Personal Statement
I choose to be a physics major at Furman University because it was a subject that I loved, and one that I excelled in. Dr. Baker, one of my professors, always reminds us that, “knowledge of physics isn’t something that you can be born with; that’s why you don’t see any physics prodigies like you do in fields like music. Physics is something that you learn. It builds up over time, like mercury poisoning.” So, I studied arduously, took lots of math and physics classes, and accumulated lots of knowledge and problem solving skills. However, in my later classes like advanced electromagnetics and quantum dynamics, everything seemed quixotic. It was easy to see the practical uses of classical mechanics and other early classes, but physics began to morph into a subject that seemed too theoretical for my taste. At this time I was looking into cutting-edge physics research to see if there were any that I was excited about. It was only then that I found a solution to my problem. During my research on places like Oak Ridge and CERN, and found that I was much more impressed by the engineering involved in these huge machines and reactors than the actual physics being studied. I began to explore the world of engineering, and I loved it. Last summer I had to
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I am glad that I did physics, even if I am switching to a different discipline, because it helped me develop my problem solving skills, my applied math, it taught me how to program, and much more. I think that this background combined with an engineering graduate education would be extremely useful, and they would compliment each other well. I have read through quite a few engineering books, and they seem to sometimes glance over what is actually happening physically. Having a deeper understand of physics definitely made understanding everything a lot easier, and will give me a competitive edge in the engineering