<p>I plan to apply to:
1) Maryland
2) USNA, possibly USAFA (Big decision here)
3) Caltech
4) UVA
5) WFU (still don't know how physics is at Wake)
6) MIT</p>
<p>Are there any other colleges I should be looking at for physics that offer a good amount of non-need based aid?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Is "good non-need based aid" an important criteria for you? Because, with the exception of the academies, none of the schools you've listed have "good non-need based aid." They have good need-based aid, but not huge amounts of generous merit scholarships. Wake Forest, for instance, gives merit scholarships to less than 5% of incoming freshmen each year.</p>
<p>Some other schools to consider: Rice, Trinity U (TX), Lawrence U (WI), Grinnell, Case Western, Reed, Harvey Mudd, RPI, Stevens Institute, Princeton, U of Arizona. Some of these do have very good "non-need based aid" available, while others are need-only aid.</p>
<p>caltech and mit seem to be woooonderful choices. </p>
<p>...obviously.</p>
<p>Rice is roughly $10,000 cheaper than peers, so you might be helped by that, and they give lots of NM aid.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks. I know WFU is expensive but I'm shooting for one of their serious scholarships. If I don't get a lot of aid there, I'm not going to go. </p>
<p>My credentials:
4.0 unweighted/4.6 weighted cumulative GPA
SAT: 800 math 740 reading 680 writing
Rennsalaer Medal winner
Math Honor Society President
National Honor Society
Spanish Honor Society
Math League, Math Team, Maryland Math Competetion award winner
5 on AP Gov, AP Calc AB, I have 5 more AP test results coming in august
Chinese Club
SGA Webmaster
SESASC and MASC State-Wide SGA school representative
Other things: 100 mile biking, senior year consisting of mostly college courses, 5 years piano
Class rank- 2 or 3</p>
<p>i say you apply to more reach schools. MIT and Caltech don't seem to be enough.. next best thing after those two on your list seem to be UVA.</p>
<p>MIT and Caltech are on there because they are the only schools that are good enough such that I might be able to convince my parents to be paying 40k+. Everything else is going to have to be reasonably priced, especially considering I can get free tuition at UMCP.</p>
<p>HYP wouldn't convince your parents to pay 40k+ but Caltech would? (i mean they are uber-reaches for anyone but what i'm saying is at least try to apply to more reaches)</p>
<p>im pretty sure at least Princeton has excellent Physics department.</p>
<p>Definitely consider Princeton. It has very strong need based-aid, and its physics department is, without a doubt, on par with MIT's and Caltech's.</p>
<p>Maryland College Park has an excellent physics department. The most recent Nobel Prize winner teaches there part-time. I heard him speak. He works for NASA Goddard full time. Their graduate physics program is ranked 13th in the country by US News, higher than Michigan's. When you have such a fabulous physics program at your in-state public, it is hard to justify the additional expense of MIT and Caltech.</p>
<p>But, MIT and Caltech might give you a great financial aid package. It wouldn't hurt to apply.</p>
<p>You might also want to consider Cornell if you are averse to the tech school culture.</p>
<p>^^That's good to know man, thanks. Do you think the graduate rankings reflect upon the college's undergraduate programs? I think I'm in the league to be considered for the Banneker full ride scholarship to UMCP.</p>
<p>Harvard/Yale/Princeton are probably out of my league, it seems to me that the people who apply there have an insane amount of credentials. I posted mine earlier in this thread somewhere.</p>
<p>For the sake of having safeties/competitive FA offers, you might want to look into some schools that are considered to be better at physics than they are as a whole, like University of Colorado-Boulder.</p>
<p>Hmm... not a bad idea.</p>
<p>Also University of Arizona for physics/astronomy</p>
<p>Does Virginia Tech have a good physics program, compared to UMCP?</p>
<p>V-tech is ok, UMCP is definitely better. Some other good physics schools are Stanford, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Texas-Austin.
All the colleges on your list are good for physics, except for UVA and WFU. I mean, they're not bad, but they're not great either.
This is a list of top physics schools in the country: Search</a> - Physics - Best Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report</p>
<p>Ok, thanks. </p>
<p>So it's not even worth it for me to apply to UVA if UMCP is better... I still don't know how well the graduate rankings carry over to undergrad though. If it carries over well, that really narrows down my list.</p>
<p>1) UMCP
2) USNA
3) USAFA, maybe
4) CalTech
5) MIT</p>
<p>Not sure if I should apply to Harvard, Princeton, or Stanford... my chances to get in appear to be very low.</p>
<p>The graduate rankings are more a reflection of the quality of the faculty in physics. The quality of your fellow students at UMCP won't be quite as good as at Caltech, MIT. But, weigh that against the cost.</p>
<p>Ok, so... College Park would either be free at best, ~12k with all fees at worst (I get free tuition in state).</p>
<p>Academies... that's a life choice. If UMCP is just as good for physics then I'm not sure I could justify the 5 years as an officer... So the question is, how do the opportunities compare for getting in grad schools? </p>
<p>Caltech/MIT.... 40-50k a year... I wouldn't get need based aid. I'm still going to apply since they have such great programs and names.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins has a very good Physics Program--You may have heard of their APL--Applied Physics Lab...
just check it out on the web ;)</p>