As noted, the study of physics will prepare you to enter
graduate work in a variety of fields that provide attractive and satisfying
career opportunities. Our students have
 entered graduate work in
physics, astronomy, astrophysics, meteorology, mathematics, geophysics,
biophysics, psychology, materials science, electrical engineering, nuclear
engineering, mechanical engineering, environmental
engineering, ocean engineering,
business, law, education,
and even theology. Engineering has been a common choice and
continues to
remain popular. Graduate schools attended by Gettysburg College alumni
include Brown, Michigan, Ohio State, Minnesota, Rutgers, Chicago, Wisconsin,
Colorado, Stanford, UCLA, Texas, Delaware, Florida, Duke, MIT, RPI, Virginia,
West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Penn State, Maryland, American, George Washington,
Cornell, Wharton Business School and Princeton Theological Seminary. While
not all students intend to go beyond master's work, most who do go on for
a Ph.D. have been successful. Our alumni - among them being Dr. Stephen
Bishop, professor and Director of the Engineering Research Center at the
University of Illinois; Dr. Norman Rasmussen, retired professor of nuclear
engineering at MIT and author of the well-known Rasmussen Report on the
safety of light water reactors; and Dr. Ronald Smith,
 Senior Vice President
of Intel Corporation - have an impressive record of achievement and service.
If you are considering graduate school, it is important to have a
conference with your faculty adviser as soon as possible. While the
final decision is yours, your advisor can help you sort through the various
programs available to you.
The following guidelines are offered to assist in this pursuit.
To be certain of being admitted to graduate school, one should have
at least a 3.0 grade point average, with a minimum 3.5 needed for acceptance
by the more prestigious graduate schools. Both your physics average
and your overall average are important, and a transcript that shows steady
improvement over the past two years is beneficial. While grade point
average is important, it is not the sole indicator of suitability for post-graduate
work. A student who has high grades but finds his or her motivation
dwindling is not a good candidate for graduate school. On the other
hand, some students with an overall average as low as 2.5 have gone on
to graduate schools and done well, their success attributable to a high
degree of interest and the willingness to work hard.
All graduate schools will require you to take the aptitude section
of the Graduate Record
Exam and most of them will also require the physics section
of that exam. Graduate schools will want to know your scores before
their application deadlines, which are usually in February or March.
The dates and locations for these tests may be obtained from the Gettysburg
College
Center for Career Development. Presently, the exams are given
three times a year, April, October, and December. Exact dates are posted
on the Educational Testing Service Network
(ETS) web page, as well. Keep in mind, too, that any scholarship
programs, and some graduate departments, require that applicants
 take both
parts of the GRE on or before the October testing date. Be aware that the
registration deadline falls more than a month before the test date.
Many students take the general test in the April of their Junior
year and the physics test in the October of their Senior year. (It is not
a good idea to take both exams on the same day.) GRE registration
packets should be available at the College's Career Development Office,
or mail a request to
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GRE/ETS
P.O. Box 6000
Princeton, NJ 08541-6000 |
 Some of the more competitive graduate schools are placing increased
reliance on GRE scores. It is difficult to improve aptitude scores
by advanced preparation, but there are books available with sample GRE
questions, and you may find them useful. The GRE is a timed, multiple choice
exam, similar to the SAT. Some sample questions are available in
the free GRE General Test Descriptive Booklet and some will be mailed to
registrants for the physics test, but you may also find it useful to study
the ETS booklet Practicing to Take the GRE Physics Test. This booklet contains
two GRE physics exams that were actually administered in previous years.
It is useful to take these trial exams individually, timing yourself, and
then to discuss your answers with others. Mock GRE's from other publishers
are available, but may not accurately reflect the real GRE (for example,
the sample tests given in J.J. Molitoris's GRE Physics - "the purple
book" - are atypically advanced and difficult).
Preparation for the physics section of the GRE is definitely worthwhile.
Your best bet is to review the material covered by the courses in the seven-course
core. If time is limited, confine your study to the texts you used
in Physics 111,112, 213, 310 and 312. Ninety percent of the questions on
the exam can be answered at a level compatible with those texts. Most of
the questions concerning classical physics (mechanics, electricity and
magnetism, thermodynamics, waves, etc.) are at the level of the Halliday
& Resnick text, and it makes good sense to review this book, paying
special attention to the chapter summaries. Most of the questions
concerning quantum physics are at the 100-level courses. There are many
questions concerning the facts of atomic physics, and a thorough review
of your 1st year physics text, during the summer before you take the test,
is recommended - or some other text on modern physics, whatever you
are most familiar with (Serway, Moses, and Moyer's Modern Physics or Eisberg
and Resnick's Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and
Particles, etc.)
The Physics Department has considered offering a review test in the
early fall, if enough interest develops, so let your advisor know in the
spring of your junior year if this appeals to you.
How do you decide where you should apply? Take a look at the
graduate school information, graduate school posters and information-request
postcards in the Masters Hall Student Lounge (Room 206) and on the World
Wide Web! Many, many graduate schools send material to the
Department each year, throughout the year. If you find a program
that appeals to you, ask a physics faculty member/advisor if more information
is available and/or contact the graduate school directly. If you have a
specific field in mind but cannot find a university that offers programs
in this field, consult the booklet, Graduate Programs in Physics, Astronomy
and Related Fields, published by the American Institute of Physics (Website:
http://www.aip.org/), a copy of which is kept in the Student Lounge. Don't
hesitate to ask your academic advisor, your professors, everyone in the
Department, to help
in your pursuit.
Representatives from various graduate schools come to the campus,
usually during the fall semester, and hold brief, informal sessions for
seniors interested in attending their schools. These sessions are excellent
sources of information even if you are not interested in the particular
schools they represent. Notices of these sessions are normally advertised
in the College newspaper and via e-mail, and all seniors who are contemplating
graduate school should consider it their responsibility to attend them.
After obtaining as much information as you can, start narrowing your
choices down to five or six universities. Some students prefer to
apply to at least one institution where the competition is strong, and
to one where acceptance is believed to be more certain. Your advisor can
give you some notion as to the relative competitiveness of an institution.
The American Institute
of Physics (AIP) guide to graduate programs also gives information
about graduate requirements.
Most schools request at least three references. Ask faculty
members who know your work well to write recommendations for you.
It would be helpful to them if you could tell them about some of your past
accomplishments and future aspirations. The Career Counseling and
Advising Office will be happy to help you prepare an information sheet
or résumé.
At the time you apply for admission to graduate school, you should
request information on financial aid, assistantship programs and scholarships.
If you are an international student, note that in your request for such
information (it might also benefit you to request information on financial
aid for continuing education from the appropriate consular officials representing
your country here in the United States).
Notices of acceptance to graduate school usually arrive in mid to
late April. If you receive more than one acceptance, your adviser
can help you with your decision, but a trip to each campus might provide
the best information. Once you have accepted an offer, write promptly
to the schools you are declining, so that they can extend an offer to someone
else.
And remember to keep us posted on your progress while you are in
graduate school - and beyond! |
