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Title says it all. How hard is it for an out of state applicant? Do you have to be way above the stats range to get in? Does your fin-aid package equate to very little? Can someone give me some incite?

my stats:
http://www.prstats.com/2009/display.php?user=ares153

By Kryptic (Kryptic) on Sunday, August 22, 2004 - 12:48 am: Edit

Yes, you have to be above the average line to get in as a non-resident. Whereas in-state acceptance rates are around 25%, out-of state rates are closer to 15%. As a non-resident, you also won't qualify for some state-sponsored aide packages. Obviously, federal aide (pell grants, loans, etc.) will be available, but may not cover your full out-of-state tuition.

I noticed you want to major in physics. I know this is a real downer, but I would **strongly** advice considering another major. Even with a PhD from a top university, getting a job in physics is almost totally impossible. My father-in-law is a physics professor out of MIT, and hardly any of his grad students can get jobs. (I also know top profs out of CalTech and other top schools, via the Aspen Phsyics Institute.) The field just isn't growing, and not enough existing professors are dieing off for new openings to become available.

It's also a field where, if you do not have the absolute raw horsepower of sheer genius, no amount of 'education' can really compensate. You have to be driven and brilliant, which you may be, and even that doesn't guarantee anything. Also unfortunately, your entire fruitful years of discovery will likely come and go by the time you're 30. It's outstandingly rare even for these brilliant individuals to produce anything significant past ~30-35. Such is the fate of most fields in the math and sciences, but especially physics.

In my own history of managing technology companies and engineering teams, about the only place I've seen physics PhDs getting employed is in entry-level software testing jobs. They are exposed to programming and technology via their degree, but not enough to really advance up the ranks well. Almost every Physics PhD I've met, outside of the few I know that teach (see above) dreadfully regret their decision to pursue a Physics degree.

Needless to say, although even a PhD is pretty worthless, anything less is absolutely worthless. About the only value it may have is as leverage for a non-physics graduate degree, perhaps medcine if your UG years also factor in some biology and organic chemistry.

I know this is horribly negative and pessimistic, but there are likely a lot of students who wish this information would have been pointed out to them years ago. Meet with a top professor at a top school, ask him frankly about these issues, if he's honest he'll look you square in the face and say it's true.

By Familyguy24 (Familyguy24) on Sunday, August 22, 2004 - 12:58 am: Edit

Wow that was a downer. I dont know though, I'm not pikcing that major so much for job marketability, more because its what I like to do and would like to major in. I will take your advice and ask professors and see what they have to say. I always assumed that I could get a job working for the gov. and while I am waiting for that pay off some bills with teaching. Maybe even write a book, that always appealed to me.

By Blee (Blee) on Sunday, August 22, 2004 - 03:30 am: Edit

The world always needs more physics teachers and professors. Remember that.

By Im_Blue (Im_Blue) on Sunday, August 22, 2004 - 07:27 am: Edit

Professors may not be in demand, but high school physics teachers surely are!