What do some our alumni say about their education at HMC?
Ben Melhuish (’94)
Stan Love (’87)

Scott Pace (’80)
Physics majors can certainly go on to do all kinds of strange things, even public policy and international affairs:
Physics training has been an invaluable aid throughout my career despite my grade in quantum mechanics. : >
Mike Leung (’78)
… it has been my experience that the physics background is extremely well suited to the ebbs and flows and constant changes in industry. Perhaps you can use that as a selling point to attract more majors. What I have found with myself and other PhD physicists at Northrop (former TRW), is that we are the most versatile of the many technical disciplines at work. I'll mention a few skills that the physics major imparts that perhaps aren't as strong in many engineering majors:
- the physicists seem to have better critical thinking skills and quantitative skills
- the physicists who were experimentalists in graduate school (or perhaps even during senior research) have a very broad knowledge and can step easily into several disciplines (e.g. I count myself very familiar with materials, vacuum techniques, cryogenic techniques, and influence of measurement equipment on experiments). This broad background is also a key advantage when it comes to troubleshooting and other problem solving
- they seem to remember their college subject matters better; believe it or not it comes in handy sometimes. Maybe this comes from the grad school courses, I don't know
I first entered HMC intending to major in engineering. I switched to Physics because I found the subject matter and approach to teaching much more appealing.