Any advice/strategy to share to physics major?

[Qphys]

Hi. I am a prospective physics major (sophomore) in decent liberal arts college. I'm working on pre-med requirements. I searched this forum on physics, and all I got is how difficult physics is (which is not the case for me).

I like physics and am good at computational skills so I am not worrying too much about GPA. I am probably not the best biology student so would have to work hard to thrive though.

So my question is: assuming getting good grades & MCAT scores, what should I work on to enhance my chance to get accepted to med schools as a physics major? I believe that the physics major is not the most common major for pre-med, so I am not sure how to look good to adcoms being a physics major. Would research experience in physics help if I apply for MD/PhD programs? It probably wouldn't if I just apply to MD programs, then what should I do during summer and for extra curricular activities? A lot of summer program requires applicants to be something close to bio/chem major, so I am little confused here.

I probably will take a gap year after graduation, so any suggestion to do during that period will be very appreciated too.

P.S. It won't hurt to be placed out of intro physics/math courses, right? I am taking multi-variable calculus and 200 level physics from beginning, and I am sure it meets general requirements of math/physics requirements, but I saw some posts that adcoms care about my grades on intro level math/physics courses.

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[NonTrad16]

If you have AP credit on your transcript, or you continue the higher level course, you should be fine. Physics isn't emphasized as strongly as bio or chem, so hitting credit hour limits should be easy.

As for the rest: the answer is the same regardless of major. Shadow, find long term volunteering opportunities, do well in coursework. Research is good, but if you are only seeing opportunities that take bio/chem majors, you're looking in the wrong places. For example: My small college had more than one physics prof with research in bio-related areas. REUs will also accept multidisciplinary students, just get your other sciences in as early as you can.

 

[enchantediris]

Hello from a fellow physics major! I would just like to caution you that "assuming getting good grades & MCAT scores" are famous last words of many people seeking advice on SDN. From my own experience, majoring in physics is a lot of work if you need to maintain a high GPA (a lot of my friends are planning on going to grad school, where their GPA doesn't matter as much). It's not only about doing well on exams, but also about consistently completing your problem sets well while trying to balance the rest of your classes. I honestly do not have nearly as much free time as many of my other friends (except the engineers) because problem sets take so much time! It's very unfortunate when watching Netflix is one of your favorite hobbies...

In addition, I know many extremely intelligent people who dropped out of physics after our second year (modern physics and thermodynamics) because it just wasn't for them. A couple have switched to computer science, one switched to math, and the last one, who was pre-med, switched to neuroscience. I'll just put it out there that most of physics has nothing at all to do with the human body or medicine. There are some rather cool classes (like medical physics, where you learn the physics behind imaging machines like MRI, ultrasound, etc.) that may be medically related, but there are also a lot of times where I think what I'm learning is cool, but I also know that I'll never remotely use the knowledge again.

Sorry for the novel – I don't want to scare you, I just wanted to share my perspective as a physics pre-med! It's not something I would necessarily recommend to anyone who doesn't truly like physics because it's a lot of work. And your GPA is treated the same as a bio/chem/psych major, where sure, it's rather impressive if you manage a 3.8+ as a physics major, but majoring in physics isn't going to help you if you have a 3.3. On the bright side, any class is easier than quantum mechanics. PM me if you have any questions!

 

[enchantediris]

Oh, and I agree with @NonTrad16 about extracurriculars being the same as any other pre-med! For research, an interesting medically-relevant area of physics research is currently using nanotechnology for drug delivery (especially in cancer), so that's something you could look into. A lot of physics research is computational, so if you don't know how to program, learning MATLAB or C++ would be helpful for that.

You're right that a lot of pre-med opportunities like clinical research are focused on biology and chemistry majors. I had the same problem when looking for internships in hospitals. When I applied, I emphasized the pre-med classes I had taken (orgo, biochem, genetics, etc.) as well as the clinical volunteering I had done to show my interest in medicine. It also helps to have a very high GPA. I ended up in the radiology department, which I really liked! I'm not much of a physics experimentalist (if I ever did grad school, I would probably have to be theoretical lest I break everything in the lab), but it's really cool to apply physics knowledge, which can be rather abstract, to real world problems.

 

[Lawpy]

Hi. I am a prospective physics major (sophomore) in decent liberal arts college. I'm working on pre-med requirements. I searched this forum on physics, and all I got is how difficult physics is (which is not the case for me).

I like physics and am good at computational skills so I am not worrying too much about GPA. I am probably not the best biology student so would have to work hard to thrive though.

So my question is: assuming getting good grades & MCAT scores, what should I work on to enhance my chance to get accepted to med schools as a physics major? I believe that the physics major is not the most common major for pre-med, so I am not sure how to look good to adcoms being a physics major. Would research experience in physics help if I apply for MD/PhD programs? It probably wouldn't if I just apply to MD programs, then what should I do during summer and for extra curricular activities? A lot of summer program requires applicants to be something close to bio/chem major, so I am little confused here.

I probably will take a gap year after graduation, so any suggestion to do during that period will be very appreciated too.

P.S. It won't hurt to be placed out of intro physics/math courses, right? I am taking multi-variable calculus and 200 level physics from beginning, and I am sure it meets general requirements of math/physics requirements, but I saw some posts that adcoms care about my grades on intro level math/physics courses.

1. Physics is a difficult but rewarding major. The difficulty lies in solving deceptively simple problems and finding yourself trapped in a complex, error-sensitive mess for a good 30 minutes. Also, the physics concepts aren't straightforward. But it is fun if you show sincere interest to it and are good in math (which is why people tend to double major in both physics and math)

2. Physics research will help a lot/be useful for MD and MD/PhD programs. A lot of stuff in medical research beyond radiology/radiation oncology depends strongly on physics research (think creating artifacts/devices to regulate blood flow). You have the advantage over the mainstream bio/chem guys by applying your analytical and problem solving skills into the applications of medicine. This will help a lot in acquiring summer research programs, but you should look into the websites of interest.

3. Taking upper level math and physics classes are fine. This is true for schools who are a pain with no AP policy and they will not demand you to take intro courses of physics and math when they clearly see your strong performance in the upper levels. Adcoms aren't stupid, irrational and closed-minded people so you are fine.

4. Ensure that you are working on strengthening your clinical and volunteering experiences, as well as some shadowing hours. The rest is up to you on how you want to handle things.

 

[moisne]

all I got is how difficult physics is (which is not the case for me).

I like physics and am good at computational skills so I am not worrying too much about GPA. I am probably not the best biology student so would have to work hard to thrive though.

Well... If you enjoy physics and are good at it - that's fine. I thought Physics was boring. I get all these right answers, but I don't think I actually ever understood it - it just became some math class for me. I started off as physics major too after they asked me to be a TA. But I realized Physics was boring (for me) and the job outlook wasn't great... so I switched to engineering.

I was also a bad bio student - but one thing I really regretted was not taking biochem or higher bio classes.

I probably will take a gap year after graduation, so any suggestion to do during that period will be very appreciated too.

You really shouldn't "plan" on a gap year as a sophomore?

Would research experience in physics help if I apply for MD/PhD programs?

Any research helps. Especially if it's published - regardless of the area. I did my research on... the porosity of rocks for petroleum, and it was fine.

what should I do during summer and for extra curricular activities?

You should being doing them during the school year as well... not JUST the summer. Volunteering, clinical experiences, leadership and research.

P.S. It won't hurt to be placed out of intro physics/math courses, right? I am taking multi-variable calculus and 200 level physics from beginning, and I am sure it meets general requirements of math/physics requirements, but I saw some posts that adcoms care about my grades on intro level math/physics courses.

Most schools are ok with it. One school gave me **** about not having any pre-reqs. A few years ago they still required calculus. I didn't have any basic chemistry, biology, or calculus(or basic math) on my official transcript that has a grade in it (they were all transfer grades or in a form of placement exams). One school in particular, I had to email back and forth and explain why I think relative and quantum physics, inorganic chem, multivar, should be able to replace all of those pre-reqs. But it should work out.