Your first couple of years should be spent mostly taking classes. These classes fall into two "types": first year and advanced courses. This page should give you a general idea of what these courses are about and which and how many of them you are required to take.
The physics department's webpage includes the catalog description of all these courses and can be found at http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/courses/PHYS.html
First year courses
The first year courses are meant to prepare you for the qualifying exam (information found at http://ucsdphysgrads.wikidot.com/academics:qualifying-exam). These courses are not strictly necessary, but they are highly recommended for a solid foundation in physics.
The first year courses are the following:
Fall | Spring | Summer |
---|---|---|
200A | 200B | 210A |
201 | 203A | 203B |
212A | 212B | 212C |
200: Classical Mechanics
201: Mathematical Physics
203: Electricity and Magnetism
212: Statistical Mechanics
212: Quantum Mechanics
Advanced Courses
Descriptions of advance courses can be found at http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/courses/PHYS.html. These courses are mores specialized and are taught at a higher level than the first year courses. The advanced courses are also split into several groups based on topic which can be found here http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/curric/PHYS-gr.html.
The Course Groupings
The physics department is currently working on rearranging the course groups. This portion of the website will be updated when the final arrangement is made.
Course Requirements to Graduate
Graduate students are required to complete 5 advanced courses with no lower than a 3.0 gpa prior to graduating. These 5 courses must be from at minimum 3 separate course groups.
Students may take graduate courses from other departments to fulfill their 5 advanced course requirement.
In addition to the department's requirement, students must fulfill any course requirements set by the university which can be found at http://grad.ucsd.edu/progress/