TLDR: You probably have access to more than you realise.
A university email address gives you the power to read academic articles. Depending on the university, especially after COVID-19 has resulted in many lectures being pre-recorded and put online, your email address may actually give you access to alot more than you thought.
Just with my canvas login, I was able to access all the physics 4th year major options and short options, the whole first year, 3rd year and 4th year mathematics course, the whole second and third year materials science course. This meant that I did not need to go at the pace of the first year materials course, I could learn whatever I wanted. Plasma physics why not, chaos theory sure...
Obviously, I did not have all the time in the world. So I accessed the ones within my mathematical ability. At this point, I was thanking myself for spending time in travel mandated isolation watching the Khan Academy Multivariable Calculus course and having done the Vector Calculus course by Hong Kong University on Coursera. So the first one on my list: Quantum Chemistry.
I fell in love.
The mathematical structure, the creativity in problem solving. Martin Galpin did great service to my first time learning quantum theory. I always say it provided method to madness!
Next was classical mechanics, the Euler-Lagrange equation from the principle of least action was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
$$ S = \int \mathcal{L} d^4 x $$
Principle of Least Action
$$ \frac{\partial \mathcal{L}}{\partial q} - \frac{d}{dt} \frac{\partial \mathcal{L}}{\partial \dot{q}} = 0 $$
Euler-Lagrange Equation
This allows you to calculate the path of an object with only knowledge about its energy without needing to resolve forces!
What does your university email address give you access to? Let me know!
This was written in July 2021. Learning more content earlier allowed me to figure out what I wanted to focus more time on. I picked Quantum Chemistry as my supplementary subject over History and Philosophy of Science as I felt that I would benefit from the structure of tutorials, tute sheets, the exam, and that it would set me up well to tackle more involved computational and theoretical chemistry areas. That being said, I have enjoyed watching some of the History of Science lectures and will continue to pursue it.
