What do you do with a degree in physics?

[Ms. Riding Hood]

I think ds is interested in research, but what else can you do? Teaching is the only other thing I can think of.

[Rhonda in TX]

Check out this link (http://www.worldwidelearn.com/online-education-guide/science/physics-major.htm).

A guy I went to college with got a physics degree and went to medical school. He is now an ob-gyn.

[momofkhm]

He went on to get his masters in computer science and now works at Cisco writing internal software tools.

Lets see if I can remember his study group. Alan also works with computers. Mary teaches at the college level. Mary graduated magna cum laude. Ann works for NOAA. They graduated long enough ago that Ann is a ship's captain or about to be. (DH graduated cum laude.)

Then Ken works for SAS writing software. DH said in college Ken was brilliant. Even know he reads physics magazines for fun. Ken was not in the group.

[Ruth in Canada]

Get a sasters degree in mechanical engineering and work in the energy conservation field. It would have been more straightforward to get a bs in me directly. Physics at the upper undergraduate level and graduate level is very different from high school physics--I wish someone had helped me understand that earlier. The abstract stuff that fascinated my fellow students didn't interested me.

[Ms. Riding Hood]

The abstract stuff that fascinated my fellow students didn't interested me.

Somehow I think this is what ds might head toward. :eek:

He's always been on an engineering track, but recently began talking of this switch. We'll see! I just don't know what you can do with it without a PhD, you know?

[Jan P.]

Would he like to be an astronaut? I know that's a scary thing, but I'm sure they need folks that understand physics when they work on the sattelites up in space.

Trying to think out of the box,
Jan

[Ruth in Canada]

If your son isn't up to speed on all of the possibilities available in either mechanical engineering or engineering mechanics, you'd be doing him a huge favour to help him check out this option. I thought MEs designed cars--and I knew I didn't want to do that.

[Ms. Riding Hood]

Neat link! Thanks; I'll share that with ds!

[Kathy in MD]

he can design bombs and missils. If less so, he can computer simulations for many types of studies. The gov't hires a lot of physists for this.

[MaryM]

You might be interested in this link to job opportunities projected from 2006-2016.http://www.intuitor.com/physics/ScienceCareers.php

We have been thinking about this a lot ourselves and are cautious about domestic growth in any of the engineering fields in the future do to many of these jobs now being done offshore for less pay.

IT's so difficult to guide a career choice these days but I still think that "you do what you love" is the first guiding principle. Can't overlook the realities of being able to do that though.

Mary

[Sharon in MD]

They are run by Johns Hopkins....get them to pay for the PhD! No, really, they are one of the big employers in our area and the people I know absolutely love it out there! My ds would love to work there. My neighbor is the MOM for the Pluto New Horizons Mission....that means she is the Missions Operations Manager for it and another guy I know builds satellites and another one works on the Stereo system that is studying the Sun....lots of cool physics work out there.:D:D:D

[Cinder]

And had a military bent. He became an AF pilot and is now a commercial pilot. I asked him why he chose to major in physics. He said he thought it was fun and interesting!

Cinder

[Ms. Riding Hood]

Thanks for all your responses! You've been helpful.

[percytruffle]

Dh has an undergrad degree in engineering physics and a grad degree in optics. He said a four year degree in physics is like a jumping off point. You will learn about all the different disciplines that comprise physics and then you can choose which area to specialize in. Obviously, he chose optics. He works for a global manufacturer that designs and produces the glass panels that go into the flat panel LCD tvs. His job involves the optical testing (to detect defects) of the glass as it flows through the line. He has worked with optical test on computer circuit boards at his previous job. Some other areas of optics include: lens design (telescope and medical applications to name a few), fiber optics, laser optics. And, this is only one discipline in the area of physics. It is a vast field!

[Mary in WA]

My homeschooled daughter got her Bachelor's degree in physics, minoring in astronomy. She got a job working for a private company who deals with noise abatement study. Her job actually is quite a bit of computer programming.