Physics at Hopkins?

ihs76
Wed, 18 May 2011 22:31:25 +0000

My son just finished first year as a physics major so I have some familiarity.

Some basics:

There are 4 different levels of first year physics: General Physics, Gen Phy for Phys Sci major, Gen Phy for Biol Sci major, and Physics for Physics majors (Classical mechanics 1 in the fall). https://isis.jhu.edu/classes/results.aspx

Son took Classical Mechanics/E&M. There were about 25 kids who started in it, few dropped out. He was one of very few, and maybe the only one, who had not previously had AP physics (not offered at his HS) and had only one year of basic HS physics. He has done well in the class but he is good at physics and math and thinks spending a saturday night doing a physics problem set is a mighty fine thing. I would say if you found HS physics pretty easy and you have a decent math background, you should try it. Just have a plan B if it turns out not to be your cup of tea. Also remember that first semester is covered grades so a good chance to try things out.

Here’s the course page for Classical mechanics for fall '10 (some dates not updated)

[171.105: Introduction to classical physics (Fall 2005)](Physics & Astronomy | Johns Hopkins University)

He is friendly with his classmates and I have not gotten any sense that there is any cut throat behavior. He hangs out in the PUC (Physics undergraduate computing) lab which is a cool space with lots of white boards, couches, computers, where lot of the math/physics kids seem to socialize.

As far as the amount of work for the course, I know it was not his most time consuming course in the fall, but again, that may depend on how easily the stuff comes to you.

It is not a large department in terms of undergrad numbers. In fact, I think there are only about 15/year that actually end up majoring in physics. The department is large with many faculty and grad students and the feeling I have gotten is that they treat their undergrads well as there are not very many of them. I think lots of opportunities for research also due to lack of ‘competition.’