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Department of Physics |
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| How to Major in Physics and Go Abroad | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General Considerations: Most physics courses have physics and math prerequisites. This puts a lot of restrictions on when you can take courses and the order in which you take them. Another scheduling complication is that none of our major courses are offered both fall and spring semesters. Nonetheless, it is possible to spend a semester or year abroad with sufficient planning. It is recommended that you accelerate your math preparation by entering SLU with advanced placement in calculus, or by taking the equivalent of Math 135 (Calculus I) and/or Math 136 (Calculus II) in summer school. All of the scenarios below assume that you take all of your required physics and math courses at SLU. It is possible in some cases for you to increase your scheduling flexibility by arranging to take required courses abroad at the host institution. This is particularly true for the London Program or the program at McGill University in Montreal. The following schedules list only the basic courses required for the physics major. Students planning to go on to graduate work in physics should take Physics 402 (Quantum Mechanics) in the Spring semester of the senior year. Junior Year Abroad – Entire Year: In order to not back-load most of your major courses in the senior year, it is a practical necessity to accelerate your math preparation, either by coming to SLU with enough calculus background that you can start with Math 136 (as is shown in the chart below) or by taking the equivalent of Math 205 (Multivariable Calculus) in the summer after your first year. Even with this planning, you would need to take three physics courses in the senior fall semester. Physics 456/482 (Seminar/Senior Research) may be taken in the spring semester with advanced approval by the department.
Junior Semester Abroad – Fall: It is obvious that the previous plan will also work for this case, with the minor change of taking Physics 308 (Electricity & Magnetism) in the Jr. Spring semester. Junior Semester Abroad – Spring: This is the recommended choice in that courses are distributed in the most even way. Moreover, in this case you do not need to have an accelerated math sequence.
Senior Semester Abroad – Fall: This scenario is possible ONLY in the case that the department is able to offer Physics 401 (Quantum Mechanics) in the Spring semester of your senior year and if you obtained permission in advance of going abroad to take Physics 482 (Senior Research) in the Spring semester.
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 It IS rocket science! |
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| © , esq. | St. Lawrence University | Department of Physics |
| 9 February, 2007 | Canton, NY 13617 | |