I don't understand why their are two courses for Electromagnatism II. THey have the same exact course description. Can somebody enlightening on the true main difference between those two courses?

6/21/2007 2:38:09 PM

[obvious]You get graduate credit for 514[/obvious]

Seriously though, courses that are listed as both grad and undergrad typically have an extra project, more homework, or similar additional work to get graduate credit.

6/21/2007 2:50:26 PM

the only difference is that the 414 students are usually better.

6/21/2007 3:08:17 PM

so should i take py514 instead of py414 if I want to attend graduate school?

6/21/2007 4:07:07 PM

Graduate credits from undergrad don't typically transfer

(if you were staying here for grad school, that might change things a little--I'm not sure).

6/21/2007 5:04:42 PM

in my experience, credits for graduate courses rarely if ever transfer. Maybe if you are lucky there will be a graduate director with some common sense where you transfer, but don't count on it. Hasn't worked for my friends.

On the other hand, the physics courses PY 414,415,411,412,401,402 are pretty much as good as is gets for undergraduate physics. It is the first time you get a real glimpse of real physics. Its not watered down for the masses, it's math-a-blazing, gloves-off, hard core, application of basic principles to interesting problems (thus the whining of the stupider undergrads). At times it will hurt your brain, mostly due to the volume of the homework load (20 hours a week).

If you're worried just take the 500 level ones, unless things have changed they ought to be the same course, they were when I took these courses.

If you do stay here for gradschool I would assume it wouldn't matter, the real reason for these 500-level courses is that most other physics undergrad programs are not nearly as good as the one here at NCSU.

6/21/2007 10:24:57 PM

These kinds of courses are really useful for combined 5 year BS/MS degrees. They can double count towards your BS and your MS. I don't know if physics has this. Some of the engineering departments do.

6/22/2007 12:36:26 AM

So here's the deal.

I am doing the 5 MS/BS program here at State with the NE department. I was considering doing my minor in physics since I already have a BS from the PY department. I talked with Dr. Stephen Reynolds, one of my profs, and also Dr. Charles Johnson, my physics advisor, about it.

They said that unless you are part of the physics graduate department you will not be able to take graduate level courses. There are a few exceptions if you are part of the department and if you know the right professors / taken the right classes.

PY 515 is not the graduate level Electrodynamics course. They have PY 785 which would be the actual graduate level. PY 515 is for grad students in the physics department with little to no physics background who are playing catch up.

For double counting MS/BS credits, thats exactly what I wanted to do, but exactly for that reason they would not allow it.

7/10/2007 10:29:04 AM

^ that general resistance to other dept's students taking grad. physics courses is soooooo stupid. I'm happy the math dept. here suffers no such arbitrary and unecessary rule.

7/10/2007 1:01:44 PM

^^ that seems strange to me though. when i took classical mechanics, i am pretty sure there were grad students from other departments in my class. i could be wrong, or things could have changed, but that just seems like a silly restriction

7/10/2007 1:15:41 PM

^^^That must be a new policy. I was able to sign up for 785 back in 2000 or 2001 without any problems. However, I did switch minors to MSE (it was closer to my dissertation work) after a week or so.

Check and see if the courses are co-listed. For instance, NE 528 is (or was) co-listed. I thought that PY 414/415 were both co-listed as NE. If they are co-listed, you should be able to count them towards your BS/MS.

If your minor is going to be physics I don't see how you could get away without taking any graduate level physics classes. Since you have a BS in physics already, you have the background to immediately take physics classes.

[Edited on July 10, 2007 at 2:08 PM. Reason : one more ^]

7/10/2007 2:07:55 PM

I got the runaround when I tried to take grad. E&M as an undergrad. I just wanted to Audit it, the prof. said I would have to do all the homework and get a 70 average or higher for an S.

Yeah, right.

7/10/2007 11:23:35 PM

who was teaching it? sounds like something johnson would say

7/10/2007 11:36:13 PM

^ it does sound like a Johnson or Mowat type move but it was Ji I think.

7/11/2007 1:59:01 PM

PY 414/415 and PY 528 are co-listed as NEs as well but that policy changed as well.
In 2003 the College of Engineering changed ABET requirements. If the colisted course is not taught by an Engineering professor then it is null and void to count for a technical elective. So in the case of PY 414/415 it was taught by Lado and now Reynolds. It doesn't carry over to the NE department.


In terms of courses I could take as minor courses in the MS NE degree I would be limited to the basic courses offered by the physics department. Some would include:

PY 506 507 508 509 516

Granted I have an undergrad in physics I could satisfy the prerequisites for these courses. Someone else though would have to go through the different E&M, Classical, and/or Quantum to take the 500s.

7/17/2007 5:51:33 PM