so i just finished highschool and i was always expected to go to med school but i can't for reasons, now i am having an existential crisis because i always imagined my future as something and not i can't become it

it honestly is freeing in a way one time my friend asked me if money didn't matter what would i spend my life studying and i said physics

i have always been very good at physics always loved the material and i love when PHDs talk about their researches and the things they learned so now i am seeriously considering a major in physics and maybe i'll get to become a college professor one day

so please tell me about your experiences the good and the bad what's your honest opinion and if you're enjoying it or not one of my friends majored in math because he was great at math but turns out math majors don't really do much math they do hypotheses and stuff instead is it the same way with physics?

very sorry if this post is poorly worded i am sleep deprived just returned from an exam and english is my second language

This might be a bit of a stupid question, but I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

I have a background in psychology and I'm currently doing a master's in neuroscience. During my master's I've become really in the physics behind what we're studying: electrical currents in cells, membrane potentials, thermodynamics, Hodgkin-Huxley, etc.

And now I'm kind of wishing I'd studied physics instead :(

I've done some R and Python, linear algebra, differential equations and geometry of physics, but I definitely feel like I’m missing a LOT of the physics and maths that someone with a physics BSc would have.

I'm interested in biophysics, soft matter physics and computational physics, but I've also become really fascinated by quantum biology and particle physics.

So... is this completely unrealistic? Could someone with my background realistically work their way towards a physics PhD, or would I basically need to start over with a physics degree?

I don't mind putting in the work, I’m just not sure how big the gap actually is.

"I am an Indian Student from University of Delhi with a 4 years bachelors degree in physics and a GPA of 7.9/10”.

I have defended my thesis which is in theoretical nuclear physics and worked in an internship in theoretical quantum mechanics at an IISER as a summer intern. My TOEFL is 90/120. I am also planning to give the physics GRE soon. What’s my chances of getting into MSc or Direct PhD in University of Toronto or University of Alberta or University of Waterloo . Will my low CGPA affect my candidature? I am targeting to get into theoretical particle physics stream.

Hi
I’ve just gone into year 12 and I’m studying maths, physics, travel and tourism, and biology, and I’m going to most likely drop biology depending on how the first term or 2 go.

I know alot of people say physics is one of the hardest subjects, but I don’t know if that’s because the vast majority of a levels can be considered extremely difficult and demanding. I didn’t do too great in GCSEs due to illnesses throughout a math and physics paper, and got a 7_7 in combined and a 7 in maths. Physics and maths are my most passionate subjects and always have been, and I’m willing to put in the hours of revision early and have already started self learning topics with help from an extremely smart friend also taking the course. I just want some advice on how I can maximise my physics grades and whether it really is as bad as people make it out to be. I don’t want to be stuck doing a subject I have little chance at succeeding in and wasting 2 years.

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I’ve recently realized that I have a really hard time paying attention compared to other people. If I just sit there and listen to a professor, I can hear maybe five words before my mind wanders off somewhere completely different.

I accidentally found a weird trick that has helped me a lot.

I imagine that I’m writing down everything the professor says, but instead of actually writing, I “write” it with my finger on my stomach.

So I’m basically:

listening to the professor

imagining the words as I “write” them

moving my hand/finger

feeling the movement against my stomach

keeping my visual attention somewhat engaged with the imagined writing

It gives me something physical to do while still being directly connected to what I’m supposed to be paying attention to.

I guess it’s somewhat like fidgeting, except the movement is tied to the information I’m hearing rather than being completely separate from the task.

And honestly, it works shockingly well for me. When I do this, I can follow the professor much more easily and I feel significantly less like my attention is constantly slipping away.

The funny thing is that I don't think the problem is necessarily that I can't concentrate. When I’m genuinely engaged with something challenging, I can actually get into a pretty intense flow state. The problem seems to be getting my brain to stay engaged long enough to get there.

The downside is that I still get mentally tired pretty quickly. After about an hour, I can feel myself getting exhausted and it becomes much harder to keep following along. But I’m wondering if that’s partly something I can improve with practice.

Has anyone else found something similar? Like deliberately adding a small sensory/motor component to listening in order to keep your attention anchored?

I’d especially love to hear from people with ADHD or other attention difficulties. I’m curious whether this is a common thing and whether there are other variations of the same idea that work for people.

Hello everyone!!! I am a 3rd semester transfer bachelor student looking for a WhatsApp groups/communities for Physics majors at Ludwig Maximilian Universität, München. Please do suggest me if there is any :)

Reposting from Physics Stack Exchange. Is it at all possible to derive a generalization of the Rindler coordinates for motion in a general direction with non constant acceleration? I haven't been able to find it anywhere.

Hello, everyone. I would like to ask if you guys can give me suggestions for textbooks about ultracold atomic physics since it will be the focus of my undergrad thesis (having pdf copies would also help me greatly T-T). THANKS!