Quote:
Originally Posted by Foxx
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honestly I have never come across a physics professor who is worth his/her salt. Don't get me wrong, I am sure they are brilliant, but have absolutely zero business teaching anybody. I did well in the classes, but they are horrible. This goes for the entire physics department at my school. They are also deffinetly elitist. I had a friend of mine majoring in Physics, and when she went to the department head about trying to dual major in Physics and Mechanical Engineering, they gave her a ton of grief over it and wouldn't let her. After continuing to try and get permission to do this (from above there head, I guess) they dropped her from the program and she just switched to engineering.
I have never had a good experience with a physics department any school I have attended, or heard a good experience from other students at other schools.
All that, I am not taking anything away from there brilliance, like I said before I know they are all very well educated and intelligent people. Nearly all of them have a doctorate in physics, or a similar field, but they all have a huge ego, and several other things I dont like about them, but I guess I shouldn't generalize.
On a side note, most professors I have come across who teach engineering are great people, and the people I have gotten the opportunity to work with in the engineering field are great, and exactly the opposite experience I had with the physics folk.
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Great post! I agree, growing up in the physics environment can be extremely disheartening. My PhD adviser was brutally egostistical, and he told me about 6 months into research that "I am the master, you are the slave, I don't like it, but it must be that way". It is one thing that it is universally implied, but explicitly saying it indicates another level of arrogance/elitism. In fact, right after I defended my thesis, he said, "now you can call me by my first name". So trust me, I know EXACTLY what you mean in terms of a shitty physics culture.
I am sad you haven't found a great physics professor. Most of them are awful yes, and physicists have failed the world by not fascinating more young people to become physicists and showing how sexy the subject really is. However, there are diamonds in the rough, you just see the coal in introductory courses. Intro courses are scoffed at, when you get to junior/senior level courses, those shitty profs (some of them) hit their stride like its child's play. I had a stat mech teacher who could not find his way out of a mime's pretend box in physics I, but when I had him for advanced statistical mechanics as a senior, he enlightened us. Extrapolating your diamond analogy, to the untrained eye, diamond's natural state is coal. Most students see the coal part of physics because it is taught by assistant professors trying to get tenure and ignoring their teaching responsibilities, or old degraded diamonds of tenured professors, just fulfilling their required duties. However, teaching takes time to master, and one can harden and sharpen rough pieces of coal and forge diamonds. The trick is finding them.
I actually was contemplating going into geology/geophysics in grad school because physicists (for the most part) are poindexter, know-it-all, elite braggarts. However I love physics too much. I aspire to get a more teaching-oriented physics professorship, so I try to keep perspective on not becoming one of "them" that you speak of. In fact, I quit my major in pure math (which I was much more talented at) because of departmental a**holes in the math department, so I know exactly how your friend felt! It feels like abandonment.
Thanks for adding some good analysis to the thread
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