Disclaimer - This is not meant to be a guide. It is the personal experience of a singular individual and by going through it you may get an idea of the process involved. The contents of this article are not the universal truth, please make an informed decision based on your own reasoning.
Hi, I am Debdatta, presently in my fourth year at BITS Hyderabad, pursuing a dual degree with Physics and EEE as my majors. My academic interests mainly revolve around theoretical physics, specifically astrophysics and cosmology. Apart from that I also like to explore some interdisciplinary areas like astrobiology, biophysics, etc. Besides academics, I am very enthusiastic about entrepreneurship, especially in the renewable energy sector. Lastly, I would not mind joining a game of football or cricket anytime!
Coming to how I got into this field in the first place…even before joining college I was primarily interested in physics and opted for the Physics dual degree by choice. I probably got inclined towards research during middle school when I had a discussion with my classmate about time travel, and I started exploring it. I had a genuine interest in astronomy during my first year, thanks to popular YouTube channels like PBS Spacetime, Veritasium, etc., and books like ‘Theory of Everything’ by Stephen Hawking and ‘One Two Three Infinity’ by George Gamow, but didn’t have much of a solid background. I was properly exposed to the actual physics curriculum only when I entered my second year, especially the second semester.
I was a part of Spectrum, the Physics Association and also served as the research head during my third year. I also got to fuel my interest in astrophysics by being a part of Ad Astra, the astronomy club of BITS Hyderabad. Also took a lot of initiatives throughout my tenure at these clubs, and more importantly got to learn from seniors, peers, and juniors too. If you’re interested in exploring some physics-related fields, joining these clubs is quite helpful.
Letting that aspect aside, the best way to learn a particular subject is through taking courses, attending classes, and talking to professors who teach you or whose work you’re interested in. Professors' research interests are detailed on the BITS website for the particular department.
Speaking of useful courses, I learned a lot from courses like electromagnetic theory (EMT) and mathematical methods of physics (MMP). Also, I took two electives, Cosmology and Group Theory, which provided a great base for starting out on theoretical physics. One more elective course that might be useful is Intro to Astronomy and Astrophysics (I could not take it due to clashes). By the end of the second year, I had kind of decided to go forward in theoretical physics but was open to exploring other fields too, although I was definitely sure that I wouldn’t go into the experimental field, as my working skills at the labs weren’t up to the mark. The theoretical and abstract things intrigued me a lot, like visualizing the perturbations in spacetime or the equations working out in front of the eyes.
I became aware of computational methods through the Computational Physics course, as well as a formal project on biophysics during 3-1, under Prof. Rickmoy Samanta. In that project, we tried to explore how a system of motor proteins interacts with its cellular environment and with each other. We chose several types of initial configurations and studied the motion and trajectory of the system for a finite time interval of a few seconds. The equations were modeled based on existing theoretical frameworks, and some parameters varied to study different scenarios.
Quantum Mechanics 2 was a very important learning for me as well. I did a bit of self-study on General Relativity and took the course Theory of Relativity during 3-2. These things are the backbone of astrophysics and cosmology. Looking back, I would say most of the CDCs you do as a physics major are very important for any theoretical (or computational) domain. These include Classical Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics(I, II), Electromagnetic Theory(I, II), Mathematical Methods, and Statistical Mechanics.
I am also working on multiple research projects, one related to studying dark matter in static neutron stars under Prof. Sarmistha Banik and another on the Penrose process in black holes under Prof. Sashideep Gutti.
At this point, I would like to mention that it is very important that you give some time to your non-physics courses as well (which primarily involves your dual degree courses) and not completely neglect them because that might affect your GPA, which in turn closes a lot of opportunities in general. My personal opinion would be to stay above an 8 GPA to be safe (of course, the higher, the better).