<p>can anyone tell me how the physics department at davis is? all i’ve heard so far is that ucsb is better, but i don’t even know how it is at davis and it will be a major part of my decision. any advice?</p>
<p>p.s. and if anyone knows anything about switching majors…i applied life sciences undeclared, i have no idea how to go about getting into physical sciences if i go :|.</p>
<p>Information on the Physics Dept.
<a href=“http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/overview.html[/url]”>http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/overview.html</a>
Alumni testimonials
<a href=“http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/testimonials.html[/url]”>http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/testimonials.html</a>
Summer study program
<a href=“http://london.ucdavis.edu/~zieve/REU/reu.html[/url]”>http://london.ucdavis.edu/~zieve/REU/reu.html</a>
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and see the work being done by two Physics professors Daniel Cox and Rajiv Singh regarding mad cow disease
<a href=“http://www.mad-cow-facts.com/News-Commentary/davis-BSE.htm[/url]”>http://www.mad-cow-facts.com/News-Commentary/davis-BSE.htm</a>
more on this subject
<a href=“Medical and health information”>Medical and health information;
UCD Nuclear Physics Group
<a href=“http://nuclear.ucdavis.edu/[/url]”>http://nuclear.ucdavis.edu/</a>
UCD Cosmology group (now one of the leading centers in the world for cosmology)
<a href=“http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/Cosmology/Cosmology_Group.html[/url]”>http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/Cosmology/Cosmology_Group.html</a></p>
<p>Andreas Albrecht, Ph.D., has been a professor of physics at UC Davis since 1988 and led the buildup of the cosmology program there, which is now one of the top such programs in the world. Albrecht has been at the forefront of developments in cosmology since he helped invent the theory of cosmic inflation for his doctoral thesis at the University of Pennsylvania in the early 1980s. During his career he has held positions at major centers of physics and cosmology research in the U.S. and U.K. Albrechts current research focuses on the mysterious dark energy (which comprises 95% of all the matter in the universe, yet behaves radically differently from any matter we have ever observed in the laboratory), and on how the latest theories of quantum gravity could help us understand the very beginnings of the universe.</p>
<p>Switching majors, especially between the sciences should be no problem at this point.</p>
<p>The physics department at Davis is one of the smaller departments, no it’s not UCSB but then by most accounts UCSB has one of the best physics departments in the country(If you read some of the books on string theory there’s a lot of physists from UCSB). </p>
<p>I’ve taken three upper division classes in the department and they were pretty good a fair number of students were doing research and they’ll pratically beg you to do research. From everything I’ve heard you should take the honors physics sequence it’s 5 quarters long and covers the material in much more depth than the regular sequence. For what it’s worth some of the best students in my math classes were physics students(the classes were Real Analysis and Topology).</p>
<p>2 collegemom16
Is your daughter or son going to Davis next year?</p>
<p>I can’t tell you about the department in comparison to other schools. It’s not one of the bigger departments on campus - they have to share a building with Geology. (The building is 5 stories tall with roof access so you can do egg drop “projects”). People really love Dr. Harris & Dr. Cole for thier classes… other professors, not really loved.</p>
<p>The undergrads I know in the physics department are a unique group. As a chemistry major, I had to take 4 physics classes and am friends with a number of physicists (plus the Chem building is next to the physics/geo building). Anyway, physicists are nerds and proud of it. (There is even a comic in the school paper, the Aggie, featuring two nerdy physics professors). The physics people like to get together and “party” which basically means have food & discuss whether a falling cat has rotational inertia.</p>
<p>it sounds like my type of school anyway, and i’m sure i’d get along with a small group of physics students. amongst other reasons, davis it is, thanks for the info.</p>
<p>Irbis, yes my D will be attending Davis in the fall.</p>