Why Physics?

Sex! Hot Sex! Hot, hotter, hottest! You too can have the Big Bang!

Grow crazy hair like Einstein! Throw intuition out the window! You can invent a Time Machine! A working Space Warp Drive! Antigravity! But only if you major in PHYSICS... Look how those Chem majors bungled Cold Fusion...

Tired of commuting? Be an anticommuting operator! Three Dimensions not enough? We got your extra dimensions right here: ten dimensions, eleven dimensions, an infinite number of dimensions in a von Neumann algebra generalizing the already wacky quantum mechanics! Maybe String Theory is for you. No predictions necessary! Never mind data, hurtle directly to Theory, do not pass Go, do collect tenure!

Do the math. But don't bother proving it. That's for Experimentalists!

Other sciences suck. Rocks for Jocks: Geologists have Feet of Clay. Moons for Goons: Astronomers have to pull all-nighters. Biology is all about icky protoplasm. Chem Labs stink. Make Sparks Fly -- major in Physics!

Physics for Poets? Poetry for Physics? Cut out the middle and go straight for Physics -- no sonnets, villanelles, or sestinas, ever!

Don't be a square: learn E = MC squared!

Is the goal to persuade everybody to major in physics, or instead to help undergraduates identify whether a physics major is a good fit for their specific circumstances?

Lessee - Physics majors frequently [1] find jobs as computer programmers, or get graduate degrees in quant-heavy fields which actually *have* job opportunities. A small number of physics majors will get Ph.D.'s (most of those who go to grad school will drop out/flunk, and goto [1]). Those who get Ph.D.'s will generally not get academic careers, and will goto [1].

The biggest moral objection to advising people to go into physics is the fact that most will be badly burned by the field. They'd be better off in engineering, or by taking a dual math/something else degree.

I hate to be a downer here, but it's a big problem.

A Physics major can do anything.

Science? You can continue in nearly any graduate program out there: earth science, chemistry, biochemistry, engineering, etc.

Medical school, law, business? No problem. No other graduates have the total analytical and math skills to compete.

Physics majors are better equipped to enter a technical job in industry than any other major.

But why? The drawback is that it is most likely one of the most challenging fields of study.

Because physics is the sexiest major around. Duh.

I think a good idea would be to have current students at your school list their reasons for majoring in physics, such as how they got interested in the subject in the first place, what their intended goals are, etc. Also maybe have recent/upcoming grads talk about their experiences within your department, and a "where are they now?" sort of listing, even if you have to make it anonymous.

It is one thing for undergrad-age students to hear people who are already established talk about the field, another for them to hear about the goals and experiences of their peers, at their school. Specially with a subject like physics, the mere mention of which is enough to make most people unfamiliar with it break out in a cold sweat. Hearing success stories is what makes goals tangible and seem worthwhile while you are in the midst of exams...

Major in Physics because you love the subject. If you don't have a passion for it, you won't succeed at it.

That said, I agree with Barry (#3 above). I had declared a dual major in Math and Physics. I ended up dropping Physics with just two classes to go because it meant I graduated a year earlier and was able to accept a fantastic job offer that really used my Math degree (SAS programming). There were no jobs on the horizon that would have required both degrees or just a BS in Physics.

Now I am a Software Engineer and still using advanced math on a regular basis. I'm not sorry I took all the physics courses though, and I do think all that practice at applied math makes me a much better software engineer.

Thanks, Cathy. The heart of the question, IMHO is that a potential physics major has already taken 1-2 years of college math and physics, and done well in them. This means that a large number of majors are open to them, because they're already in the top quartile of math/quant skills. Some areas would scream for them (e.g., econ). The odds are so high against a sophomore physics major getting a job in physics that they've really, really got to have it in their hearts. And still there's a strong argument for going into engineering, because that's a major where they can use their physics (or, at U/M Ann Arbor, Engineering Physics, a sort of in between major).

I'm sure someone else has said it, but I'm actually an undergrad who declared earlier this year, so maybe my input will help. Why did I choose physics? Because I like it. If you don't like it, then you shouldn't choose it. How can you tell if you like it? That's a damn good question, I'm not really sure. It gets back into the problem of the introductory classes being really boring and turning people off before they experience how good it can be. Research might help, but people doing research are likely already really interested.

I don't think that job considerations are that important for most people. After all, there are still English Lit majors. I think if you can show people that physics is eminently interesting, and that they could fall in love with studying how the world works, then at least some will come to you.

I clicked on the "post a comment" thing looking to make a "to get chicks!" type-joke, but several people already did that.

That is why someone should go into physics.

Those who want to DO physics do not need any advice. They already know that there is no way back. For others it would be better to go elsewhere.

For those people that have suggested "Because you like it, that's why you should choose it", the argument defeats the purpose of the question, I think. Someone coming to Chad (or anyone in the business of recruiting brains) unsure of what to major in knows that they should choose the major that they really like. It's convincing them that they (will|do) like physics that's the hard part.
So, we're back at the "undergraduate research fosters physicists" topic. The original question about web content is more difficult. It's obviously harder to express the interestingness of physics with a couple tags and some carefully worded text and I'm not a copywriter by any means. In the case of Sally McSophomore who doesn't know what major to declare though, I'd explain what I (Chad, in this case) was currently doing on my optics table before I bothered trying to explain through words what physics might mean to her as an individual.

In line with Thad's comment ...

Make the analogy to body building. An undergraduate education is mind building. If you are looking for total fitness, then physics is your major.

A really promising ex-grad student stopped by my office the other day. He is now working at a software company. His boss said he the smartest guy in the company. He denies this. Instead, he said, physics teaches you a very important skill. It teaches you to adapt the tools you have to the problem, not the other way around. He says that over half of the Computer Engineers and all of the Business majors want to change the problem to fit the tools they have. That approach, unsurprisingly, fails. He does miss physics, but he does not miss the paycheck....

I clicked on the "post a comment" thing looking to make a "to get chicks!" type-joke, but several people already did that.

Uhm, no one has said that. Mostly because it's just not funny more than anything else.

I'm not entirely sure how feasible it would be, but one thought might be to attempt to contact people who have graduated from your department in recent years, see where they are, and put up a "This is what people have done with Physics degrees from our school" list. If you could get a decent sample size I'm sure you'd see a wide range of occupations. The perception that studying physics is good preparation for a plethora of different fields was a significant part of what got me looking at physics, before I'd done enough of it to realize how much I really enjoyed it.

Why Physics? Because you get to play with cool stuff! (Lasers, liquid nitrogen, geiger counters, etc.)

I started in engineering, but switched to physics. Now I work in engineering - go figure. I think an education in Physics has given me a broader background in some areas than engineering would have.

Because as Rutherford said, "In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting."

I wouldn't go quite as far as Toms Rutherford quote, but it is clear that physics is the one master science. The problem is that for 99/100
(or is it) 999/1000 it will devolve into a desperate game of banging ones head against the wall. It is only the very rare individual who has the right (mental) stuff to make it to the top tier, the rest have to be satisfied with either switching to something else, or carrying water for the few superbrains.

Honestly, I'd generally advise against a physics degree. Whereas I'd strongly recommend a physics-and-other-mind-broadening double major. In my case, til I ran out of financial aid, physics and music, at which point I went "Hmm, three extra classes to get the math degree? I'm in!"

I plan to enter college in the fall and major in physics and possibly also math. I don't know much about the job market, but I know from reading numerous blogs that the path from Ph.D. to professor is tricky. Heck, even here Chad only recently got tenure.

My mind still goes back and forth as to where I should go for a straight Physics and Math dual-bachelors, or if I should take the other program my university offers, which is a dual applied physics and engineering bachelors. I love physics, it interests me and I would love to do research. But I would also like to be successful and maybe semi-rich, or at least upper middle class.

So what advice do you have for me? I'm pretty sure that were I to go into business or law or something more mainstream like that, I would be a great student, while at physics I'll be average or slightly above. Its tempting to go into a field that has people of a lower caliber with respect to math/quant. reasoning and to excel there, versus going into a field in which everyone is great at doing very challenging things and where the ability to differentiate your self is very tough.

Maybe it comes down to the basic question everyone has to ask them selves: money, or the prospect of it, or doing what you love for a little bit less.

Honestly, one thing that is necessary is to point out that if they want to DO physics long-term, they're looking at a long long slog (half a decade or more after the undergrad). And then add the balancing counterpoint that, should they not want to go that route, then they have a broad and powerful skill base to spring into other endeavours from.

Edi: pick the one you like best. I'm guessing you won't actually know which it is until you've got a few more classes under your belt, but especially if you are considering a career in academia, pick the field you like the best, because otherwise you will regret it. Even if you aren't at the top of the class anymore—it's okay.

I was absolutely buried in work-related stuff yesterday, which is why I haven't posted much beyond drive-by comments.

To belatedly clear up one question here: the target audience I have in mind is students who have taken some physics classes, and really enjoy the subject, but are unsure about whether to major in it for basically non-academic reasons.

I should also note that our local experience of the job market has not been all that bleak. In recent years, our majors who have decided to go to graduate or professional school have gotten into graduate or professional school, and our majors who have decided to go directly into working have found jobs. At least, the good students among our majors have. As with most economic matters, everything looks a little better from the elite private college perspective.

The suggestion of asking students and recent alumni for their reasons is a good one, and I'll give it a try. I'll probably get a bunch of flippant answers, but any good stuff is likely to be useful.

I was an astrophysics major and I took it because I wanted to learn more about how the universe works.

For me, the draw was primarily philosphical and the coursework was an unfortunate but necessary burden. Nevertheless, it was a burden that was a lot less difficult than people sometimes assume it to be. Not that it wasn't a serious challenge, buit if I can do it pretty much anyone can.

It also took a lot more critical thinking, imagination, and creativity than I would have thought. You don't have to be a brainiac to be good at physics and there are a range of traits that will be helpful. Good writing, communication and presentation skills are also helpful. There are so many talents that come in handy, I'd hate for people to think that being good at math is the only (or even most important) thing they need to succeed in physics.

There's always Calvin and Hobbes too!

Despite the discrimination, being a physicist is the most fun profession I have had occasion to observe and practice.

Pose several problems, such as omething like this:

"Two clusters of stars and gas collide in space, many lightyears away. Use observed gravitational lensing effects to calculate the total center of mass (including both light and dark matter) and compare it to the center of mass of the light matter, for each cluster, before and after the collision."

Then say: "If you major in physics, you will be able to solve these problems."

I should also note that our local experience of the job market has not been all that bleak. In recent years, our majors who have decided to go to graduate or professional school have gotten into graduate or professional school, and our majors who have decided to go directly into working have found jobs.

That should be enough.

Ask the student: is your goal to be able to make a good living and support yourself while living a live that is creatively and intellectually rewarding? Or is your goal to make a maximum amount of money in the minimum amount of time?

If the latter, then you should be targeting business school and/or law school. Figure out what you're best at among the most lucrative careers. Venture capital? Corporate law? Etc. Then explore how well a Physics major can get you into that. (I've heard it said that having a Physics major actually helps you get into law school, because a tiny, tiny fraction of law school applicants come from that direction. I don't know if this is really true, though.) There are almost certainly easier paths to this kind of career, though.

If, however, you just to be sure you can make an adequate living: the fact that Physics majors are getting jobs is all you need to know. You may very well not be optimizing yourself for maximum income by majoring in Physics, but if that's not your primary goal, this data shows that you aren't shooting yourself in the foot. You can be employed gainfully after majoring in Physics. Given that you aren't hurting your future prospects for staying away from homelessness, do what you love. Physics is way cool, and if you like it, by all means major in it.

I think sometimes we make the mistake of assuming that everybody has the same optimization criteria. They do not. But sometimes they don't realize that. So much of our society is caught up in the notion of "income as a measure of personal value" that too many college students see their college education as primarily job prep. Probe the student, find out if that's what they really want. If they do, then don't waste too much more time on them; give them just enough information to find out if Physics is their optimum path to riches... but, frankly, in most cases it isn't. If, on the other hand, students aren't looking for the quickest or best way to become amazingly rich, but simply want to make sure they aren't wasting their time on a degree that's going to kill their prospects to remain comfortably in the middle class, it takes very little data to show them that Physics is safe. Then, the main convincing that is left is that they have already satisfied their employment criteria, and worrying any further about that when choosing a college major is spending time worrying about the wrong thing. Once they've figured out that they can be employed, they should be thinking about what they want to study for the sake of studying, and for the sake of their own intellectual and creative life.

-Rob

"...Physics is their optimum path to riches..."

Just wondering: who is the richest Physics major of all time?

I second the comment to ask your grads. Credit them with year of grad and current job field. They will speak best to your students, and students listen to other students.

(Best thing we did at my CC was to start a club that has an open door for our alumni to return and mentor my physics students on what physics and math they will use next year in engineering school. Motivation and learning increased significantly.)

As others mentioned engineering, don't overlook that market. The plurality (majority?) of physics is condensed matter experiment, which has close connections to fields as diverse as computer hardware engineering, non-linear optics, and quantum computing. Most things we call engineering today were pioneered by physicists. You have them as a captive audience before they are deep into engineering, so work your research into classes you teach to freshmen and sophomores.

To Edi:
You won't know what it means to be a math or physics major until you are taking 2nd or 3rd year classes at college and/or get involved in some undergrad research project. (As one undergrad put it: I now know that I don't want to be up to my elbows in pump oil.) I was a math undergrad who took senior QM, got hooked, and switched entering grad school. I never looked back. Physics is a blast, even when you are "just" teaching it.

Your physics training will enable you to halve the mysterious parts left over once you have dis- and re-assembled any piece of consumer electronics.

You can also bamboozle your Dungeon Master (or, alternatively, your players) with physics-laden explanations of the implausibility of game events. Roll up a new character in case it doesn't go down too well.

No one has mentioned yet the reason that I majored in physics: I like to learn how things work. From the simple motion of idealized mechanical systems to the mind-blowing aspects of quantum mechanics, I love to learn about how the Universe works. I don't think jobs or math had anything to do with it. As an experimentalist, I discovered later on about the Toys in Physics (also fun). But overall, my motivation was and still is the curiosity. Perhaps this can best be summed up by asking the question: how does that work? Keep going and you end up in physics.

The best reason to major in physics is that you are too hip or too stupid to major in math.