Four year plan for an honors physics major

Almost all honors students will require individual schedule consideration due to their having taken a variety of courses before coming into our course track. This is only a sequence guide to indicate what we expect as background for the various succeeding stages of our coursework.

Semester 1

PHYS 161H (Intro Mechanics) 4
MATH 129H (Calculus II) 3
ENGL 103/4/9H 3
Tier 1 Gen Ed 3
Tier 1 Gen Ed 3
  16

 

Semester 2

PHYS 162H (Thermo, Optics) 4
MATH 223H (Vector Calc) 4
CHEM 151 * 4
Tier 1 Gen Ed 3
PHYS105A (Intro Computing) 1
  16

 

Semester 3

PHYS 261H (Intro Elec & Magn) 4
PHYS 263H (Modern Phys) 3
MATH 254 (Diff Eqns) 3
Tier 1 Gen Ed 3
Elective 3
  16

 

Semester 4

PHYS 204 (Math Meth) 3
PHYS 305 (Comput PHYS) 3
PHYS 321H (Theor Mech I) 3
Tier 2 Gen Ed 3
Elective 3
  15

 

Semester 5

PHYS 331H (Intermed E & M I) 3
PHYS 371H (Quantum Theory I) 3
PHYS 381 (Advanced Lab I) 2
Tier 2 Gen Ed 3
Elective 3
  14

 

Semester 6

PHYS 332H (Intermed E & M II) 3
PHYS 472H (Quantum Theory II) 3
PHYS 382 (Advanced Lab II) 2
Tier 2 Gen Ed 3
Elective 3
  14

 

Semester 7

PHYS 426H (Thermo & Stat Mech) 3
PHYS 498H (Thesis) 3
Elective 3
Elective 3
Elective 3
  15

 

Semester 8

PHYS elective 3
PHYS elective 3
PHYS 498H (Thesis) 3
Elective 3
Elective 3
  15

 

Notes

  • Assumption is that Honors students arrive with AT LEAST 3 credits of English AP or place into English 109H which replaces both 103/4H.
  • 30 honors credits needed to graduate with Honors. Every course that is co-convened with a graduate course should also be offered for Honors credit.
  • The physics department recommends that its majors take CHEM 151 and 152.
  • Use one of the Tier 2 GenEds to satisfy the diversity requirement.
  • Care must be taken to meet the requirement for 42 units of upper-division credit. This means that some of the electives may need to be upper-division courses.