Re: Career advice needed.

From: John T Lowry (jlowry100_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 07/09/04 

Date: 9 Jul 2004 04:49:43 -0400

"WishfulThinker" <tony_external@bluetentacle.com> wrote in message
news:40eaf3be$1@news.sentex.net...
>
> Greetings,
>
> I obtained a BS in History four years ago and have been working as a
> software developer. I have always felt under-challenged by my current
> work, however, and for a long time have been feeling the urge to do
> something more important for humanity. Recently I have been
> contemplating the possibility of getting back to school as a Physics
> undergrad, with the goal of eventually engaging in nuclear energy
> research. I just turned 27.
>
> I have the following questions for the good people of this board:
>
> 1. Am I nuts? Have you ever heard of such a thing?
> 2. I need to brush up on my rust-encrusted math skills. What areas of
> math should I work on BEFORE re-entering university, and up to what
> level? What other academic areas should I prepare myself on?
> 3. How hard would it be for me to re-enter as a Physics undergrad,
> compared to someone fresh from highschool?
> 4. Which undergraduate schools do you recommend, and which graduate
> schools? I prefer good quality public universities. My previous
> stint was at UCLA.
> 5. Any other advice is greatly appreciated.
>
> Thank you in advance.

I second FrediFixxz's advice and counsel. I graduated with a no-major
liberal arts degree at 19, went to medical school for a year, then
genetics and English for a year, then biophysics for 2 years, then
teaching and Navy, finally back to grad school in physics at age 31, 35
when got doctorate. I'm retired now, but still learning more about
quantum theory of measurement and other good stuff (my field was
irreversible quantum statistical mechanics, plus, much later on,
aircraft performance prediction). On the linear algebra, try to get both
the geometric and algebraic points of view. Physics is where it's at!
The modern version of "natural philosophy."

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