/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.7115512]

Lets complain about our departments

>no course in algebraic topology

[Anonymous No.7115514]

>>7115512
must really be a shit tier uni

[Anonymous No.7115865]

no course in developmental biology. suck my ass

[Anonymous No.7115876]

>>7115512
my geology department is largely run by idiots

[Anonymous No.7115877]

>tfw my university doesn't offer awareness campaigns for gender issues in mathematics

[Anonymous No.7115885]

>>7115877
Men already do fine in maths, how would an awareness campaign help them any more?

[Anonymous No.7115889]

>very little lab time for mechanical vibrations/solid mechanics courses
>most lecturers are more concerned about their investigations and stuff

[Anonymous No.7115894]

>>7115512
Theoretical computer science courses are only for maths majors.

[Anonymous No.7116069]

Topology and Differential Geometry once every two years.
Offered PDEs for the first time in like 7 years last year. Got cancelled this year due to only about 5 people enrolling in it.

[Anonymous No.7116071]

>>7115894
>>7116069
Move to another uni?

[Anonymous No.7116076]

>>7115512
>only lets you take 2 graduate classes for credit
>going to run out of math classes before I'm able to graduate
>no course in algebraic geometry

[Anonymous No.7116100]

>>7116069
I had a course last semester with 3 people in attendance. 5 people is the norm, lol.

[Anonymous No.7116608]

aerospace minor is highschool-tier

[Anonymous No.7116622]

>>7115512

> ODE before Theoretical Methods in Physics
> Theoretical Physics before Wave Mechanics
> Computer Science is a core class for Physics
> PDE isn't needed for Physics

[Anonymous No.7116628]

>>7116100
For grad classes it is, but this wasn't one. Faggot professors can't be bothered to teach 5 undergrads at this terrible school.

[Anonymous No.7116649]

>Most of the interesting classes are experimental
>The really good ones are only taught once every 2 years
>Master's program is only 2 years

[Anonymous No.7116667]

>Group theory not required
>Topology not required
>Variational calculus not required for experimental physics stream
>QM taught without emphasis on the mathematical structure
>Particle physics stream doesn't require condensed matter I
>Renormalization group analysis not a course of its own
I can go on and on. Shit's too lax here.

[Anonymous No.7116675]

>no astronautics courses

[Anonymous No.7116682]

>>7116628
I had the same stuff that you're complaining about at your old school and I transferred. Shit at my new school rocks. No complaints. Oh, except Econ 101 is too difficult here.

>>7116667
Is this for a Masters in physics? It seems pretty normal not to have those subjects in undergrad for physics.

[Anonymous No.7116689]

>course for more advanced abstract algebra is listed, but never offered
Well, at least they have a fourier analysis course.

[Anonymous No.7116692]

>>7116682
It's for graduate school level courses, but group theory, topology and variational calculus should be required for undergrad.

[Anonymous No.7116703]

>>7116692
Variational calculus, yes x1000. Group theory and topology are questionable. They would just cause students to burn out on the math reqs and drop out of the undergrad program.

[Anonymous No.7116709]

i like my dept. really small but offers lots of great courses. only thing that's lame is they only allow 9 credits (3 courses) of grad classes that are taken as undergrads to count toward a graduate degree

[Anonymous No.7116712]

>>7116692
>group theory, topology
>for undergrad physics
What? Do you mean undergrad math?

[Anonymous No.7116713]

>>7116703
It's literally a sin to not have a bit of group theory and representations under your belt when learning QM. Symmetry groups pretty much determine the mathematical structures of models in QM.
>Burn out
It's not that fucking hard. The only higher level maths courses required are PDE, fluid dynamics, numerical analysis and intro to measure theory.

[Anonymous No.7116718]

>>7116709

[Anonymous No.7116719]

>>7116712
No.

[Anonymous No.7116740]

>>7116622
>Computer Science is a core class for physics
and it should be

if you don't know how to code then best of luck to you buddy

[Anonymous No.7116742]

>>7116713
Burning out isn't about difficulty. It's just that the average physics undergrad is going to hate taking those math courses, and will just switch to something that doesn't require those classes.

The amount of group theory you need for undergrad QM can be taught in the QM class.

[Anonymous No.7116749]

my physics department has only one teacher, and shes tenured out the ass and runs tests that should only be 2 hours to be 4-6 hours longs

[Anonymous No.7116785]

>>7116742
>It's just that the average physics undergrad is going to hate taking those math courses
How do you figure? I enjoyed those classes when I was in undergrad, even though they're not required.
>The amount of group theory you need for undergrad QM can be taught in the QM class.
That'd be too taxing on the schedule, unless you're underestimating how much group theory can do for QM.

[Anonymous No.7116809]

>>7116785
>How do you figure?
Your perspective is different because you elected to take those courses, and you wanted to go into a grad program. A lot of people who are doing an undergrad in physics have different goals, and are kind of just there to learn physics, not a bunch of math.
>group theory and QM
Honestly, there isn't a course in most math departments that's going to talk about groups in the way that physicists talk about groups. It's better that the physicists just talk about the notions that they want to use.

[Anonymous No.7116815]

>pharm dept full of old hacks that are too lazy to update material presented in class and write shitty test questions.

Kind of fucks me over. but at least the micro/immuno dept is pretty legit.

[Anonymous No.7116827]

>>7116809
I was more or less focusing on the specific physics majors that want to get into grad school (i.e. physics honours students). Of course those higher level math courses wouldn't matter much for other physics majors.
>It's better that the physicists just talk about the notions that they want to use.
Fair enough. It's just that I found my undergrad QM courses to be lacking in some group theoretic demonstrations, even though it's an extremely useful and powerful tool.

[Anonymous No.7116874]

>everybody doing fucking biomath

don't have anything against it really but it's not my thing and i'm kind of a loner as far as research direction

[Anonymous No.7116880]

>>7116069
similar for me, they alternated the "theoretical" PDE with numerical PDE in different years. there was a stochastic calculus sequence that you had to start every two years or something. not the department's fault really but still annoying

[Anonymous No.7116894]

>Be me
>Community college
>no associate's degree in Engineering

[Anonymous No.7116911]

>>7116622

I do comp sci so I'm biased, but I think the more mathematical aspects of comp sci should be useful for physicists. I mean you're all smart enough to make a python script to number crunch with fast libraries, so an intro comp sci course is wasted, but some of the algorithm stuff I'd definitely recommend.

I dont know much about physics though

[Anonymous No.7116914]

>>7116911
Algorithms like Monte Carlo and density functional theory are plenty for physicists. And really numerical analysis is still a small fraction of what theorists do.

[Anonymous No.7116915]

>>7116914
>numerical analysis is still a small fraction of what theorists do
but most physicists aren't purely theorists

[Anonymous No.7116938]

>>7115512
>One of the biggest and most prestigious STEM schools in the country

>Not a single undergrad course in nuclear physics

[Anonymous No.7117022]

>No courses or interest in mathematical logic.

[Anonymous No.7117025]

>>7115877
Women make up about 45% of the population in mathematics. You're thinking about those homosexuals in the engineering department and those /mlp/ aspies in the comp sci department.