Oct 10, 2024  
Rensselaer Catalog 2019-2020 
    
Rensselaer Catalog 2019-2020 [Archived Catalog]

Applied Physics


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First Year


Fall


  • HASS Elective Credit Hours: 4
    (See footnote 1 below)

Spring


  • Free Elective

Second Year


Fall


  • HASS Elective, Credit Hours: 4
    ​(See footnote 1 below.)

Spring


  • HASS Elective Credit Hours: 4
    (See footnote 1 below.)

Third Year


The Arch Summer Semester*


*For students who have applied for and been granted an exception, The Arch Summer courses would be taken during the fall semester. For listing of the exception process go to: http://info.rpi.edu/arch/students/#ExceptionProcess.

  • HASS Elective Credit Hours: 4
    (
    See footnotes 1 and 8 below.)
  • Free Elective Credit Hours: 4
    (See footnote 8 below.)
  • PHYS 2962Computing for Physicists Free Elective Credit Hours: 2
    (See footnote 6 below.)
  • PHYS 2963 Mathematical Physics Free Elective Credit Hours: 2
    (See footnote 7 below.)

Fall OR Spring*


*If following the B.S. in Applied Physics curriculum, students must select the spring term as their “on-campus” semester.

  • Technical Elective Credit Hours: 4
    (See footnote 5 below.)

Fourth Year


Fall


  • Culminating Experience Credit Hours: 4
    (See footnote 6 below.)
  • Technical Elective Credit Hours: 4
    (See footnote 5 below.)
  • Technical Elective Credit Hours: 4
    (See footnote 5 below.)
  • HASS Elective Credit Hours: 4
    (See footnote 1 below.)

Spring


  • Technical Elective Credit Hours: 4
    (See footnote 5 below.)
  • Free Elective Credit Hours: 4
  • HASS Elective Credit Hours: 4
    (See footnote 1 below.)

Concentrations


The applied physics program requires a concentration of 16 credits in technical electives which focus on a specific technological area. Possible concentrations include, but are not limited to optical physics, medical physics, microelectronics, semiconductor physics, optoelectronics, geophysics, biophysics, computational physics, environmental physics, nuclear science, and space science. Two such concentrations are illustrated below:

Optical Physics


A concentration in optical physics might include four courses from the following list:

Microelectronics


A concentration in microelectronics might include four courses from the following list:

Electives


Applied physics majors planning to pursue graduate study should take advanced physics courses chosen from the following undergraduate- and graduate-level courses:

Additional Information


Students planning on graduate work in astronomy or astrophysics are urged to choose electives from the above list, as well as include the following:

Footnotes


  1. HASS courses shall total 24 credits and meet distribution requirements in the catalog.
  2. PHYS 1100 and PHYS 1200 may be substituted for Honors Physics I and II (PHYS 1150 and PHYS 1250), respectively. 
  3. CSCI 1010 may be substituted for CSCI 1100.
  4. Technical Electives are to be selected with the aid of an adviser in order to create a concentration in an appropriate applied physics field. See “Applied Physics Concentration” below.
  5. Students must complete a culminating experience, which may be fulfilled (i) through research participation; (ii) by passing a designated 4-credit senior elective; or (iii) by passing a designated 3-credit course in Physics or Astronomy plus 1 credit of PHYS 4910.
  6. These courses are only offered week 1 to 6.
  7. These courses are only offered week 7 to 12.
  8. This course can be taken in either weeks 1 to 6 or weeks 7 to 12.
  9. Physics 2350 is a 12-week course.

 

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