{"id":67,"date":"2009-02-12T15:52:15","date_gmt":"2009-02-12T19:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsnews\/2009\/02\/12\/25-random-things-about-ur-physics\/"},"modified":"2009-03-13T17:22:33","modified_gmt":"2009-03-13T21:22:33","slug":"25-random-things-about-ur-physics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsnews\/2009\/02\/12\/25-random-things-about-ur-physics\/","title":{"rendered":"25 Random things about UR Physics"},"content":{"rendered":"
    \n
  1. The introductory physics courses are all small: capped at 24 students, though usually much smaller.<\/li>\n
  2. Upper level physics courses are even smaller: usually no more than about 10 students in a class.<\/li>\n
  3. We don't have any graduate students!\u00a0 Undergrads are taught by professors, and get to use all the cool equipment themselves.<\/li>\n
  4. Intro physics courses are taught in a "workshop style," where laboratory and classroom elements are integrated together. \u00a0(No separate 3-hour labs, taught by grad students, that aren't related to the lectures.)<\/li>\n
  5. Favorite study break: liquid nitrogen ice cream!<\/li>\n
  6. About 6-10 physics students graduate each year. \u00a0<\/li>\n
  7. All of the tenure-line physics faculty are active researchers, making discoveries and publishing their findings\u20ac\u201dall with the help of undergraduate students. \u00a0<\/li>\n
  8. Do the math: with a small number of majors and lots of research to be done, all students have a chance to get involved, usually by their sophomore years. \u00a0<\/li>\n
  9. First year students can get involved in research too: at least 8 of them, so far this year.<\/li>\n
  10. 100% of the physics faculty have external funding for their research. \u00a0(This means their research is recognized as important in their field. \u00a0It also means more money and opportunities for their students.)<\/li>\n
  11. Students doing research have coauthored papers with faculty in prestigious scientific journals.<\/li>\n
  12. Students frequently travel to national and international scientific conferences to present their work. \u00a0(Some recent destinations: Los Angeles, Denver, Hawaii, Alaska, St. Louis, Oakland\u20ac\u00a6)<\/li>\n
  13. Many of our physics students also study abroad: (Scotland, China, Australia\u20ac\u00a6)<\/li>\n
  14. Many students do research here over the summers, paid by external grants (NSF, etc.) or University fellowships.<\/li>\n
  15. Many physics students are double majors, with a second major in math, computer science, chemistry, biology, political science, philosophy\u20ac\u00a6.<\/li>\n
  16. Students can graduate with either a B.S. or B.A. degree in physics. \u00a0(The B.S. prepares you better for grad school or a technical career; the B.A. offers more flexibility for students with other interests.)<\/li>\n
  17. Favorite physics student hangouts: either the physics student lounge, or any open classroom.<\/li>\n
  18. Best place to watch major sporting events: on the projection TVs in the classrooms after hours.<\/li>\n
  19. Our 3-2 engineering program offers students chance to do 3 years at Richmond, followed by 2 years at a partner engineering school. (Students have also gone straight to grad school in engineering after graduating with a straight-up physics degree.)<\/li>\n
  20. Our resources include a state-of-the-art atomic force microscope and\u00a0a supercomputer cluster, among other major instrumentation, plus very well equipped teaching laboratories.<\/li>\n
  21. Most heavily used physics equipment: the coffee maker. (It's not even close.)<\/li>\n
  22. After graduation, some students have gone on to physics graduate school (University of Chicago, University of Kentucky, Princeton, Johns Hopkins\u20ac\u00a6)<\/li>\n
  23. Other students have followed their dreams elsewhere after graduation: teaching English in China, doing software development in industry, actuarial mathematics, high school teaching….<\/li>\n
  24. Physics students are really friendly!\u00a0 They study together and help each other, and the atmosphere is always fun and supportive.<\/li>\n
  25. We like meeting new physics students.\u00a0 If you’re interested in physics, please come to visit us. \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The introductory physics courses are all small: capped at 24 students, though usually much smaller. Upper level physics courses are even smaller: usually no more than about 10 students in a class. We don't have any graduate students!\u00a0 Undergrads are taught by professors, and get to use all the cool equipment themselves. Intro physics courses … Continue reading 25 Random things about UR Physics<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/physicsnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}