<p>Any specific advantages and disadvantages of the program?</p>
<p>Cheers!
Ajay</p>
<p>whoops! there are already a number of threads on this!</p>
<p>I am an international student so aid is a major problem. So what I was thinking is I get a degree in physics from a LAC and then go for Engg. at graduate level. Will it be harder to get into a Engg. graduate school?</p>
<p>If you have a physics degree from a top LAC, with good science/math grades and high GRE scores, you can place into top engineering grad schools. Science majors at LACs often participate closely in faculty research projects (since there are no graduate students to act as research assistants), and such experience can be a major plus on a grad school application. </p>
<p>For example, [url=<a href="http://www.williams.edu/Physics/programs/eng.html%5DWilliams%5B/url">http://www.williams.edu/Physics/programs/eng.html]Williams[/url</a>] says that "Our experience is that many of the best engineering graduate programs are eager to accept Williams students who have strong records in science courses." Their [url=<a href="http://www.williams.edu/Physics/programs/eng_grad_schools.html%5Dlist%5B/url">http://www.williams.edu/Physics/programs/eng_grad_schools.html]list[/url</a>] of engineering schools attended by Williams physics grads appears to support this claim. Relatively few Williams grads go this route, but those that do tend to enroll in highly rated engineering schools.</p>
<p>One downside to this approach is that you may be required to "make up" some undergraduate engineering coursework when you get to grad school. So it may take longer to get the MS.</p>
<p>Reed and Cal-tech is pretty cool..</p>