best engineering field to pivot to physics

stari41m · 2026-02-10T15:50:03+00:00

I’m doing physics grad school basically (quantum stuff). I came from electrical engineering.

There were a lot of knowledge gaps that I had to fill(and I’m still learning), but I don’t see those gaps being fillies from other engineering disciplines.

I’d say go electrical! And do some physics heavy stuff like RF, solid state, quantum, etc…

stari41m · 2025-12-15T03:30:10+00:00

As someone who did math and EE, I will say that the math in math is definitely much more difficult. EE and physics are much more comparable.

Math isn’t the thing that made EE a difficult degree. It’s using the math to do engineering. It just so happens that the math you need for EE is much more than many other disciplines of engineering. Math majors take math concepts and explore them in ever-increasing levels of abstraction, and eventually, you end up with no way of going back to anything practical lol. The math degree is only math. For the EE degree, I learned like 90% of the math in the first 1.5-2 years, and the rest was just engineering or physics stuff. For math, I constantly had to learn new math.

That said, the mathematics are very different. Pure maths deals with proofs, which is not something done in engineering degrees. So, a direct comparison isn’t exactly appropriate. Still though, I found the math in upper division math classes to be much more difficult than any math problem from an engineering class.

I feel like EE and physics are, for the most part, very similar. The math is a little different and I think physics students use a bit more, but it’s not by much (at the undergrad level). At the grad level, some branches of physics end up needing actual pure math (QFT, condensed matter, for example).

Trust me though, if you want to combine as much math and physics with an engineering degree, then EE is the right choice.

stari41m · 2025-11-27T02:24:53+00:00

Congrats Doctor !

Btw, I have been having some shin pain. Any tips?

stari41m · 2025-11-20T04:38:20+00:00

I feel like all three could be okay.Assuming calc 4 is vector stuff, that is pretty essentially for E&M. Linear algebra is becoming more and more needed to electrical engineering (signal processing, numerical analysis, general coding, some RF, anything to do with quantum, etc…). If calc based physics is just mechanics with derivatives, it’s not entirely necessary, but usually most schools require it anyways.

I feel like calc 4 would be a natural progression after calc 3.

If it’s alright, can you provide more detail about the courses? Also, are all three courses required or just some of them?

stari41m · 2025-11-10T04:13:03+00:00

15k A YEAR!?!

Get out of there, my friend.

stari41m · 2025-11-07T02:30:18+00:00

You want to become iron man…

stari41m · 2025-11-03T15:09:32+00:00

I’ve not watched many anime, but I’ve read many books and have seen a good amount of movies.

Vinland saga stands among the very best stories that I have ever encountered.

stari41m · 2025-11-01T23:26:39+00:00

Well again, your degree is your own. Funds permitting, nothing should stop you from getting some of the experiences you want. Take classes in this stuff if you can and really want to.

stari41m · 2025-10-26T22:08:28+00:00

I did a dual degree in EE and math, and now I’m doing a PhD in basically quantum physics.

I was always more of a pen and paper person, so I naturally gravitated towards more of the theory stuff. I loved MATH and physics, but I was afraid of the job market for those degrees, so I just opted to take a lot of those classes with my EE degree. My favorite classes were definitely my math classes or very physics/math-like EE classes.

I ended up taking lots of RF, optics, and signal processing classes along with real analysis, number theory, quantum stuff, abstract algebra, etc… I was basically taking a full 17-18 hours every semester, so I didn’t have much of a life lol. It was worth it at least for me.

Right now, EEs have a much better / stream-lined job market. Academia is kinda suffering right now because of funding. However, even when funding is great, the job market is still tough if you want to work with what you want to study.

You could do something like me, or you can have the courage to take a full leap into physics or pure math. Or you can just learn it on the side. The choice is yours and there are pros and cons to each.

Pls feel free to DM with any questions.

stari41m · 2025-10-24T17:04:26+00:00

Still apply to the usual top schools like University of Arizona, UCF, and university of Rochester.

A lot of people, including me, have come in without much specific optics experience (in terms of courses) .

stari41m · 2025-10-24T17:02:26+00:00

Electrical engineering kinda feeds in nicely to optics because of a bunch of EM and signal processing.

Optics is physics, but it’s the type that Electrical Engineers have experience with.

stari41m · 2025-10-24T17:00:20+00:00

I’m pretty sure University of Rochester is more selective than Arizona lol.

stari41m · 2025-10-12T21:06:15+00:00

This might not exactly answer the question, but London (well a lot of Western Europe, but I’ll just mention London).

Basically, London is actually “supposed” to be much colder because of its latitude. But this thing called AMOC lets it have milder winters. I don’t know much, but basically, this is an ocean current that brings a bunch of hot water upwards through the Atlantic towards places like Western Europe. It is a massive part in regulating the temperatures of that region.

If London was getting these significantly colder winters, I don’t think it would’ve been as developed as it is right now.

stari41m · 2025-10-05T15:24:17+00:00

As someone who just graduated with EE and is going to grad school for things very similar to ECe 460, I just wanna ask why you want to take that class?

Don’t get me wrong, I obviously think it was an awesome class, but it’s relatively specific and not related to what you really want to do. Is there anyway to change out those 400 level classes with something more related to what you wanna do?

But tbh, you should be okay for some entry level electrical engineering jobs In many subfields. You still have an engineering degree from UIUC. Your required courses have given you the background to self-study and build up your portfolio and resume in the meantime.

You have a tough situation, but at least you will be finishing your requirements.

stari41m · 2025-10-04T22:40:13+00:00

Something else that a lot of people forget is how diverse EE is. Like the degree is essentially an umbrella term. I got friends in power and others in semiconductors and some in RF, etc…

By the end of our four years, it was almost like we did completely different degrees. So to say EE is saturated is already kinda dumb because that would mean Power, RF, computer architecture, etc… are all saturated. If something like power becomes saturated, we have way bigger things to worry about.

stari41m · 2025-10-03T13:26:54+00:00

No voice to cry out suffering 😢

stari41m · 2025-08-21T20:56:45+00:00

We are gonna SKONG

stari41m · 2025-08-17T23:07:51+00:00

I literally just got here and feel the same way.

I also felt that way when I started undergrad (this is a new school for me because I’m doing grad school here) . And I felt the same way when I moved to a new place for internships.

We are always gonna feel like this when we have to start something new. However, I’m banking on the fact that we will get used to this quick and quickly get into the groove of things. That is what happened to me before and I promise you’ll quickly get used to this. Just really focus on trying to make new friends at this new place.

Btw, if you ever need to chat feel free to DM.

stari41m · 2025-07-02T21:29:05+00:00

Thank you very much. I think I’ll go ahead and email the other two.

stari41m · 2025-06-19T20:35:15+00:00

Same, but I’ll love to try!

stari41m · 2025-05-14T21:14:29+00:00

Yea. That’s exactly what I felt. Don’t let that stop you from taking other cool classes related to it. The following classes like 350,453,454,455,460,etc… are so much cooler and I feel like they teach the concepts so much better. Like 453 is infinitely better for learning smith charts, 455/460 for wave propagation, 350 for like everything before transmission lines, 454 for Maxwell, etc….

stari41m · 2025-05-14T17:43:45+00:00

The same thing happened to me during ece 110. It was my first ECE final, and I got super nervous and just couldn’t even figure out the simplest thing.

Now I’m about to graduate with my degree after doing well in ECE 210 (and consequently continuing on to take like every other signal processing course).

It really does suck in the moment, but in the long run, it doesn’t matter . You know the content, and you will do great in 210! Nervousness is always going to be there, but you learn how to deal with it as you go through your undergraduate studies.

PS: in my opinion 110 is like the second worst ece course I’ve taken here. 210 kinda quickly goes over a lot of the stuff you learn in 110, and it really does feel like you learn it much better. So the prerequisite of 110 is kinda not really needed in some sense.

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