Shawn at 04:20, 7 November 2009

2009-11-07T04:20:39Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:20, 6 November 2009
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	== Physics Major ==		== Physics Major ==
	When I matriculated, I was sure of my major in physics, although I thought I might switch back to chemistry, what I thought I wanted to study when I began looking for colleges.		When I matriculated, I was sure of my major in physics, although I thought I might switch back to chemistry, what I thought I wanted to study when I began looking for colleges.
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	*Music 220:Learning Counterpoint through Digital Technology I (baroque inventions)		*Music 220:Learning Counterpoint through Digital Technology I (baroque inventions)
	*Music 221:Learning Counterpoint through Digital Technology II (baroque fugues)		*Music 221:Learning Counterpoint through Digital Technology II (baroque fugues)
			[[Category:Studies]]

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2009-11-07T04:17:31Z

Created page with ' == Physics Major == When I matriculated, I was sure of my major in physics, although I thought I might switch back to chemistry, what I thought I wanted to study when I began lo…'

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== Physics Major ==
When I matriculated, I was sure of my major in physics, although I thought I might switch back to chemistry, what I thought I wanted to study when I began looking for colleges.
I began taking core courses along with the main group of freshman majors, notably separated from the physics courses for engineers and pre-meds. It was clear from the beginning that we would be treated better, given more attention, better encouragement, than those in the "weed-out" classes.
Even with the support of the department, if it wasn't for Mark Evenson inviting me to join a study group of close physics friends our first winter, I don't know how I would have survived.
The bright star of that study group, Katherine Woo, invited me second semester sophomore year to attend the first day of a graduate course with her in the history of science; she didn't want to be in there alone with the older students. She ended up dropping the course, while I ended up enjoying it immensely, wondering at how I had avoided history as much as possible in my schooling. I quickly added an undergraduate research project under the same professor that semester; that work eventually became my first co-publication of an academic paper.
*Physics 116:Mechanics
*Math 293:Calculus
*Physics 217:Electricity and Magnetism
*Math 294:Calculus
*Physics 218:Optics and Waves
*Math 421:Applicable Math (differential equations IIRC)
*Physics 315:Microphysics
*History 481:History of Modern Physics/Theory of Science
*History 303:Supervised Research/Undergraduate Research Program
*Physics 325:Electricity & Magnetism
*History 443:Science and Culture in Austria
*Physics 318:Analytical Mechanics
*[[Physics 330]]:Modern Experimental Optics
*Government 384:War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
*History 282:Science in Western Civilization

By the end of my junior year I had completed all the course requirements for my major, with a self-designed concentration in history. I wish I had gotten to know my advisor, Kurt Gottfried, better, only much later learning of his interest in social issues in physics and his own interesting path in physics.

== Other Important Courses ==
*Sociology 315:Sociology of Science
*Government 318:American Congress
*Physics 481:Components and Systems

== Dead Ends ==
*Civil and Environmental Engineering 309:Special Topics (I was going to study nuclear power, but I dropped the course after the professor and I couldn't arrive at a course of study.)
*Economics 203:Microeconomics (Learned a bit of economics, but with two major issues: This was billed as economics for those with skills in calculus, but the non-calculus course was over-booked, so the algebra students signed up for this class and spent much of lectures asking the professor to revert to graphical and simplistic representations; the professor was quite ill for much of the course, so the majority of students systematically weaseled most of the rigor out of the class.)
*Economics 204:Macroeconomics (ditto)

== Life-shaping electives ==
*Italian 121:Elementary Italian I
*Italian 122:Elementary Italian II
*Music 220:Learning Counterpoint through Digital Technology I (baroque inventions)
*Music 221:Learning Counterpoint through Digital Technology II (baroque fugues)

Bachelor Studies - Revision history

Shawn at 04:20, 7 November 2009

Xeentav: Created page with ' == Physics Major == When I matriculated, I was sure of my major in physics, although I thought I might switch back to chemistry, what I thought I wanted to study when I began lo…'