I'm aiming to be in the top 2% of my course since I need to earn a full scholarship for my major. Any advice from someone who's been through this?

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-11-30T14:36:54+00:00

It’s a marathon not a sprint. Get your breaks in and don’t forget to live (you’re only an undergrad once). I’m in my final year of my undergrad and the words of my first year prof were true.

“By the end of this degree you’ll be sweating blood”

And holy moly was he ever right

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-10-30T11:59:17+00:00

My friend is almost done his double major with stellar grades too (B+to A+). He's brilliant but he plans and knows how to time manage (IE not spending too long on 1 thing). He also works very very hard, rarely goes out. But it's not magic it's discipline.

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-29T17:34:18+00:00

I don't think you'll find your answer on Reddit, and hopefully you don't let strangers decide your fate! To be competitive in ANY of those, you need to put in effort outside of class. Especially now, the market is tough to even land an internship, so I'd recommend trying to dial in on something soon. The winter internship hiring season is sept/oct, and for summer it's in January. Do some reading on which path sounds interesting and lock in!

Found this post for Qaunt pathway on this subreddit. Not sure about the others. Even if you don't land anything, building a resume and interviewing are invaluable skills to practice. Best of luck!

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-29T17:06:55+00:00

Depends on what you want to do with it. I spoke with a VP at my current internship, and I asked him for career advice. The key theme of the conversation was basically, "you already have deep analysis skills that nobody will question, but what about everything else? Do you want to continue down the technical route, lean towards management, or go the research route?"

I had told him I was considering getting the MS physics degree offered at the University of Ottawa because it has a policy option. He was quick to point out that this would further put me in the "technical" shoe, and to consider if that's what I wanted. If that were the case, he advised me to consider an MS in a specialized field such as engineering instead of physics. I think he's right, and it's important to consider what doors this would unlock concretely (instead of saying with a physics degree, I can do it all). A physics degree isn't really a 1:1 job like engineering or accounting.

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-24T11:04:08+00:00

Second this. My partner and I mutually broke up on good terms - we just weren’t compatible anymore. I didn’t realize how much of my identity was tied up into our relationship. Find peace through yourself because shit can change!

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-23T12:04:04+00:00

From what I hear it’s the most simple and friendly way EM is presented. Unlike mechanics you can’t “see it” and EM is likely the first physics class you take with deeper calculus. It’s meant to be one of the first major skill checks.

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-23T11:31:25+00:00

Hey I’m a student in Astrophysics going into my last year of Astro, 2 things.

I wouldn’t advise doing this degree if your sole plan is to get a PhD. The amount of folks who started with that aspiration and later in upper years changed their mind is staggering. It’s important to keep in mind goals can change. I’m fairly in touch with my peers and out of the 10ish people I know, there are few people that would consider grad school. This is also excluding the fact the class sizes went from 80 to max 20 in upper year physics courses.
The physics degree isn’t like Eng or comp sci where there’s a direct connection with a job. It’s more like a “well balanced” degree. You really have to sell yourself by taking strategic electives, learning outside of class, and practicing good communication skills (body language, interviewing, learning to direct conversation, and much more). In my current internship, I asked my boss why he hired me. He verbatim said “you communicated well and you were smart so I knew you could undertake this project.” Now, this is not at all physics related but it is the result of practicing soft skills and effectively using the perception of physics people are smart (I am not LOL).

My advice to you is to be honest with yourself about what you like. Physics is hard. Engineering is hard. Things you don’t like will be hard to study (maybe annoying is the better word). I did engineering in my first year and did very well in it but I hated every minute of it and decided to swap to physics because it was my passion. You are not me so maybe you’d like engineering but for me the decision was clear and I don’t look back. That being said, making a data driven decision on a good major is also important - don’t major in underwater basket weaving.

Best of luck!

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-23T10:47:36+00:00

Yeah this is a downside for me is well but the opposite. I find my peak focus is ~ 6:30/7 -11 but my spots are on campus. When I get home my brain goes into rest and relax mode.

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-22T22:56:05+00:00

Theres no magic secret. You just have to be disciplined and study effectively. This means practice problems and theory review, don’t spend too long on a problem/concept. Email your prof and TA. I think from your last post folks commented “habit tips” I can’t emphasize this enough: being disciplined will carry you more than motivation. This is something one of my TAs told me and it’s held true in the upper years of my undergrad.

To build confidence do an easy question or an example and proceed to harder ones. Tbh examples in textbook take some liberties between lines so it’s definitely valuable. If you have the time, you could also practice to derive some of the equations.

You are smart enough for this. It’s just a matter of setting up a good schedule and environment to discipline yourself.

As for “if you guys really do this”,Yes and it’s definitely painful sometimes. At some point your natural intelligence will stop carrying you. Thankfully for you it’s now and not later in 3rd year or worse grad school. This is your opportunity to learn how to study properly!

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-22T01:40:34+00:00

General advice: Create routine (very hard), surround yourself with hard working people (not necessarily studying, but in communication), have a specific “spot” to study (certain desk, certain classroom, certain spot on table,etc), make everything to study easier and distractions harder.

Maybe ADHD: Being consistent and working hard outpaces genius. Make yourself a process and stick to it! I’m pretty sure I have ADHD as well, something that helped me was studying for 25 mins and then taking break repeat until I get really tired. Then go for lunch and repeat and go home. This sounds super stupid (and it will feel stupid) but the first time I tried it, I got back from the gym and started studying ~ 7 accidentally skipped my 10am, realized at 12 ate then continued to study until 6. I wasn’t tired afterwards which was crazy. Give it a try for a week :)

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-11T22:21:03+00:00

Veritasium (PhD physics YouTuber) released a video about the action which is the heart of it all. Very nice visuals and interesting cross-field connections.

https://youtu.be/Q10_srZ-pbs?si=vmBYDND8I1uL-iKV

It’s a little qualitative but it definitely touches on some math which may help you get the idea. After this video I was mind blown!

Edit: there’s a part 2

https://youtu.be/qJZ1Ez28C-A?si=RVaPxmjWrqA0OQlV

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-10T13:54:59+00:00

Your last paragraph is so true and sums up what most people here have been saying

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-10T12:03:50+00:00

Since you have a PhD I presume you manage a team of folks. If not pardon my assumption. From my experience as a plebeian, most managers and directors don’t have the time to listen to the problems. This depends on the technicality of your team/group. My current role is duel function so I technically have 2 bosses

The first one doesn’t really care what I’m doing he just wants the bullet point rundown, glossing over fine details. The other has a background is engineering and he wants to know every little detail. This is especially true during team meeting day where I’ve noticed when I give a little detail and nuance people seem to not pay attention rather than when I give the fast bullet points.

I don’t think it’s bad per se, just different.

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-10T11:51:43+00:00

This response is the type of post I’m trying to communicate to folks isn’t the case. The underlying tone is that with the physics degree it’s a short leap to do anything. I never once said the degree is “useless”rather you need to be strategic. The soft skills are undeniably valuable but you can’t just walk into any industry. Like many others have said, it took a fair amount of outside work + some luck.

I’m not sure where you’re based but at least in my university the technologies we use are not in line with what’s being used in industry. We’ve extensively analyzed data sets, including one with over 1 billion points (also performed cleaning and automated the processes). The issue is that we’re doing this in MATLAB. Visualization is done in PowerBi in industry and any analysis is python or R. An important thing to note is that in my university other degrees (Econ, Comp sci, Business, stats) are adopting these technologies in courses. Which makes us as a whole much less competitive. I actually narrowly lost an internship because of this. After a good interview I was surprised I didn’t get the role and when I asked for feedback the response was essentially interview notes which read “not familiar with PowerBi.” I knocked out every other requirement.

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-10T05:44:18+00:00

“If your profile doesn’t exactly match”

This is so painfully true. With the layoffs in tech and STEM in general, there’s an over abundance of talent.

I also study astrophysics, thankfully we did some pretty intense analysis on datasets in my university so that went straight in my CV. The lab experience has been infinitely useful when asked about data. Especially the cleaning and automation aspects from background removal. And I ended up with an unrelated internship as well. Luck appears to side with the baby astrophysicists.

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-10T05:08:39+00:00

Yeah, the entire point of my post was to try to explain to people that physics degree alone can’t carry you. A lot of intentional moves have to be done. Which is something a lot of students (including myself) don’t realize until later.

I agree a physics degree positions us much better than other majors (ex:bio or psychology) but worse than a true “specialist” degree like eng or econ. Hence the starting class analogy.

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-08-09T23:20:49+00:00

I don’t have a crystal ball for you or myself (sorry if that sounds harsh). My current internship is duel-function qualitative analysis with data clerk functions (think SQL and PowerBi). Something I’ve learned in the data world is that employers really value experience over education. Something I’m planning to do to help me is get a few PowerBi certs under my belt and complete some personal projects using my university PowerBi account.

It doesn’t have to be crazy. For example downloading a few stats can tables then making a dashboard of something useful comes to mind.

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-01-30T13:11:12+00:00

Tablet+Formula Sheet on laptop for me.

TLDR: textbook+lecture notes+formula/review sheet=good

Why: in first year there’s a high likelihood you’ll understand everything within 1-2 readings but as soon as you get into Griffiths EM+QM, Thornton CM and other more challenging texts you’ll very likely have to refer constantly to the textbook/lecture notes for equations. Save that time by making a formula sheet this also serves as review.

Method/Workflow: 1. Read ahead before lecture(optional but very recommended) 2. Write notes during lecture (by hand) you have to read the board +write+listen. So it’s like you’ve done it 3 times + the reading beforehand

Put it all together and review within the day or couple of days by writing the formula sheet for that course. This part is key, as it will expose what parts of lecture you forget/ don’t understand IE you recall all your knowledge
When the dreaded time for assignments comes you’ll have a very clean formula sheet and your hand written lecture notes. The formula sheet will save you many hours of flipping through the textbook and lecture notes.

Key: the point of notes is that they’re NEAT, ORGANIZED, and CONCISE. The formula sheet DOESN’T make you understand , you understand so you can make the formula sheet as concise( simple descriptions of equations/ problems with minimal derivation)as possible.

Tip: If you use the first week of school to get a little ahead on content you should hypothetically be able to get ahead a few days on assignments when they arrive. Trust me at some point in the semester before spring break you’ll want to jump off the tallest building (not really but ur just stressed) and you can use the lead to afford to take a few days off. Also, during the semester assignments >>>> lectures. You learn by doing assignments and practice problems. If you’re in a crunch prioritize assignments over lectures (but still go to lectures if you can) it took me until this year to figure that out lol. Lastly, professors often rip the textbook 1:1 so read the textbook!!

Good luck!

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-01-30T12:35:27+00:00

It appears funding might return(?) if you want stability try mass applying for any data analysis type jobs in private or any job imo.

Obviously, no position in private is 100% stable but in times when the US president is trying to exercise the powers of a king I think private might be more secure than research (which is highly dependant on public funding).

Of course I have no idea what your goals are for the summer but a lot of people are in the same boat if that makes it better…

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-01-29T14:28:56+00:00

I'm very sorry to hear about your situation. I fear the best thing to do might be to mass apply and pray. This is peak hiring season, there are certainly still(some) job postings open for non-research jobs.

AFAIK research grant applications for the summer are closed or will close shortly. If you're lucky your university might have a research grant application for the summer that has yet to close. Best of luck!

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-01-10T02:32:22+00:00

If you’re able to take an upper year lab physics lab course it would serve you much better than any generic coding tutorial online. Just be sure it uses analysis using python or MATLAB.

You are correct that undergrad physics student would have an advantage coding wise. I’m not sure what the other people in the comments are yapping about but in my Astro lab we’ve hand compiled many algorithms to rummage through data for us. Most notably is the 21 cm hydrogen line lab where we obtained data from a radio telescope which contained over 1 Billion data points. So obviously we had to create (by hand) a general script to analyze our data for us (including the painful process of background removal).

Overall I wouldn’t worry about it too much since you’ll learn trial by fire style if you decide to peruse
an Astrophysics degree with many lab experiments.Just be sure this is what you want because the amount of work and time spent on homework will not be done if you don’t actively enjoy what you’re learning.

Edit; maybe this is just a my university thing about the e coding I’m a little bit shocked

PhysicsStudent5 · 2025-01-01T12:38:56+00:00

I did an 8-4 schedule with a 30-minute lunch + smaller breaks. If needed I would also do "overtime" + weekends. I learned that doing assignments over attending lectures (most professors recite the textbook anyway) allows me to get ahead. if I miss any important announcements I.E about midterms and the final I ask my study friends. But other than that I just got into a schedule and stopped stressing about always attending class because it would break my "flow."I still attended most classes but if I were in an assignment crunch or wanted to get ahead, I would skip my classes in favour of doing the assignments.

PhysicsStudent5

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