Princeton vs Berkeley. Physics Ph.D. 2015Fall

[CHRISTLIANG]

Tough decision. Condensed Matter Exp.

 

For Princeton, I have interests in Prof. Nai Phuan Ong's group doing topological material. For Berkeley, I have interests in Prof. Feng Wang's quantum optics group. Both field are familiar to me. The point is, Bay area is sooooo attracting. 

 

So, please give me some advice! 

 

THX! )

[csStudent]

Both of them are gr8 !

If you do not have family then go with your heart ! 

[pinkgirlcollections]

If academic perspectives are equal to you, pick the location then. Princeton is a nice and peaceful college town while Berkeley is "fun" and hip. (I went to Berkeley for a master degree in EE) Some people love the environment and some hate it. Visit the campus before making your decision if you can.

[laminator]

For Princeton, I have interests in Prof. Nai Phuan Ong's group doing topological material. For Berkeley, I have interests in Prof. Feng Wang's quantum optics group. Both field are familiar to me. The point is, Bay area is sooooo attracting. 

 

 

Did my undergrad at Berkeley. I think it's one of the most awesome places to live in California, and that's saying something.

 

(Also took a class with Feng Wang, he was a pretty good professor, no idea how he'd be for an advisor though, my research was in particle.)

Edited March 1, 2015 by laminator

[CHRISTLIANG]

Both of them are gr8 !

If you do not have family then go with your heart ! 

Yeah, my GF will go for a master degree in SINGAPORE. So, I don't have the problem of family. 

[CHRISTLIANG]

If academic perspectives are equal to you, pick the location then. Princeton is a nice and peaceful college town while Berkeley is "fun" and hip. (I went to Berkeley for a master degree in EE) Some people love the environment and some hate it. Visit the campus before making your decision if you can.

Actually, the most attracting point of Berkeley for me now is the weather and its location near SF. I can not bear a winter with such a low temperature as the east coast. 

[CHRISTLIANG]

Did my undergrad at Berkeley. I think it's one of the most awesome places to live in California, and that's saying something.

 

(Also took a class with Feng Wang, he was a pretty good professor, no idea how he'd be for an advisor though, my research was in particle.)

Thanks for the advice. Do you know the job opportunity for Berkeley graduate students (especially physics major) in the Bay area?  Will they have some priority than other graduate students there? 

[laminator]

I think the bay area is a good place to find jobs in general, but it depends what you want to do after your ph.d. I certainly didn't have trouble finding jobs with a physics undergrad from Berkeley, but I was trying to leave the bay for a little while, so I don't know about the specifics there. I can't imagine having a ph.d. from either of these schools will be bad for your job prospects, but I would recommend keeping up your CS or engineering skills or something, both because they're useful for physics researchers, and because they offer a graceful exit option if there aren't enough physics jobs.

[CHRISTLIANG]

I think the bay area is a good place to find jobs in general, but it depends what you want to do after your ph.d. I certainly didn't have trouble finding jobs with a physics undergrad from Berkeley, but I was trying to leave the bay for a little while, so I don't know about the specifics there. I can't imagine having a ph.d. from either of these schools will be bad for your job prospects, but I would recommend keeping up your CS or engineering skills or something, both because they're useful for physics researchers, and because they offer a graceful exit option if there aren't enough physics jobs.

Talking about CS&Engineering skills, is there any chance for me to find an adviser from another department, lets say EECE @ Berkeley?  I think one advantage of Berkeley over Princeton is its strength in both natural sciences and engineering, so maybe there are much more opportunities there in Berkeley for me? Am I right? 

[laminator]

I can't speak specifically to the ability to be dual-advised, but that might be a good thing to ask Feng about while you are deciding. One of my potential Ph.D. advisors suggested I could do a masters in CS along the way, so it seems like some advisors are open to it, but this is in a different field. I do know that most the grad students I knew took some courses outside physics to broaden their skill set, and you will probably require those skills for your research anyway. I learned about everything from EE to CS in the process of doing my research. I do think that Berkeley is a good place in that sense, our EE/CS department is probably top 3, and pretty much any other engineering area is top 5.

[CHRISTLIANG]

I can't speak specifically to the ability to be dual-advised, but that might be a good thing to ask Feng about while you are deciding. One of my potential Ph.D. advisors suggested I could do a masters in CS along the way, so it seems like some advisors are open to it, but this is in a different field. I do know that most the grad students I knew took some courses outside physics to broaden their skill set, and you will probably require those skills for your research anyway. I learned about everything from EE to CS in the process of doing my research. I do think that Berkeley is a good place in that sense, our EE/CS department is probably top 3, and pretty much any other engineering area is top 5.

I think I should ask Feng about that. Thank you very much for sharing. BTW, are you applying for 2015Fall too? You mentioned you will leave Bay area, which offer will you choose? 

[laminator]

I actually already left the bay area, I am trying to decide between Princeton and Stanford myself, but I also left the physics field, so it's a slightly different problem. I'm not sure yet where I will go.

[CHRISTLIANG]

I actually already left the bay area, I am trying to decide between Princeton and Stanford myself, but I also left the physics field, so it's a slightly different problem. I'm not sure yet where I will go.

Get it. I think Stanford may pay much better than Princeton and the weather is also attracting there. I will make a trip to Bay area as well as Princeton late this month. I think I will have an answer after the trip.

[Argon]

I'm not in the same field, but I definitely agree with the advice about visiting. The Berkeley environment is absolutely fantastic for some people while others really hate it. I happen to fall into the latter, but I'd say I'm the minority. I completely didn't expect visiting to make much of a difference, but it truly did (I was making the choice between Berkeley and Princeton for ChemE).

[CHRISTLIANG]

I'm not in the same field, but I definitely agree with the advice about visiting. The Berkeley environment is absolutely fantastic for some people while others really hate it. I happen to fall into the latter, but I'd say I'm the minority. I completely didn't expect visiting to make much of a difference, but it truly did (I was making the choice between Berkeley and Princeton for ChemE).

Yes, there are also some friends around me hate the weather of Berkeley. They say they would like a white winter than a green one. So far, I am a little bit on the Princeton side. Have you visited the Princeton campus yet? How about the environment there?