<p>I couldn't find many threads talking about the physics department at U of C and their website doesn't seem to be updated very frequently.</p>
<p>I don't have a specific question, just general questions. I'm interested in taking honors physics my freshman year, and I want to get a better idea of what the class and department are like. What do undergraduates usually say about their experience in that class? What kinds of things are physics majors doing within the department? Any tips for a prospective major? What are the teachers and people like?</p>
<p>I can only go on field notes from my friends, but here goes.</p>
<p>Honors physics is a challenging sequence, and it's challenging in a way that brings physics majors close together. Considering it's a self-selecting program inside a self-selecting school, you can imagine that the kinds of people who are physics majors and go into the honors sequence are the kinds who look forward to devoting time to cracking problem sets. The classes are relatively small, and it seems like all of my friends have found a professor or two they absolutely adore.</p>
<p>A lot of my physics major friends are doing some serious research, all in different fields. One of my friends was way into high energy physics, another of my friends is all about astrophysics, I have other physics major friends who eventually see themselves going into business and finance. I know students who have done work at Argonne and Fermilab, which are either University owned, University sponsored, or something-- I'm not entirely sure.</p>
<p>The one other thing to remember is that Chicago is a package deal. It's very cool that physics appeals to you, but the rest of the Core Curriculum should appeal to you as well.</p>