3 answers
Jon
Student
Rochester, New York
1
Question
Updated
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What are good things to consider for graduate school if I want to be a research physicist
I am a Junior at RIT, and I want to be a research physicist, but I'm not sure what are some good things to consider when thinking about graduate school. How important is it that I know what I want my career to be right now? Is it ok to switch programs mid-way through?
#college #science #graduateschool#physics
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3 answers
Charles Bosse
Exhibit technician
6
Answers
Seattle, Washington
Updated
Charles’s Answer
The above is great advice but I think it's worth adding a few things. First, you should do your best to find a research internship (REU or similar) with a program you are interested in. This will get you a chance to see both what is on offer for specialties you might enjoy and give you a chance to hopefully interact with a specific program you are currently interested in, and force you to go through some lower stakes applications that will be good practice. If you can't get a research internship this late or because of covid, you can look into industry internships.
Second, I think you should do some job searching: get yourself set up to apply for jobs you specifically want, and you might realize that they want particular programs or experience, and you can plan ahead to set yourself up for that.
It feels like a lot of work now, but putting in that effort can give you some real world guidance that can help direct you later.
Get a research internship
Look at job requirements for desired jobs
Get industry internships
Second, I think you should do some job searching: get yourself set up to apply for jobs you specifically want, and you might realize that they want particular programs or experience, and you can plan ahead to set yourself up for that.
It feels like a lot of work now, but putting in that effort can give you some real world guidance that can help direct you later.
Charles recommends the following next steps:
Jennifer Haden
Higher Education Consultant
123
Answers
Dallas, Texas
Updated
Jennifer’s Answer
Hi, Jon!
Much like the process for undergraduates, the process for determining which graduate school is right for you comes down to four factors: academic, social, career, and financial aspects. The best fit can be determined given your list of wants in your graduate school experience and how those wants are prioritized.
With graduate school, however, you should be more clear about your wants and what you hope to gain from the experience. Unlike considering colleges for undergrad where you might be undecided, graduate school isn't a great place overall to vacillate wildly between degree programs. Although it's not unheard of to change programs in graduate school, it's frowned upon. Considering all the work that you'll do to get into the graduate school and department, you should take the time now to do your homework/research on jobs and careers. You don't have to know exactly what you want to do as your life's defining work, but you should definitely have a clear vision about what you want to study before entering graduate school.
My suggestion would be to spend some time with the career services center on campus, talk to your major advisor or a mentoring professor, and/or talk to professionals in the various fields that you're interested in to gain more insight into their experiences (such as how did they get to where they are?). You can also do some additional research in the Occupational Outlook Handbook (https://www.bls.gov/ooh/) which is an excellent resource for all things related to potential jobs and, consequently, careers. For example, here is the link to the information related to physicists: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/physicists-and-astronomers.htm.
Utilize the resources around you, and hopefully you'll hear from additional people here, in the CareerVillage forum, that can give you additional insight. Gather that information and refer back to your original list of prioritized wants. The path will slowly come more into focus for you. I commend you now, however, that you're starting to think about your future and taking the right steps towards pursuing your passions. Please don't hesitate to ask additional and/or follow up questions. I'm happy to expand on my answer or provide more information.
I wish you all the best on your educational journey! It sounds like you have an interesting road ahead of you.
Much like the process for undergraduates, the process for determining which graduate school is right for you comes down to four factors: academic, social, career, and financial aspects. The best fit can be determined given your list of wants in your graduate school experience and how those wants are prioritized.
With graduate school, however, you should be more clear about your wants and what you hope to gain from the experience. Unlike considering colleges for undergrad where you might be undecided, graduate school isn't a great place overall to vacillate wildly between degree programs. Although it's not unheard of to change programs in graduate school, it's frowned upon. Considering all the work that you'll do to get into the graduate school and department, you should take the time now to do your homework/research on jobs and careers. You don't have to know exactly what you want to do as your life's defining work, but you should definitely have a clear vision about what you want to study before entering graduate school.
My suggestion would be to spend some time with the career services center on campus, talk to your major advisor or a mentoring professor, and/or talk to professionals in the various fields that you're interested in to gain more insight into their experiences (such as how did they get to where they are?). You can also do some additional research in the Occupational Outlook Handbook (https://www.bls.gov/ooh/) which is an excellent resource for all things related to potential jobs and, consequently, careers. For example, here is the link to the information related to physicists: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/physicists-and-astronomers.htm.
Utilize the resources around you, and hopefully you'll hear from additional people here, in the CareerVillage forum, that can give you additional insight. Gather that information and refer back to your original list of prioritized wants. The path will slowly come more into focus for you. I commend you now, however, that you're starting to think about your future and taking the right steps towards pursuing your passions. Please don't hesitate to ask additional and/or follow up questions. I'm happy to expand on my answer or provide more information.
I wish you all the best on your educational journey! It sounds like you have an interesting road ahead of you.
Jaymin Shah
Scientist in Pharma Research and Development
10
Answers
Groton, Connecticut
Updated
Jaymin’s Answer
Jared, This is great that you are asking these questions now while you are a junior since if you would like to go to graduate school, you may need to take GRE and apply next year. The way you want to consider graduate school is: Do you like more in-depth research in a narrow but challenging area of science in your field? You may spend long hours in the lab or in front of computer doing computational work, some times isolated but at times very fulfilling when you solve a difficult scientific problem. Also, road to PhD is long, anywhere from 4-6 years and do you have patience to slog through ups and downs? Intellectually graduate school would be very satisfying and when you graduate, you can have a variety of choices as an academic or research in an R & D based companies.
One way to assess if you would enjoy graduate school is to do research internship in a company and see if you like research, and also talk to scientist/engineers and found out what they like in their job and career? You may want to talk to faculty in your college and get their advise too.
Changing fields in graduate school mid-stream is difficult, particularly after 1 year as you will have to repeat core courses and any time vested in research exploration may not be relevant to your new field. However in a big graduate program, you may have a choice of major advisors in various different research areas that you can try.
One way to assess if you would enjoy graduate school is to do research internship in a company and see if you like research, and also talk to scientist/engineers and found out what they like in their job and career? You may want to talk to faculty in your college and get their advise too.
Changing fields in graduate school mid-stream is difficult, particularly after 1 year as you will have to repeat core courses and any time vested in research exploration may not be relevant to your new field. However in a big graduate program, you may have a choice of major advisors in various different research areas that you can try.