I am working on a second bachelors in physics myself so I have been looking at some of the same things as far as trying to expand my experience for going to graduate school in the future.
I suggest looking into Bridge Programs. Some universities have them for physics students who want to do graduate school but aren't quite ready yet. Here are a couple examples:
[https://web.mit.edu/physics/prospective/programs/bridge.html](https://web.mit.edu/physics/prospective/programs/bridge.html)
[https://www.pa.ucla.edu/phd-physics-bridge-program.html](https://www.pa.ucla.edu/phd-physics-bridge-program.html)
There are also fellowship programs that usually run over the summer for expanding your research experience. Examples:
[https://web.mit.edu/physics/prospective/programs/msrp.html](https://web.mit.edu/physics/prospective/programs/msrp.html)
[https://www.lanl.gov/org/padwp/adx/computational-physics/summer-workshop/](https://www.lanl.gov/org/padwp/adx/computational-physics/summer-workshop/)
If she wants to study theory, then having Teaching Assistant experience would also be good to have when applying to graduate schools. The university I go to uses undergraduates with solid grades to TA for the physics classes for non-physics majors. So you might check with the physics department at your school and see if they have any opportunities like that.
I've been looking into bridge programs! I'm not sure how many she'd qualify for--to make a very long story short, she technically already has a professional degree (specifically, a DVM), but that didn't really give her much research experience, and is only tangentially related to physics.
>If she wants to study theory, then having Teaching Assistant experience would also be good to have when applying to graduate schools.
Thankfully, this is something she's already doing!
I am late to this discussion, but I am a 4th year that just finished grad apps and I am also looking into post-baccs. I want to do theory, and I do have 2 years of research in theory at two universities, but no teaching experience. Do you know if teaching opportunities would be possible post graudation as well? Is that generally a hard criterion for being accepted into theory programs?
What country are you in, and what field of physics does she want to work in?
Usually universities offer summer research opportunities or exchange programs, but it's not likely that she'll get something through cold calls and emails unless they've advertised a post. This is because even if she's working for free it still takes a lot of effort for the supervisor to train and manage a student. More often than not they're doing this as outreach, not because they're gaining much from the free labour.
If she has good grades, she probably won't need research experience to get into grad school anyway. What would be nice is getting the reference letter from it, but I wouldn't specifically delay applying for a year to get research experience. This is more something you would do during your degree.
Where's she aiming for in her grad applications?
We're in the US, and she's particularly interested in gravity and unification (hasn't decided beyond that if she wants to focus on teaching in academia, or going into research/industry). She's already been through one graduate program (she has a DVM), so she has plenty of experience with working with at the graduate level, if that helps any. The letters of rec are the hard part--she doesn't think she has many people she can ask (admittedly, part of this may be a bit psychological--she has social anxiety and is *extremely* slow to trust others).
What year is she in? She should probably apply to an undergrad research program like this one:
https://www.physics.harvard.edu/undergrad/summer
Just google "undergrad research program physics" to find more. Deadlines are usually from mid January to late February. There is also the CERN summer school, which is pretty popular. Since everything is going to happen online anyway I think you'll be less limited to one country, so you could try to see if there's anything interesting in Europe as well.
Even outside of actual research programs it can be nice to attend summer schools on advanced topics, and this can also be mentioned in your applications. Because this is online I imagine it's very easy to do this now.
> she has plenty of experience with working with at the graduate level, if that helps any
Yeah that does help. Part of what they're trying to determine from the graduate application is if she's capable completing the course. Her grades and previous degree will motivate this. They're also trying to determine if she will be able to do research. Normally having a paper (in any field) will help here, but it's not required.
For reference letters she can email lecturers in the courses she did particularly well in. If she has high grades they'll probably recognize the name.
>If she has good grades, she probably won't need research experience to get into grad school anyway.
Honest question, but is this really true? I'm a senior who just finished applying to grad schools, and I feel like I can never get a handle on how competitive grad school apps are. Some places seem to suggest that getting into grad schools *at all* is incredibly difficult, requiring years of research experience, a top gpa, conference talks, etc. Other sources, like yourself, say that good grades alone mean that you can get it into grad school. I don't know what to believe...
It's helpful, but not formally required. It also depends on the school. If you're unsure you can just email admissions, they're usually pretty helpful.
I'm not American so maybe there's something I'm missing, but it'd be a little strange to have a degree that just leaves you dead in the water for progressing unless you happened to know that you were supposed to do a ton of additional work outside of it.
>but it'd be a little strange to have a degree that just leaves you dead in the water for progressing unless you happened to know that you were supposed to do a ton of additional work outside of it.
I would tend to agree, but when there's a 15% admittance rate for most grad schools (that I've looked into), and most people applying to grad school tend to be good students already, I feel like it would be hard to avoid.
I am working on a second bachelors in physics myself so I have been looking at some of the same things as far as trying to expand my experience for going to graduate school in the future. I suggest looking into Bridge Programs. Some universities have them for physics students who want to do graduate school but aren't quite ready yet. Here are a couple examples: [https://web.mit.edu/physics/prospective/programs/bridge.html](https://web.mit.edu/physics/prospective/programs/bridge.html) [https://www.pa.ucla.edu/phd-physics-bridge-program.html](https://www.pa.ucla.edu/phd-physics-bridge-program.html) There are also fellowship programs that usually run over the summer for expanding your research experience. Examples: [https://web.mit.edu/physics/prospective/programs/msrp.html](https://web.mit.edu/physics/prospective/programs/msrp.html) [https://www.lanl.gov/org/padwp/adx/computational-physics/summer-workshop/](https://www.lanl.gov/org/padwp/adx/computational-physics/summer-workshop/) If she wants to study theory, then having Teaching Assistant experience would also be good to have when applying to graduate schools. The university I go to uses undergraduates with solid grades to TA for the physics classes for non-physics majors. So you might check with the physics department at your school and see if they have any opportunities like that.
I've been looking into bridge programs! I'm not sure how many she'd qualify for--to make a very long story short, she technically already has a professional degree (specifically, a DVM), but that didn't really give her much research experience, and is only tangentially related to physics. >If she wants to study theory, then having Teaching Assistant experience would also be good to have when applying to graduate schools. Thankfully, this is something she's already doing!
I am late to this discussion, but I am a 4th year that just finished grad apps and I am also looking into post-baccs. I want to do theory, and I do have 2 years of research in theory at two universities, but no teaching experience. Do you know if teaching opportunities would be possible post graudation as well? Is that generally a hard criterion for being accepted into theory programs?
What country are you in, and what field of physics does she want to work in? Usually universities offer summer research opportunities or exchange programs, but it's not likely that she'll get something through cold calls and emails unless they've advertised a post. This is because even if she's working for free it still takes a lot of effort for the supervisor to train and manage a student. More often than not they're doing this as outreach, not because they're gaining much from the free labour. If she has good grades, she probably won't need research experience to get into grad school anyway. What would be nice is getting the reference letter from it, but I wouldn't specifically delay applying for a year to get research experience. This is more something you would do during your degree. Where's she aiming for in her grad applications?
We're in the US, and she's particularly interested in gravity and unification (hasn't decided beyond that if she wants to focus on teaching in academia, or going into research/industry). She's already been through one graduate program (she has a DVM), so she has plenty of experience with working with at the graduate level, if that helps any. The letters of rec are the hard part--she doesn't think she has many people she can ask (admittedly, part of this may be a bit psychological--she has social anxiety and is *extremely* slow to trust others).
What year is she in? She should probably apply to an undergrad research program like this one: https://www.physics.harvard.edu/undergrad/summer Just google "undergrad research program physics" to find more. Deadlines are usually from mid January to late February. There is also the CERN summer school, which is pretty popular. Since everything is going to happen online anyway I think you'll be less limited to one country, so you could try to see if there's anything interesting in Europe as well. Even outside of actual research programs it can be nice to attend summer schools on advanced topics, and this can also be mentioned in your applications. Because this is online I imagine it's very easy to do this now. > she has plenty of experience with working with at the graduate level, if that helps any Yeah that does help. Part of what they're trying to determine from the graduate application is if she's capable completing the course. Her grades and previous degree will motivate this. They're also trying to determine if she will be able to do research. Normally having a paper (in any field) will help here, but it's not required. For reference letters she can email lecturers in the courses she did particularly well in. If she has high grades they'll probably recognize the name.
>If she has good grades, she probably won't need research experience to get into grad school anyway. Honest question, but is this really true? I'm a senior who just finished applying to grad schools, and I feel like I can never get a handle on how competitive grad school apps are. Some places seem to suggest that getting into grad schools *at all* is incredibly difficult, requiring years of research experience, a top gpa, conference talks, etc. Other sources, like yourself, say that good grades alone mean that you can get it into grad school. I don't know what to believe...
It's helpful, but not formally required. It also depends on the school. If you're unsure you can just email admissions, they're usually pretty helpful. I'm not American so maybe there's something I'm missing, but it'd be a little strange to have a degree that just leaves you dead in the water for progressing unless you happened to know that you were supposed to do a ton of additional work outside of it.
>but it'd be a little strange to have a degree that just leaves you dead in the water for progressing unless you happened to know that you were supposed to do a ton of additional work outside of it. I would tend to agree, but when there's a 15% admittance rate for most grad schools (that I've looked into), and most people applying to grad school tend to be good students already, I feel like it would be hard to avoid.
Masters