 Posts
Physics - If you like the idea of doing research, theorizing, occasionally teaching, etc then Physics might be a good field of study. NOTE: You will need to get a PhD to do anything of significance in the field. Engineering - You're options with Engineering are much greater. You can stay in Academia/research, work for a company, try to start your own company, etc. However, you won't be involved in the cool theoretical stuff the Physics PhD's are working on. | ||
|
Shekhinah
United Kingdom16 Posts
I have a degree in Theoretical Physics and it's great for opportunities in further research (PhD), banking, financial (or other) analysts and maybe a few other things requiring an analytical mind. I also heard about physics graduates making a side step into the nuclear industry or doing oil field engineering work. Basically, as a physics graduate, engineering is still an option, but you'll need to find a job that provides a lot of training. As an engineering graduate, you'll have more options open to you (although there will, of course, still need to be training). P.S. For all my years of enthusiastically pursuing science, I still don't have a job I like and will probably not be doing anything that requires a physics degree. You just never know how things will work out. | ||
|
Evangelist
1246 Posts
Physics, every time. If you're dead set on engineering, you can always switch into that field at a later date. | ||
|
FuJi
United States104 Posts
On October 10 2011 14:19 TexDrum wrote: God Fuji, you described pretty much exactly what I like about physics. I like understanding how things work. Then again, that's why nanotechnology (and things like that) are interesting, because then, I get to understand (and innovate) how things work better/more efficiently. (at least in my head) ARGH CHOICES Just to give an insight as to how academic physics research tends to be. In most physics labs, many of the experiments that are run either are trying to qualify some theory in some neat way (which may or may not end up being applicable irl) or refute it by contradiction. However, most of the time is spent either making sure the experiment runs as planned (which is extremely hard sometimes) or analyzing the data with tools like matlab/mathematica/labview. There are some crossdisciplinary labs that mix it up with biophysics or materials science so there is some connection between physics and nanotech. I don't know too much about the experimental side but it seems like they spend most of their time in front of computers running simulations or finding solutions to interesting problems (keep in mind it sometimes takes months to figure out these solutions analytically or numerically). Physicists that actually try to construct new models or interpretations for the physical world is a very small portion of the community. They're a dying breed but It seems like with the way the physics community is now with the internet and all, problems like that would be tackled collectively in a much more organized fashion than before. Also, physics hw in upper division courses is very different from lower division and high school work. The only numbers you will remember seeing in your psets are 0,1,2. The majority of the problems involve finding general solutions to a system, proving some conservation laws in some interesting systems, or deriving macroscopic effects (star stability) from atomic principles (electron degeneracy pressure). So if you get a kick out of pushing symbols around on paper that only a few people will understand, the physics curriculum will certainly satisfy that. Reading back i noticed there are a few things that could be added but i figured that if none of this is particularly enticing, the rest wouldn't be worth mentioning. | ||
|
Evangelist
1246 Posts
While it is true that PhDs aren't as ground breaking as they might have been a hundred years ago, each is its own iteration and is built on the mountain of the past. | ||
|
eot
146 Posts
| ||
|
Imbattable
Germany85 Posts
On October 10 2011 07:22 Misled wrote: Actually I had the same "problem" ~6 years ago. I was finishing school and needed to choose what to study. I was the biggest geek about physics and I spend all time in school thinking about going into the field of physics in the hope of going into nuclear physics, thinking nuclear fusion reactors would be the biggest thing of the future  (don't judge I was very young and very naive and I read to many sci-fi comics... thinking about it... judge all you want )Anyway... just before applying to colleges I guess my German heart kicked in and I picked electrical engineering. I guess it was programmed into me at birth and I couldn't escape. (I come from the a part in south of Germany where ~70% of the jobs are directly or indirectly connected with the automotive industry). But in the end... it was the best decision I could have made. Because at Uni I realized that physics would have been to "theoretical" for me and I saw that a lot of friends studying physics stayed at Uni to stay in research or go in to the industry without actually doing what they studyed. I know alot of people with PhDs or degrees in physics that work in software companies or engineering, even one that went on to go to a consulting firm. But all of them have in common that they are not using the actual theoretical and practical knoweledge of physics. They were more hired for their ability to understand complex systems and their analysis skills etc. But hey... they do earn good money doing that. Physic students staying in research definately don't earn the same amount of money. I know work as an electrical engineer in research and development (in the automotive industry :p, can't escape it! ).For me it was the right thing. And too be honest, you do get payed very well as an engineer in Germany. At the moment I live in the UK thanks to my job working on amazing projects. I guess I made the right decision for me back then. But I can only tell you this using hindsight. Just be sure that once you make your decision you give it your all and try to really work hard on the subject you chose. Once you try to do that and you realize you aren't happy what your doing and that your really struggling to motivate yourself to keep going, always remember that no decisions are final and that you do have the ability to start new. Edit: I must add that in Germany back then, we didn't have a bachelor/master system and the subject you chose after school was a five year course at Uni granting you a "Diplom" in the end. So maybe Bachelor/Master gives you a good chance of looking into both? German engineering in da house, representing Deutschland! On topic: I chose electrical enginnering over a more theoretical subject like physics and have yet to regret it. I am currently working on my PhD (which is paid quite nicely over here in Germany in contrast to what I hear from other countries) in the field of integrated circuit design in the context of fundamental research for new frequency synthesizer architectures. So it is a blend of theoretical and practical work. What I can tell you is that you should pick something you are good at and not something you think you will enjoy. That is because if you are good at something, enjoyment will follow suit but if you thought you would enjoy something but are not good at it, it will REALLY bring you down. So if you are good at math and theoretical deliberations, you should go with physics, but if you are more hands-on, you should go for engineering. | ||
|
Uhh Negative
United States1090 Posts
On October 10 2011 06:10 strongandbig wrote: So I'm currently a first-year grad student in physics, and one thing a lot of people don't realize is how common it is for physics majors to go into finance/banking/consulting. For whatever reason, the people in those industries who hire new people out of college believe that a physics major teaches you things like problem-solving and flexible thinking. For undergrad physics majors in the department I went to, there were as many people going into finance etc as there were going to grad school. I can actually understand this. I'm taking Physics currently (I'm a chem major) and so far it's essentially just knowing some very generalized rules and being able to interpret the problem in a way that the general rules will fit into and solving from there. Flexible thinking is all physics really is. It's using logic with given rules to solve a problem. Very applicable to pretty much any field. | ||
|
rally_point
Canada458 Posts
Then again a career in the thing you like most would be great so maybe you should just go with physics since you like it so much... THEN AGAIN.... I really liked chemistry and I did very well in highschool. I ended up going into chemical engineering and realized I didn't like chem as much as I thought :p, so maybe beware of the difference of highschool and uni | ||
|
neorobo
Canada5 Posts
| ||
| ||
