<p>"Matches would be most appreciated!"</p>
<p>You need to clue us in on your stats for that ...</p>
<p>In the end, D chose University of Maryland--College Park (OOS). Had she been accepted to MIT, she probably would have ended up going there. We just couldn't cost-justify the other private schools. She knows she'll get a masters and probably a PhD, and will probably seek out one of the universities you're otherwise describing for graduate work. Being near a major city, in a large university with a really good honors program, and access to NASA down the road, really helped seal the deal. You can make any large university as small as you want to, by getting to know your professors, and getting involved in research as soon as possible. </p>
<p>Additionally, a large public university also offers the advantage of taking AP (or IB credits). She had 58 hrs of AP credit, mostly applied to her Core requirements, before she started univ classes. If she'd wanted to graduate early, she probably could have been done in 2 years + summers. We strongly felt that there was no reason to rush through college-- She's able to have a double major in astronomy and physics, and minor in Computer Science, will be able to average 14-15 credit hours per semester, and will be able to study abroad for at least one semester.</p>
<p>Well, as a sophomore astrophysics major at Rice, I can tell you a bit about the atmosphere. </p>
<p>First, the academic part: Since we are a rather small school, many of your classes will be discussion based. I took an astrobiology seminar last year that had only four students. Each week, one student gave a powerpoint presentation over one chapter of our book, after which we would discuss and eat snacks that the professor brought along. the faculty are generally very accessible. As a new student, you will be assigned a faculty advisor with whom you meet each semester to discuss your class selection. The students in all of my classes have been very collaborative; I have never run into someone who wasn't willing to discuss one of the tougher problems on a problem set. All this makes for a very good learning environment.</p>
<p>Now for the social scene: As you may or may not know, Rice features a residential college system. We have no greek life; each new student is randomly assigned to one of the colleges and belongs to it for the rest of his/her undergraduate career and beyond. The colleges each have their own government, and they do a very good job of providing a comfortable, home-like atmosphere for the students. From the very first day I set foot on campus, I have been extremely happy to be in my college (yeah Martel!). The colleges also take the place of the social atmosphere that would otherwise be filled by greek life. All colleges (except Will Rice, because they're lame) throw public parties each semester, providing music, dancing, free food, and alcohol (for those of legal age) to the entire student body.</p>
<p>I hope that gives you a pretty good idea of our community. Hopefully Rice will be on your list for more reason than the free application!</p>
<p>While I know you're looking for more safeties, I thought I'd throw Northwestern out there since you're considering Cornell and UChicago. It's around ~8000 undergrad, and comparable in prestige, as well as close to Chicago. It offers a pretty decent, well rounded education. Check it out for yourself, and see if it's worth applying. It's probably not as quirky as UC (or quite as selective), but I thought it was a cool place.</p>
<p>lol @ ultra cali's list of "fallback schools".</p>
<p>Has anyone mentioned that Cornell runs the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico? It is a great asset for Cornell astronomers and a fun place to do an internship (REU program). It is a little like summer camp for interns. The cottages (VSQs) are about 200 steps up a hillside from the dish. There are lots of things to do on weekends. A great experience.</p>
<p>ultra cali: Acceptance rate is misleading. Some schools have a more self-selected applicant pool than others. Harvard's not the be-all end-all. And the fact that you can get in doesn't mean you should go - it all depends on the person and what they want from their school.</p>
<p>Gourman Report undergrad astrophysics ranking:</p>
<p>MIT
Caltech
Princeton
Indiana U Bloomington
U Minnesota
Harvard
Purdue
U Penn
UVA
U Oklahoma</p>
<p>This proves how bad the gourman report is..Purdue doesnt even have an undergrad Astrophysics major..</p>
<p>Chronicle</a> Facts & Figures: Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index</p>
<p>2007- Rankings of Astrophysics PhD programs.</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard University</li>
<li>UC Berkeley</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>UC Santa Cruz</li>
<li>Penn State</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins U.</li>
<li>UChicago</li>
<li>Penn State</li>
</ol>
<p>damn caltech appears twice on the list.. they must be really good!</p>
<p>
[quote]
damn caltech appears twice on the list.. they must be really good!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The Faculty Scholarly Productive Index does not rate individual colleges/universities, but rather individual graduate programs within a college or university. Caltech appears twice on the list because it offers two separate PhD programs which, for classification purposes, were assigned to the same discipline field (astronomy & astrophysics) in the FSP tables. </p>
<p>If you go to the Academic Analytics/FSP website, you'll see that the two "Caltechs" above actually refer to the PhD programs in "Geological and Planetary Studies" and "Astronomy (astrophysics)" properly.</p>
<p>Penn State is also on there twice if you had not noticed. :)</p>
<p>I would suggest Haverford College. It has a great astronomy department and physics department. It sends lots of science grads to Ph.D programs. (In fact, Harvey Mudd, Carleton, Swarthmore, and Haverford produce the most PhDs per capita in the life and physical sciences among LACs). Haverford also has a great environment; some students prefer the HC culture to Swarthmore. Please note that is not intended as a critcism of Swarthmore, but just a statement that might encourage you to look at both (perhaps visit both) and decide for yourself. Both colleges are fantastic.</p>
<p>UCSC runs NASA Ames.</p>