BSEE to PhD in physics?

xraymancs
Sat, 13 Jul 2013 11:35:00 +0000

From the perspective of a physics professor who has graduated a number of Ph.D. students over the years, and has been involved in graduate admissions, you can find a good job in industry after the Ph.D. (and probably a post-doc) but you probably need to develop some skills that are specific to the sector of interest. For example, for the semiconductor or magnetics industry, you really have to get experience in making and characterizing thin films.

I can also confirm that starting from a BSEE it is fairly easy to move to physics. Not all BSEE programs have quantum mechanics in the curriculum so make sure you take that as an elective. You might be asked to take a few prep courses to make up for missing material but it should not be too much and, at least in our program at IIT, we try to count as much of the remedial undergraduate coursework for the Ph.D. as possible to keep the total course requirements manageable.