PhD Aerospace and double major

RacinReaver
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 00:41:36 +0000

If you do wind up coming to Caltech, there is always the possibility of being coadvised by someone at JPL. That’s what I’m currently doing, though in a slightly different field from you guys.

I wouldn’t worry too much about graduating a semester early. I was deciding on adding a double major in physics along with my engineering degree by taking an extra term, but just decided to finish early and stick with my minor (and only taking the classes I was really interested in). I wound up working with a professor from my undergrad school from January through July, and really enjoyed the experience. It gave me the feeling of being a full time grad student more than just a summer project did, but I didn’t have the long term commitment you get as an actual student. You can also look into joining a lab early, since there’s a good chance you know which school you’ll want to attend by April. A few of my friends showed up in June/July and were able to get a couple of month head start on getting research started. It’s really tough to do that when you’re also starting with a full load of classes, so I kinda wish I had done the same thing.