Some+Modest+Proposals

Here are a couple of suggestions...feel free to add more and/or comment on these:

__//**From Ian: **//__

Is there a happy medium somewhere?

You guys listed 4 core courses: Rad I and II, Quantum and Dynamics

We should probably "require" more than these four courses, but I believe that 11 (plus the 2nd year project) is probably a bit too many, and just not competitive with other institutions these days, despite what some of us went through in the past.

Suppose the "requirement" for the Masters, and advancement to the PhD was 8 courses plus the 2nd year project and satisfactory performance at the oral?

The above 4 courses plus 4 more.

Can we train our students well enough and service the "alternative paths" idea by saying that 2 must come from the following set:

planets/exoplanets stars galaxies cosmology high energy

and 2 more can come from any of these, or from the list of everything else, including, ISM, observational techniques, OOMA, etc., etc., and perhaps cross reference one ESS and one Physics course as well.

There would be nothing to stop students taking additional classes if they wished to do so, and we can encourage that but not require it.

It is conceivable that some students would lack real expertise in some areas, but does that really matter if they never intend to practice in those areas? Also, over the course of their stay here I would bet that every student would attend (audit) every class that was not required.

__//**From Steve: **//__

My personal preference is to attempt a core that is both comprehensive and lean. Perhaps impossible, but here is my attempt...

Begin with the usual four "fundamental" courses (4 quarters):

Radiation I Radiation II Quantum Mechanics Dynamics

Then add the following "topical" core courses (4 quarters):

Fluid Mechanics/ISM Stars & Planets (1.5 quarters) Galaxies & Cosmology (1.5 quarters)

Additional Electives (require n of them, where n is TBD):

OOMA "Advanced" Stars & Planets <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Advanced" Galaxies & Cosmology <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">High-Energy Astrophysics <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Observational Techniques <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Numerical & Statistical Methods

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This adds one extra course to the teaching load but provides deeper coverage of some topics.