¹Advanced Credit or Placement in Physics are both excellent preparation but they are NOT a substitute for these first year Physics courses, which are prerequisities for all second year Physics courses. Students with AP credits should contact the Department for advice. Students without Physics 12 must take PHYS 100 prior to PHYS 131, PHYS 106 or PHYS 117. Students that took PHYS 131 (formerly PHYS 101) may enter the specialization but will need to take PHYS 106, 117, or 170 before the required PHYS 216. Students must complete PHYS 119 lab before they can take PHYS 129 Enriched lab. The PHYS 129 Enriched lab is recommended for all PHAS program specializations.

²First-year physics, biology, chemistry, and mathematics can be replaced by SCIE 001.

³Students who do not have B.C. High School Chemistry 12 (or its equivalent) must write the UBC Chemistry Basic Skills Test and may be required to take CHEM 100. Students interested in senior chemistry courses or who are planning to enter a career in teaching should take a second introductory chemistry course as an elective.

⁴One of MATH 100, 102, 104, 110, 180, 184, or 120 and one of MATH 101, 103, 105, 121.

⁵A total of 6 credits of coursework is required to meet the Communications Requirement. ENGL 112 is recommended. For a full list of acceptable courses see Communication Requirement.

⁶Students who intend to pursue a major in Physics will greatly benefit from spending some of their first year elective credits on advancing their math and computing skills early on, in order to be better prepared for more advanced courses.  Courses in linear algebra and computing science are available to first-year students from the math and CS departments respectively; a solid grounding in these topics early in the degree will help Physics major students get higher grades and learn more physics in subsequent courses, by avoiding having a first exposure to them concurrently with their application in physics classes.  Physics major students thinking of doing co-op in the future will particularly benefit from computing science courses, as these skills dramatically increase employability and success in job placements.

⁷Elective credits together with required courses must fulfill the Faculty of Science’s:
a) Foundational Requirement;
b) Laboratory Science Requirement;
c) Science Breadth Requirement;
d) Science and Arts Requirements;
e) Upper-level Requirement;
f) General Degree Requirements.

Some course alternatives have different credit value. The number of elective credits in each year is chosen to balance the total number of credits (i.e., make the yearly total equal to 30). Since the number of available elective credits in each year may not be a multiple of three, students are permitted to move elective credits between years.

⁸Students may opt to take PHYS 200 or PHYS 216 in third year, in order to take an additional 3 credits of electives in second year.

⁹Computing skills at the level of PHYS 210 are required in the specialization.  With written permission of the Undergraduate Advisor, students who already have several CPSC courses may be granted permission to replace PHYS 210 with PHYS 410.

¹⁰MATH 200 and MATH 221 should be taken in the first term since they are prerequisites for PHYS 216. In general it is best to take Math courses as soon as possible since they will make all upper level Physics courses easier. Please note that the requirements for MATH 221 allow first year students to take this course; it may benefit Physics majors students to take this or an equivalent linear algebra course in the first year of studies, to gain familiarity with this crucial topic as early as possible.

¹¹Students with sufficiently high grades in first-year MATH may take MATH 217 (4 credits) and 2 additional credits of electives instead of MATH 200 and MATH 317.

¹²Consultation with a Physics departmental advisor is recommended before entering third and fourth year.

¹³Note it is possible to take both PHYS 309 and PHYS 319 since these are not credit excluded. If both are taken, the extra 3 credits can be used towards the upper level PHYS/ASTR electives.

¹⁴MATH 317 may be postponed until Term 2. It is a prerequisite for PHYS 301 and a co-requisite for PHYS 203.

¹⁵CHEM 304 may replace PHYS 203.

¹⁶Physics Majors must take 12 credits of Physics or Astronomy electives in 3^rd and 4^th year. A list of suggestions is tabulated below. The courses on the right side of the table can only be taken in the fourth year because of prerequisite requirements. In the case of PHYS 401, 402, 473 and 474 you should seek approval from the Departmental Advisor and then the instructor. PHYS 314, 315, 318, 438 are not offered every year. If you take both PHYS 319 and PHYS 309, one of them counts towards the lab requirement listed on the 3rd year curriculum and the other one can count towards the 12 credits upper-level elective requirement. The PHYS 490 cannot be used to fulfill this upper-level selection requirement, but can be used to count as general upper-level science electives.

¹⁷When choosing electives keep in mind the following graduation requirements: You need a total of 72 credits in the faculty of Science and 30 of these must be in courses numbered 300 or above. You need a total of 48 credits in courses numbered 300 or above in any faculty.  You need 12 credits (excluding ENGL credits used to satisfy the communication requirement) from the faculty of Arts.

¹⁸Note it is possible to take more than 3 credits from PHYS 348, 409, 420 since these are not credits excluded. Excess credits can be used towards the 12 credits of PHYS/ASTR 300 level and above courses. Students interested in teaching are encouraged to consider PHYS 420.

¹⁹Requirements related to these courses in the majors program have been revised several times in recent years. Students are reminded that they may follow any version of the program in effect during their years in the program. For example a student entering the Physics Major program in 2012 can complete the program as it appears in the 2012/13, the 2013/14, or 2014/15 calendar.