PREPARATION FOR GRADUATE STUDY IN PHYSICS

Listing of Graduate Programs in Physics (maintained by Duke University)

The Haverford physics curriculum is designed to be flexible in order to serve students with diverse career interests. As such, it should be considered to be at most a minimal preparation for graduate work in physics per se. For those students considering graduate school in physics, and we hasten to add that there are many satisfying careers in which you can make use of your physics education without pursuing graduate study, the following additional course work would be strongly advantageous for two reasons:

The first year courses in most graduate programs are theoretically oriented and quite
demanding so that taking all 4 of the core junior courses (Advanced Classical, Stat. Mech., Advanced E&M and Advanced Quantum) is very important.
Most graduate schools expect applicants to have taken the Graduate Record Exams (GRE's) in
Physics and you will typically do so in the fall of your senior year. Being well prepared
for this exam involves taking as many of the relevant courses as possible and doing so
before or during that semester.

Grad-school-bound majors should plan to take the 4 core theoretical courses:

308 Advanced Classical Mechanics
303 Statistical Physics
309 Advanced Electricity and Magnetism
302 Advanced Quantum Mechanics

And, a least one of the two upper-level laboratory courses:

316 Electronic Instrumentation and Laboratory Computers
326 Advanced Physics Laboratory

And, a selection (at least one or two) of courses that pertain to active research areas:
304 Computational Physics
320 Biophysics
322 Solid State Physics (this one is especially important)
325 Topics in Theoretical Physics (for particle physics, offered at Bryn Mawr College)
various astrophysics courses.

In addition, the math requirement of 121 and 204 is minimal in the same sense that the physics course requirements are. For students who are contemplating advanced work in mathematics, 216b can replace 121, and 215a can replace 204b. For graduate school bound students the following courses are very important (both Haverford and Bryn Mawr numbers are given):

Linear algebra H215, B203
Complex variables H220, B322 and if time permits and you have the aptitude:
Algebra and group theory H333, B303 (one semester may be adequate)
Real analysis H317/318, B301/302

Research participation is also often of interest to graduate admission committees and has the additional advantage of giving you some idea of what a career in physics research might be like.

A final admonition...Do not forget the interesting education opportunities in other Haverford departments and keep in mind the "rule of 19". At Haverford, students are generally required to take at least 19 courses outside their major (with certain exceptions, e.g., those with two majors).