PH.d program
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Ayele.mekonen123
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2023 1:50 am
PH.d program
What programs easier to get admission to?
Last edited by Ayele.mekonen123 on Fri May 05, 2023 8:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Easier to get admission offer from PH.d program as a theorist or an experimentalist
(edit: originally answered "Is it easier to get into grad programs as an experimentalist, not a theorist?" and "What subfield of physics is easy to get into for elite schools?")
The easy answer to this question is that yes, because of funding, physics graduate schools typically have more experimentalist grad students than theorists. So it's "easier" to get an experimental spot because there are more of them.
The real answer to this question is that it's a bad one. Choosing what you want to study for 6 years (and possibly the rest of your life!) should require a lot more deliberation than "what gives me the best chance of getting in". Regarding your other post, it certainly requires more deliberation than choosing the subfield that makes it easy to get into UCLA or Berkeley, which doesn't really exist. Your school choice should follow your research interest, not the other way around.
If you're a young undergrad, and you really don't know what subfield to work in, just try to pick one that has a low barrier of entry and start working with a professor. You have plenty of time to change if you don't like it.
The easy answer to this question is that yes, because of funding, physics graduate schools typically have more experimentalist grad students than theorists. So it's "easier" to get an experimental spot because there are more of them.
The real answer to this question is that it's a bad one. Choosing what you want to study for 6 years (and possibly the rest of your life!) should require a lot more deliberation than "what gives me the best chance of getting in". Regarding your other post, it certainly requires more deliberation than choosing the subfield that makes it easy to get into UCLA or Berkeley, which doesn't really exist. Your school choice should follow your research interest, not the other way around.
If you're a young undergrad, and you really don't know what subfield to work in, just try to pick one that has a low barrier of entry and start working with a professor. You have plenty of time to change if you don't like it.