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utphysguide
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "utphysguide" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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01:38 pm
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Top picks for 2006-2007
Core classes for the upcoming schoolyear:
Fall 2006:
Classical Mechanics (385K): Udagawa
Statistical Mechanics (385L): Schieve
Electrodynamics (387K): Gleeson
Quantum Mechanics (389K): Bohm
Spring 2007:
Classical Mechanics (385K): Niu
Statistical Mechanics (385L): MacDonald
Electrodynamics (387K): Udagawa
Quantum Mechanics (389K): Sudarshan
To get a general idea of the teaching styles of the above professors, I would recommend reading the comments in the "Professors" section. If you are an older student who has had any of the above professors, I would strongly urge you to leave [constructive] comments and feedback to help the incoming first-years.
Dr. Udagawa's classes are very consistent fom one semester to the next; you can count on a very reasonable workload and exams. The lectures are usually pretty organized and Dr. Udagawa is almost always in his office. Dr. Schieve has recently switched to using his own textbook in his statistical mechanics class, which is more akin to a literature review than a textbook. The review in the professors section pretty well says it all: avoid if at all possible. If you can wait to take stat until the spring, most people would agree that Dr. MacDonald is a much better bet. Dr. Gleeson has taught E&M periodically. He sets a very high workload (which is pretty standard when using the infamous Jackson text) but most of his students like him. Bohm uses his own textbook for his quantum class; students seem to have very mixed opinions. The one recent comment I have heard is that some students find that his pace is fairly slow, which could be good if you have a weak quantum background or need more review. Niu and Sudarshan have not taught core courses in a while, so I don't have anything to add to their reviews in the Professors section of this forum.
Again, I would urge any of you who have had experiences with these professors to post any comments or recommendations.
Good luck!
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10:59 am
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Welcome!
This is the new, interactive version of the Graduate Student Survival Guide as compiled by the students pursuing a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Texas. All of the information contained in the old page is here as entries, but instead of grad students sending comments on certain topics to me, the administrator, now you can just leave anonymous stories as comments to these posts. Readers of this blog should keep that in mind; what you read here could be not the whole picture as often students who are okay with teachers generally don't get worked up enough to write about it.
This is one purpose behind this page: to help the fresh recruits to UT choose which (core) classes they want to take. Unfortunately, professors are chosen to teach classes here not based on merit, but willingness. This means that if a professor volunteers to teach a class, he is assigned that task, even if it is known students come away with little or no knowledge of the subject. The only hope a student has is to choose their classes wisely. Of course, at some point you will probably be stuck taking a core from one of the less recommended teachers, so knowing their weak points can help you choose which bitter pill you want to swallow. The core classes at UT are not designed to be fun or inspiring. Often times I got the feeling that like Green Beret boot camp, the first two years leading up to my qualifier were meant to weed out the weak rather than give me a good foundation of physics knowledge.
Sometimes, though, the pain doesn't stop after classes do as people choose research groups that are not a good fit. Arguably this is a worse scenario to end up in than a bad class as you will be working for your adviser for years, but a class only lasts a semester. When you do decide to pick a group, MAKE SURE YOU TALK TO THE STUDENTS IN THAT GROUP!!!! I can't stress this enough. Ask them lots of questions. See how happy they look. Do they appear pale and gnarled as if they never saw the sun? Are red welts peaking out from beneath their t-shirt after "getting a talking to" from adviser? Do they know what their adviser looks like, or for all they know could he be conducting experiments on the moon? Like the core classes, it's important to know not only that someone has published great stuff in the field your interested in, but also what their faults are to make sure you can live with them.
Don't let this discourage you. Keep in mind that if you are here, you probably at some point enjoyed physics. Eventually you will get back to where this love of the science will once again be rewarded. Right now, though, you have to get through the perils of grad school. Fortunately, those of us who have been there can help by pointing out the deeper pits you want to avoid so that you get back to loving what you do.
Those of you coming to this page as veteran scholars should pass on the pearls of wisdom you have acquired over your years here. New students should use this to help you get through your classes and choose a research group. Remember, advances are made not because of our individual knowledge, but because we share what we have learned with a larger community. So post, and read the posts. And may the force be with you...
My email: ut.phys.guide@gmail.com.
***********INDEX**********
Professors
Fall2005
Research Groups
Teaching
Administrative Guidelines
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09:50 am
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Administration
This site is administered by me, an anonymous grad student. Obviously anonymity is important since we are effectively criticizing our bosses and want to graduate eventually. I reserve the right to delete comments I deem offensive or inappropriate. If I delete a comment of yours and you think it was undeserved, you can email me at ut.phys.guide(at)gmail. You can also email me there if you have questions, concerns, or suggestions.
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11:11 am
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Fall 2005
Hello!
The Fall 2005 schedule has been posted!
For a change, Mike Downer, experimentalist, is teaching E&M. This might be a good choice, but it is also the untested one. In this reviewer's opinion, the second best option would be Udagawa for Classical mechanics, although others have not found him as helpful as I did. Bohm in the past received a pretty mixed write up, some people saying that as a person he's not very nice. But as I am not at all personally familiar with him, I hesitate to reccomend any type of decision. Reichl will more than likely teach out of her book and the class might be a rather homogenous presentation of the material. Also, be aware that in the past she has given very low grades to some students and tends to binary grade.
Since no recent information is available on two of these professors, it would be nice if some of you would leave some recommendations.
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11:59 pm
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Professors
Here is a list of the professors for people to leave comments about them. Included is the material from the previous Survival Guide. Please consider that this sight is intended to inform other graduate students. You can leave an anonymous comment just by clicking on the "Comment on this" link.
If there is a professor missing that you would like to comment on, you can leave a comment in the "Others" section and I will make an entry for that person.
*************PROFESSORS*********************
If you want to respond to what is posted here, feel free! Even though traditionally the Survival Guide has been by students for students, hearing both sides of the story would help students make better decisions.
*************DISCLAIMER*********************
The opinions expressed here are of the individual submitting them, not those of the person maintaining this site, the University of Texas, or the UT Physics Department.
*************INDEX**************************
Others
Steven Weinberg
Takeshi Udagawa
Jack Swift
George Sudarshan
William Schieve
Linda Reichl
Sonia Paban
Qian Niu
Philip Morrison
Richard Matzner
Michael Marder
Allen MacDonald
Josh Klein
Vadim Kaplunovsky
Wendell Horton
Ricahrd Hazeltine
Austin Gleeson
Richard Fitzpatrick
Willy Fischler
William Drummond
Jacques Distler
Duane Dicus
W. Rory Coker
Arno Bohm
Herbert Berk
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10:21 am
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Steven Weinberg
A rare treat is to have your own Laureate lecture annually a Cosmology course. His course gets fairly good reviews. Most of the advantage is the insight he offers, but his derivations occasionally contained errors; and, as they can often be original, there are few places to check them. Also, don't be choosy in the insight you get - he can be hostile to inferior questioners. Weinberg ostensibly uses his own book, but he is really using an updated version. He gives out notes, but it will be better when the new edition is available.
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10:21 am
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Takeshi Udagawa
A fastidious lecturer who sets a reasonable work-load. He occasionally gets mired in 10 minute searches for signs that didn't work out and is not afraid to erase the last 15 minutes of board work as being "totally wrong," but on the whole is well organized (some people disagree with this). The notes you take typically turn out to be quite good (some people disagree with this too), which is fortunate since they are the primary source for exam material. Watch for "binary grading" - all or nothing (though this is not always the case), as well as the thick accent.
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10:20 am
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Jack Swift
Often presents very good lectures. Homeworks are reasonable and relevant. Some dislike the puntcuated-monotonic oratorical style, but this is something you have to decide for yourself. His fluid mechanics and nonlinear dynamics courses are well recommended. Expect to find "Questions, problems, and derivations" on exams.
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10:20 am
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George Sudarshan
A prominent professor who knows much, but seems to harbor some disdain for chalk and slate, preferring instead to engage in discourses on the nature of quantum mechanics. Be alert for deep insights couched in murky metaphors. This can be interesting, but it's tough to learn more than qualitative features without some initiative on your part. Homeworks are pretty easy. He's generous with grades and the department has actually lowered them before.
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10:19 am
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William Schieve
An infuriatingly aloof lecturer ("the [eigenvalue for a spin-1/2 system] is 3/2 hbar, I looked it up"); be prepared for some frustration with the hieroglyphics he writes on the board and the way he calls every Greek letter "sigma." One student suggested using the force - closing your eyes, ignoring the board, and only writing what you hear, which tends to be correct. It is clear that he understands subjects like classical and statistical mechanics well, but he tends to be less than effective in conveying that knowledge on the board. The word on the street is "avoid if at all possible, and even when not possible." If confrontation is necessary, make sure to ask around for copies of old exams. Some people think that "he's not that bad," and others have confessed a real affection for him.
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10:18 am
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Linda Reichl
Has written her own book for Statistical Mechanics and will obviously use it, but unfortunately more or less reads from it. There is little of the additional insight which usually comes from the professor's own lectures, though they are very clear and organized (coming from her own text). Beware of her all or nothing grading approach, Seriously. Concentrate on solving problems completely on her exams, since the partial credit you'll get is negligible. Recent reports have her grading becoming almost entirely binary. Concurrently, many low grades have been sighted on the final list (Ds!), meaning the end of some students. Expect that there will be several results you will almost need to have memorized to get right. Watch out if you're off by factors of two and memorize the precise definition of every critical exponent. The key is to work on the problems in her book that she didn't assign as homework and to follow the methods she presents. Prefers to give her midterms (typically 3 of them) outside normal class hours, occasionally at night.
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10:17 am
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Sonia Paban
Paban puts together a very strong course. Her Quantum course was praised for good structure, good board work and lecturing, and reasonably good homework sets (though the grading was sketchy - blame the grader). Office hours were useful, but you had to fight your way through the swarm. The only complaints were that she followed Sakurai too closely, which gets ugly halfway through, and then seems to lack enthusiasm.
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10:08 am
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Qian Niu
His courses have known to have been polar opposites with some well worked out, and others seeming off the cuff. However, Niu is helpful to students outside of class and welcomes office visits. The sign of trouble is when he drags through the first half of the course and then raced for the remainder, with the homework sets accelerating as well.
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10:06 am
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Philip Morrison
Excellent teacher in the sense of presenting information in an interesting and thorough manner. If you have questions you would like answered outside of class, limit your visits to office hours and make sure your questions are good ones. Expect lots of homework and unsolvable problems on his midterms. The homework makes an important contribution to the class, however, so if the grader is not returning assignments on time, complain bitterly. If the grader loses an assignment, kill that grader. Watch out for the bloodletting when returning problem sets. Some students have complained that his Classical course has started to get stale; the notes have stagnated as semi-accurate, but the textbooks have fallen away; his class is still interesting and full of anecdotes, but they are they same as told before. Also, he has become a slave to his nonstandard approach such that inexperienced mechanists make have trouble following the twists and turns.
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10:04 am
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Richard Matzner
He is not at all an inspiring lecturer, so attendance to his classes tends to drop off sharply long before the end of the semester. His demeanor outside of class is much better, but this does not make up for lectures which can consist of copying formulae incorrectly out of Jackson. Beware of Jackson problems on his E&M midterms. His Relativity course is not for the casual physicist. The amount of work is extreme and the lectures are of little help; though, some students have gotten away with doing very little of the work, so you can consider the grading policy to be "lax". On a few occasions students have been known to daydream of the implications of a black hole impinging on Matzner.
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10:03 am
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Michael Marder
Marder most recently taught the year-long Condensed Matter sequence. He does not give out a take-home any more but replaces it instead with a very reasonable in-class midterm and final (grades based on 60% HW, 20% mid-term, 20% final). His homework can be a bit time consuming, but is quite interesting. One has to expect some computational work as well. He uses his own book which he follows pretty much. He emphasizes the meaning of the physics and refers to the details in the handouts rather than putting it all on the board - students have even commented that the approach might be too intuitive. He is very approachable by e-mail and during office hours. Lots of people think that he's an excellent teacher and enjoy his courses.
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10:03 am
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Allan MacDonald
MacDonald has taught several courses to the satisfaction of most all of his students. He is able to make a student get interested in a subject completely unrelated to her own field of study. His BEC course, specifically, was praised for hitting both the theoretical and experimental sides - no easy task in an emerging field. He takes a very methodical tact that seems slow, but ends up covering a great amount of material. He wasn't so much help on the particulars of the problem sets - maybe see the grader instead. The one serious complaint is his class timing - they always seem to be at 8 am and he is often out of town and has to make up lectures.
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10:02 am
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Josh Klein
An animated lecturer who makes sure to drag students into the discussion. Some call it Aristotelian, others call it pedantic; regardless, you are unlikely to fall asleep in this class. Students seemed to learn a lot from Klein's Neutrinos class where he is said to have made complicated matters simple to understand. A good sense of humor made students feel free to speak up.
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10:01 am
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Vadim Kaplunovsky
An extremely rigorous and demanding professor who has crawled through the muddy details of every imaginable facet of physics and expects the same of students. Reports of 20 hours per weekly assignment are common; he teaches a tough class, but you will learn something by it all. His Quantum Mechanics II course is extremely well prepared and shouldn't be missed. If you feel up to it, sign up, but the grades are not free.
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09:59 am
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Wendell Horton
He tries, but he is not a very effective teacher. The main complaint is that he fails to emphasize the important details of the material he's covering. Many students fail to gain very much insight into the material covered, unless they already know the subject well; in which case his lectures can actually contribute to their knowledge. He occasionally lapses into bouts of reading directly from Jackson or Saletan , so even the more motivated students can quickly lose interest. Those who are highly self-motivated and can teach themselves may be better suited to this style of instruction. Horton is very approachable, however, and welcomes students' questions.
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