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Physics continues
to
be one of Princeton's greatest strengths. We have a faculty with
diverse interests, ranging from string theory and cosmology
to condensed matter and biophysics. Our undergraduate program is
distinguished by a commitment to teaching at all levels and by
our
program of junior and senior independent work.
Why do physics at Princeton?
- .
There's nothing like learning a subject from distinguished
practitioners. (Actually, that's a great reason to do almost
anything
at Princeton). This is a place where you could (eventually) take
General Relativity from professors who write papers on the
subject,
and spend part of a summer in our hands-on electronics course,
taught
by professors who have worked on some of the most sophisticated
experiments in the world.
An undergraduate education in physics leads naturally into a
wide
range of professions: physics, engineering, biology, medicine,
patent
law -- even politics, as exemplified by New Jersey's own
Congressman
Rush Holt. Almost every technical field draws strongly on
physics for
its underlying theory and experimental techniques.
Princeton has an excellent faculty-student ratio in physics:
it's only slightly less than one-to-one! This has a particularly
positive effect on
junior
and senior independent work.
The department has an excellent record of involving interested
students in research, both during the term and through summer
jobs.
It is not uncommon for senior theses to spring from summer work.
There is a strong commitment to teaching at all levels in the
department. We have multiple tracks for introductory physics and
a
curriculum of more advanced courses that will serve you well
whether
you are aiming for graduate school in physics, or have a pre-med
orientation, or intend to go into business, industry, or public
affairs.
All these are good reasons; but the best reason to get an
undergraduate degree in physics is because you want to learn the
subject. Here's a small sample of what you might find out in the
course of four years in our department:
- Why does Mercury's orbit precess?
- Why do most metals superconduct at very low temperatures?
- What does the "collapse of the wavefunction" have to do with quantum measurement?
- What does it mean to say that an electron has spin 1/2?
- How do you describe turbulence?
In short, physics is a great education. An old aphorism says
that an
undergraduate education should teach you how to think. We'll do
more
than that: we'll teach you how to think like a physicist!
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Finding out more
Two good places to start are the
Princeton University home page and
the
Physics Department web pages.
The latter includes a more thorough summary of the
Undergraduate
Program. Information on the program in engineering physics
can be found
here.
The
Admissions
Office and
Registrar's
Office are also helpful resources.
We benefit from close associations to the Departments of
Astrophysics,
Molecular Biology,
and
Electrical Engineering,
the
Princeton Materials
Institute, and the
Genomics Center.
The
Frequently Asked Questions section of this
document addresses a number of issues of particular interest
to prospective undergraduates.
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Visiting the Department
We're located in Jadwin Hall, which is near the southeast corner
of campus, just to the west of the stadium (and not to be
confused with Jadwin Gym). Here's a campus map.
Interested students are welcome to sit in on classes, which meet
roughly from mid-September to mid-December and from the beginning
of February to the beginning of May. Please visit the Registrar's home
page for detailed Academic Calendars and Course Information.
A Lecture or Class of PHY 103, 104, 105, or 106 are our
recommended choices; PHY 203, 205, and 208 might also be of
interest to exceptionally advanced students. It's best to focus
on classes that meet between 9am and 5pm: outside these hours,
the building may be locked.
If you need help deciphering the schedules posted on the
Registrar's web page, you can contact the administrative
assistants in the Undergraduate Office:
Undergraduate Office, 208 Jadwin Hall
Princeton Physics Department
Princeton, NJ 08544
(609) 258-4418
kkaras@princeton.edu
E-mail is preferred over postal mail or phone.
You should ask the professor's permission to sit in on his or her
class, but it's fine to do that 30 seconds before the class
begins.
We don't conduct tours of the department as such, but if you have
a specific interest in a particular professor's research (start
here to
find summaries), you can write to him/her directly and request a
tour of his/her lab.
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Frequently Asked Questions
A lot of the questions that prospective undergraduates are most
interested in can be answered by
looking
through the departmental web pages, particularly the ones on the
Undergraduate
Program. Here we'll hit some of the highlights.
- What makes Princeton different from
other
undergraduate programs?
In brief: the junior and senior independent work. This is the
way that our majors get deeply involved in some aspect of physics.
Each of two junior papers aims to understand some interesting aspect
of current research. The senior thesis is most often an effort to
actually contribute to current research. The thesis invariably
represents the student's highest effort to come to grips with
science as a living, breathing subject, and published papers sometimes
result.
The independent work engenders closer interaction between
faculty and
students -- not only in the independent work itself, but in
summer
research opportunities and research-related discussions. In
short,
we're conditioned to regard undergrads as potential
collaborators.
- What research goes on in the
department?
The best way to find out is to check out our Research
web
pages. There is a broad, fast-paced effort in both
experimental
and theoretical physics. We encourage undergraduates to get
involved,
both through their independent work and through summer jobs. Most
summer jobs pertain to experimental projects that we're involved
with,
like the WMAP satellite
(on
cosmic background anisotropy) or the MiniBooNE experiment (on
neutrino
oscillation).
- What physics course would I take on
arrival
at Princeton?
Most incoming freshman interested in physics take PHY 103
(freshman
mechanics) or the "honors" variant, PHY 105. The honors course
splits
off from the main course after about 3 weeks, giving us the
opportunity to determine what is best for you using information
beyond
test scores. People who have done well on AP Physics C and have
taken
an additional year of college level physics may opt for PHY 203
(lagrangian mechanics). We try to be flexible enough to
accommodate
any background.
- What are the requirements for a
physics
major?
This is a question best answered by consulting the web pages
describing the Undergraduate
Program, in particular the Program
of Study. The short answer is that you need eight
departmental
courses (starting with quantum mechanics, PHY 208), plus your
junior
and senior independent work. The prerequisites for the
departmental
courses are, roughly, three physics courses and two math courses
at
the freshman and sophomore level. While we think it's important
for
all our physics majors to master the fundamentals of modern
physics,
we also try to make our undergraduate program broad enough to
accommodate students who also have interests in related fields,
like
math, chemistry, biology, and even philosophy, history, and
public
policy.
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