Undergrad. In serious Need of advice to get to a ph.d in physics.

College Majors Science Majors
1

<p>To whom it concerns,
(meaning those people amazing enough to lend me some advice)</p>

<p>As a warning I have to give background information to fully explain my question.</p>

<p>I am at Portland state university and love physics and philosophy. Technically this is my third year but I have had the unfortunate luck of being blessed with a back to degenerated in the lombar section that it could easily pass as a back of a man three times my age (I am 21). Because of this I have had to take painkillers just to get through class, until I got to the point where I couldn’t function in class. This lasted two years, until I recently had back surgery to remove some bone around my nerve and remove the buldging disc from where the nerve should have been. I will be able to go back to school finally in fall. My grades have been severly damaged though because of all that has happened. I have had back problems since I was 12 years old so when I was a freshman in college I thought nothing of it until I couldn’t push through it any longer and my grades suffered for my pig-headedness.</p>

<p>So I am left with a scar about three inches long and a record saying I am a terrible student, when I am normally a very good student, maybe not the very best, but pretty dang good. I am not sure what to do, I am in an academic support program and a disability resource center, I have three incompletes because my teachers have been so understanding. However looking at everything, how can I expect to get to a Ph.D even with all the work I would happily put in?</p>

<p>Is it still possible? If someone out there has been through this can they help me out?
I’m sorry if this comes out with weird spelling and poor gramstic form, I’m in bed still from surgery. However what they did was a lot better then having to have a double fusion so I am very grateful.</p>

<p>Thank you so much to people who read this, I can’t tell you how much any advice would help.
From
Jamie</p>

2

<p>Hey man, you’ll still be able to pursue a PhD if that is what you want. Just reenroll, take classes and do well in them. Get some research experience and apply to a decent, but perhaps not stellar, master’s program. Then either continue there for the PhD or go somewhere big for the PhD.</p>

<p>But first of all, try to get better, huh? Having a PhD isn’t going to do anybody much good if they’re in pain all the time. I hope that you find yourself doing better after the surgery. This isn’t a reason to give up on your dreams, and any reasonable person isn’t going to hold poor academic performance against you under these circumstances.*</p>

<ul>
<li>Of course, if you make a full recovery, return to school, and don’t do much better, I’m sure you’ll agree it’s fair to judge you based on your future progress. But one thing at a time…</li>
</ul>

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<p>I would agree. Applications for grad schools, internships, etc. usually have a section where you can explain poor performance and I’m sure they’d understand. Plus, it would show just how resolute you are to get your PhD. But you need to get better so this doesn’t happen again. PhD and grad school is a lot of studying and doing research, and you need to be relatively pain-free in order to concentrate on your academics.</p>