Phd Definition and 1000 Threads

Hello! I want to do a PhD in Particle Physics and I was wondering what is the difference between UK (and Europe in general) and USA doctorate programs. I see that at Oxford for example you can do a DPhil in 4 years while in USA you need at least 6 and I was wondering why is that. Is it more in...

I'm currently studying Physics & Astrophysics with Foundation Year, and I want a PhD in Astrophysics. How would I apply for one, when the time comes? :smile:

Hey guys, I am a German physics student in my masters studies. In Germany, we have a 3 year B.Sc. and a 2 year M.Sc. program, and both are needed to start the PhD, which usually takes around 3 to 4 years. I wanted to do my PhD somewhere far away, but now I got to know that in the US, the PhD...

I have a masters degree in physics and I want to apply for a PhD position especially in Germany. What are the necessary steps that I should take and how can I apply for a scholarship? I have looked online but some information are a bit confusing and lacking so I hope someone could layout a rough...

Fifth Year BS-MS Student from one of the premier institutes in India CGPA: 8.1/10 GRE : 310/340 168Q 142V 4AWA TOEFL: 104/120 22R 27L 26S 29W I am applying for graduate schools in the following universities. Is the list sufficient? Any suggestion is most welcome. The list is not priority-wise...

Hi all, I have completed a Bachelor of Science (Biological Sciences) and Graduate Diploma of Science (Applied Data Science). I have always loved Maths and Physics, but never really pursued it as I thought there were not many jobs for them (but I have taken first year Maths courses as electives...

Hello Everyone! I am Sharvari from India, interested in quantum and non linear optics and wish to pursue PhD in this domain. I am looking forward to active discussion on the grad school discussion forum as I will be applying for grad schools this year.

Hello! I want to go for a phD in theoretical physics (especially high energy) and I was wondering what approaches are available after phD. I guess you can work on already developed theories and develop them further (such as string theory or supersymmetry) or you can come up with your own, new...

My adviser and I have some disagreements about what my thesis should look like. I am a proponent of a single specific theme that encompasses the entire work. He believes in tying many different projects together with a much broader theme. I have been involved in a variety of projects (In order...

Grad school is *not* what I was hoping it would be. I wanted to study GR and was fortunate enough to get accepted in a program with an advisor who is a gravity theorist. I have the best fellowship awarded to grad students at my school. I passed all my prelims on my first try. My grades...

Hello I have a masters degree in medical physics from India. I recently moved to the United States and I'm planning to apply to medical physics graduate schools in the U.S. I am confused if i should apply for masters program or Phd? I'm interested in clinical medical physics. Are there good...

Dear members, I am an analog designer and I don't get to do a lot of interesting design work at my job. There is a PhD opportunity that came my way which offers really interesting work (will be in a top tier uni and will be working on project for a world famous research institute). However, I...

Do I need to study Bachelor in Physics, If not, How?

Hi all, I'm writing this post because my current situation appears to be allowing me the possibility to go back to graduate school. Where, I'm not sure but we'll have to see. A brief background is that when I was admitted to graduate school, I was set to work with a professor regarding fluid...

Hello Physicsforums. The title states my main question, but there is a little bit more than is revealed there. 1. Can you become a nuclear physicist with a nuclear engineering PhD? 2. If not, then can I get a PhD in nuclear physics with a double major in mechanical engineering and mathematics...

I'm in gravity (cosmology, GWs, etc.) and starting my fourth year and only just recently took GR for the first time. I'm wondering what standard I should set for myself WRT GR. It feels like you'd need to be an expert in GR just to identify worthwhile problems to work on, and I'm expected to...

Hi all, Maybe most people would say that physics grad schools (PhD) programs don't care about your GRE writing score, but I have a sort of quick question: how much effort should I put into the Writing sections. I took my first GRE earlier this month, but messed up both of my writing sections...

-Defending soon, -Have a part-time job in Intelligence that I go full-time after officially graduating. -Starting to see the end of the tunnel.

Hi all, I know that some you have chemistry backgrounds (mine is in nuclear physics), so wanted to pose a question for a friend who is a chemist and is thus not on this site. He has a degree in biology, with emphasis on synthetic organic chemistry. His overall GPA was ~ 3.2 (3.4 in major). He...

Hey everyone, I'm an American senior Physics major and I've been looking at New Zealand (and possibly Australia) for grad school. I wanted to ask if anyone could describe the system over there and answer a couple questions. First, is a bachelors good enough to start the PhD without doing a...

Hello all, So I am experiencing a major amount of doubt about going to my phd program. I am a recent MS physics graduate with a BS in physics as well. I recently accepted admissions to a very good medical physics program in the midwest and was granted a university fellowship for a year (or...

Hello! I am writing this to get some ideas for what to do with my future. This will be a long post so I should start by introducing myself… I am currently in the last year of my PhD studies and I will be starting my thesis soon (at least I hope so). My work is on classification theorems in...

So I have a PhD in physics specializing in experimental soft matter physics/optics, and I have been unsuccessfully trying to get a job now for 9 months. I've been applying to engineering positions all of which I was very experienced in, but I can't even get a single interview (not even with a...

Hi everyone! One of the perennial topics that show up on PF is what one can do with a physics PhD. So I thought this may be an opportunity to ask those PF members who have completed their physics PhD from 2001 and afterwards, to tell us a little about what they do for a living. A brief...

I am applying for a PhD possition at DAMPT, Cambridge University. How many interviews are there? And for the academic one, with the possible supervisor, does he test your knowledge? Which are the most common questions? I have a strong research, very good letters, a good motivational letter but...

I would greatly appreciate advice! I have a PhD in Biomedical Science, and it has always been my dream to be a college instructor of some sort. In a year, I have not been able to find any full-time academic job even in unprestigious, non-research institutions. I am willing to do any additional...

HI all, I am physics student at his last year in Italy. I'm in one of the very top uni in Italy and Europe(with very strong research). I was able to enter this uni by a very hard test, similar to the physics olympiads. I was the typical top student that sometimes gets top grades and other times...

What I want: to get into an okay-average Environmental Engineering, Materials Science, or Physics PhD program. My resume: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Major 8 months experience with an extremely reputable food and beverage company as a process engineer sort of role. I'm leaving by...

Hello, I am about to attend the University of Hawaii at Hilo as an Astrophysics major. I intend to complete my education through getting my PhD in Applied Physics, but I wanted to know if it was necessary to get a Master's? I would think so because of getting a BA in Astrophysics instead of AP...

Hi all, I got accepted to 2 Astrophysics phd programs ( University of Connecticut and the University of Cincinnati). To be honest, I am not thrilled by the prospect of attending either school but my only other option is to retake the GREs again and wait another year to attend graduate...

Hello, First, I did not find anywhere else on the internet to talk about my problem, so I hope this discussion is not off-topic here. I want to start a PhD in physics soon but I have a phobia of public speaking. Even before being enrolled I am asked to make presentations (like giving an oral...

I couldn't find an appropriate area for this so I figured general was my best bet. My question, to be more specific than my header, is will visible tattoos affect me if I choose to pursue some type of research job in physics? I love tattoos and Physics but I don't want to ruin my chances of my...

I'm specifically creating this topic out of concern for career prospects so I'm putting this under the career section. I'm at the stage where I have had my starting job for almost six months since leaving my graduate studies with a M.S in Biomedical Engineering where I'm performing a basic...

Hello, I'm in a bit of a dilemma and was wondering if I could get some advice on what I should do. So, I recently applied to graduate school and got rejected from every school I applied to. The reason was due to my unpreparedness and lack of confidence which seeped into my essays. I realize now...

Hey guys, Basically, my heart is set on studying mathematics at the doctoral level and I am trying to figure out what I need to do to get there/what tier of schools I realistically could be a competitive applicant for. I'm an Electrical Engineer from a state university that graduated with a...

I am wondering if anyone has an idea of what typical acceptance rates to top nuclear engineering phd programs (e.g. MIT, Berkeley, U Wisconsin-Madison) are. I have looked and it seems that none of the departments release any numbers. If no one has any idea, does anyone have a perspective for...

Hello all, I am a little confused at this stage of my life about what to do. To give a background, I have a PhD in EE with specialization in wireless communication from a Canadian university. Soon after I finished my PhD I was hired as a postdoc for almost 18 months. Since I finished my first...

I had read a few helpful forums on the pros and cons of going for a masters vs. phd in nuclear engineering. However, I am still confused about one thing. I am considering pursuing a career in reactor design (fission or fusion, will likely make another post to discuss this). Here are my...

Hi all, I have been accepted to a few schools for nuclear engineering (masters and phd programs) and wanted an opinion on which school has the best groups for nuclear materials research? I have been accepted into the following programs: University of Michigan Texas A&M University Berkeley...

It affects job prospects these days I would have though though it'd have a much less impact on phd prospects? Can it make someone reject you? thanks

I'm an international student currently at the end of my penultimate year in Msci Theoretical Physics in UK and am considering applying to US graduate programs that do high energy gravitational theories, in particular black hole thermodynamics. Both UCSB and UMD seem to be good choices...

Hello everyone, I am looking for advice from those who have experience with PhD going into industry. I am currently in the process of deciding on an aerospace engineering program. I have been accepted into a known university and also "accepted" into another lesser known school, I put accepted...

Hi everyone. I wanted to pose this question to those who are currently working as mathematicians (faculty members or postdocs, or those who finished their PhD and are working in industry), or current PhD students in math. Did you double major in mathematics and physics in your undergraduate...

Sorry guys going to be a long post. I joined the military right out of high school and was in Iraq about 7 months after graduation. This was in 2007, I suffered 3 Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) and the military was not screening or concerned about the affects at this time. After I returned...

Hi everyone, I'm currently doing an MSc in Carbon Management at the University of Edinburgh, and have decided that I enjoy the geophysics aspects (renewable energies, etc.) more than the economics/policy aspects in which I have undergraduate experience. Given this, I'd like to pursue a PhD in...

Hi All, Please bear with me, you can skip to the LSS (Long Story Short) line if you do not want to go through the wall of text. But the complete story carries important information regarding my demise :). After a painful 7 years, I managed to obtain my PhD in Physics. My Thesis and...

I recently completed my honours degree in Australia (4-year undergraduate with a year-long thesis and some grad-level subjects such as first courses in algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, GR, QFT and integrable systems) and am struggling to figure out what the best option for graduate study...

Is it possible to get a PhD degree if you publish a good paper ? And if so , what are the terms of the quality of that paper(s) ?

Does anyone know of any?I didn't find one which makes me think they don't ever get filmed.

Hey, I'm looking for a bit of advice with regards to applying for a PhD program in Europe. As a bit of background: I graduated from Durham University in 2013 with a 1st class MPhys in Theoretical Physics. My thesis (which contributed to half of the grading in the 4th, masters year) was focused...