Undergraduate Degrees @ Penn State Physics

Untitled Recommended Academic Plan for Physics - Electronics Option (PHYS at University Park)
Effective Summer 2009

Semester 1	Credits	Semester 2	Credits
GA, GH, or GS elective**	3	ENGL 015 or 030 (GWS)** Composition	3
CHEM 110 (GN) Chemical Principles	3	CHEM 112 (GN) Chemical Principles	3
CHEM 111 (GN) Experimental Chemistry	1	CHEM 113 (GN) Experimental Chemistry	1
MATH 140 (GQ) Calc. w/Analy. Geometry I	4	MATH 141 (GQ) Calc. w/Analy. Geometry II	4
PHYS 211 (GN) General Physics: Mechanics	4	PHYS 212 (GN) Gen. Physics: Elec. & Magnetism	4
FYS*	1
Total Credits:	16	Total Credits:	15
Semester 3	Credits	Semester 4	Credits
CMPEN 271 Intro. to Digital Systems	3	CAS 100 (GWS) Effective Speech	3
Programming	3	EE 210 Circuits and Devices	4
MATH 251 Oridinary & Partial Diff. Equations	4	MATH 220 (GQ) Matrices	2
PHYS 213 (GN) Gen. Physics: Fluids and Thermal	2	MATH 230 Calculus and Vector Analysis	4
PHYS 214 (GN) Gen. Physics: Wave Motion and Quantum	2	PHYS 237 Intro. to Modern Physics	3
GA, GH, or GS elective	3
Total Credits:	17	Total Credits:	16
Semester 5	Credits	Semester 6	Credits
GA, GH, or GS elective	3	PHYS 410 Intro. to Quantum Mechanics I	4
MATH 405 Advanced Calc. for ENGR & SCIEN I	3	PHYS 400 Inter. Electricity & Magnetism I	3
PHYS 419 Theoretical Mechanics	3	MATH 406 Advanced Calc. for ENGR & SCIEN II	3
EE 350 Continuous-Time Linear Systems	4	EE 310 Electronic Circuit Design	4
GHA elective	1.5	PHYS 444 Topics in Contemporary Physics	2
Elective	3
Total Credits:	17.5	Total Credits:	16
Semester 7	Credits	Semester 8	Credits
PHYS 412 Solid State Physics I	3	PHYS 420 Thermal Physics	3
ENGL 202C (GWS) Effective Writing	3	Option elective†	3
GA, GH, or GS elective	3	GA, GH, or GS elective	3
Option elective†	3	Elective	3
GA, GH, or GS elective	3	GN elective	3
GHA elective	1.5	PHYS 457W Experimental Physics	3
Total Credits:	16.5	Total Credits:	18

Bold type indicates courses requiring a quality grade of C or better.
Italics indicates courses that satisfy both major and General Education requirements.
Bold Italics indicates courses requiring a quality grade of C or better and that satisfy both major and General Education requirements.
GWS, GHA, GQ, GN, GA, GH, and GS are codes used to identify General Education requirements.
US, IL, and US;IL are codes used to designate courses that satisfy University United States/International Cultures requirements.
W is the code used to designate courses that satisfy University Writing Across the Curriculum requirements.

Scheduling patterns for courses not taught each semester:

* The Physics FYS (PSU 016 SCI FYS, Physics Sec 350) is only offered in Fall semester.

Program Notes:

Academic Advising Notes:

"Programming" refers to the CMPSC 201 (GQ) or CMPSC 101 (GQ) or CSE 121 (GQ) requirement, and can be taken earlier in the curriculum if desired.
** indicates that one can freely switch the order of these two choices.
†Select 3 credits from EE 311(3), 320(3), or 367(3).
†Select 6 credits from CSE 312(3), 412(3), 447(3), 471(3), 477(3), EE 412(3), 413(3), 414(3), 418(3), 419(3), 420(3), 432(3), 438(3), 453(3), 459(3), or 485(3).
Note: Some CSE courses are closed to non-CSE majors. Physics majors pursuing this option are allowed to schedule these CSE courses.

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