opelton

Thanks for sharing your experience. Yeah, that Expotent job sounds like a cool job in principal, but there's no way I would agree to those hours either! Sounds like you might have a solid path ahead of you in academia, best of luck For me, I think I'm going to start out with a PhD in physics, mainly because I still feel hungry to learn more. I'll re-evaluate how I feel after a year or two.

Thanks TakeruK for the reply, it was helpful. Hmmm.. I need to think through what I want to do in life. I love physics, but a career in research seems like high stress low reward to me at the moment.

Hey physics grad students, How common is it for companies to throw finance/business offers to physics PhD students at your school? (either asking you to leave, or for after you finish) And what kind of offers are they? (job, pay, etc)

Yeah, I thankfully have professors I'm close with who didn't mind a short 2 week notice. I sent in my application today, put a lot of work into it. Wouldn't have gone through the trouble without the help from here, so thanks again!

Thank you very much chaparral, your answers do help me a lot. That's good to know that I won't be held to the project I propose, I'm going to give it a shot!

Hi everyone, great thread and thank you for all the useful information! I just learned about the NSF GRF 1 weeks ago, my deadline for physics is in 2 weeks-- a bit rushed! I need to decide if I should apply now, or wait and apply next year as a 1st year graduate student. I have several questions! 1) Is it better to apply as undergrad or 1st year grad student... any info on this? 2) Does the $32,000 stipend add to, or replace the university stipend? 3) How specific does my research proposal need to be? I'm not even sure which school I'm going to yet! Not sure how I can write an extremely detailed research proposal. However, if undergrads have a better shot at getting accepted, then I'll give it a shot. Thanks in advance!