<p>Which schools, besides well-known and well-ranked colleges like Caltech, MIT, Princeton, etc, etc offer this degree?</p>
<p>I really want to major in this field, but the only colleges that offer it are very selective...
Do you know of any that are not as competetive?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Penn is pretty good</p>
<p>oh im sry, try BU</p>
<p>the program is amazing..search the program on the site</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bu.edu%5B/url%5D">www.bu.edu</a></p>
<p>Check out:</p>
<p>U. Arizona, U.C. Santa Cruz, U. Texas, U. Hawaii, U. Colorado,
U. Illinois, U. Wisconsin, U. Maryland, Penn State, U. Mass.,
Ohio State, and Stony Brook.</p>
<p>All of these schools have PhD programs that are in the top 25 in astronomy & astrophysics...</p>
<p>In general, astronomy & astrophysics is an expensive department for a university... so good departments are often only found at high-profile private schools or large public research universities.</p>
<p>dayobball...</p>
<p>(1) Penn is VERY, VERY selective.
(2) Penn actually is relatively weak in astronomy & astrophysics.</p>
<p>Someone who graduated from my high school triple-majored in Math, Astronomy, and Physics at the University of Michigan. He's now on some fellowship at Cambridge, and next year he will be paid to begin his Phd at Harvard.</p>
<p>U Arizona
USC
U Colorado Boulder
U Florida
U Illinois UC
Indiana U Bloomington
Drake
U Iowa
U Kansas
U Maryland CP
Boston U
Tufts
U Mass Amherst
U Michigan
U Minn TC
Colgate
SUNY Stony Brook
U Rochester
Case Western
Ohio St
Ohio U
U Oklahoma
Franklin & Marshall
Gettysburg
Penn St UP
Villanova
U Texas Austin
Bennington
UVA
U Washington
U Wisc Madison</p>
<p>yeah thats why i said "oh sry, try BU" harvard<em>and</em>berkeley</p>
<p>If you go to <a href="http://www.petersons.com%5B/url%5D">www.petersons.com</a> or <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D">www.collegeboard.com</a>, you can search for colleges that have particular majors. I just checked and there is quite an extensive list for what you want.</p>
<p>Also look into places where astronomy is covered under the physics department. My niece has a Ph.D. in astronomy, but got her undergraduate degree from the "physics and astronomy" department at Carleton. Carleton doesn't show up in the Peterson's or College Board major search. </p>
<p>I don't know how to find places like Carleton except by coming up with a list of schools with physics that have the other characteristics you want and then checking out the web sites for course offerings. We had to do something similar for my daughter who is interested in Egyptology. Only one school in the US has this as a specific major, so it doesn't even make the majors list. So we had to check out everybody shown with "middle eastern studies" to find the rare places with the right studies.</p>
<p>collegehelp,</p>
<p>where did you get that list? is it rugg's? i have degrees in astrophysics, and I can tell you that some schools on that list are way off... Oklahoma?? Kansas?? Bennington?? Drake?? Villanova??</p>
<p>DianeR brings up an excellent point...
Astronomy & astrophysics are often NOT in their own department, but are often a subfield within physics... some lists of astronomy miss these schools...</p>
<p>h&b-my list came from the College Board Index of Majors and Graduate Degrees...bachelors degrees in astronomy at less competitive schools.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your responses</p>
<p>yes, i've checked collegeboard, and yes, i've got some 34 colleges that offer a degree in astrophysics...but then i couldn't find it when i searched for astrophysics on the school's web-site</p>
<p>Eeeeer... collegehelp?
thanks for your list, but i can't possibly afford to apply to all of the above colleges. Moreover, since our income is low, my parents said that i only have ~$600 for college applications, which means i can apply to no more than 10 schools :) So, i have to make up a list.
I already have 4-5 reach universities, and now i need to come up with another 5 'safe' schools. =></p>
<p>=> how do I rank/compare/choose/etc. departments of different colleges?</p>
<p>A few ideas (I'm sure others have more):</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Look at the course offerings -- some places list a subject without having many choices</p></li>
<li><p>Read through the qualifications of the faculty</p></li>
<li><p>See if there is a graduate program there in the subject</p></li>
<li><p>Read the general web site of the department -- there may be special programs, research, etc. available</p></li>
<li><p>Email or call the departments -- ask about graduate school placement percentage, opportunities for working with faculty on their research, anything else you can think of that would sway your opinion</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You can also do some weeding by looking at things other than the specific departments -- general academic reputation, location, size, specific ECs that interest you, distribution requirements, lifestyle issues (check out princetonreview, studentsreview or some of those "what these colleges are really like books), etc. If you aren't sure about something like size, visit some colleges and you might find you do have a preference.</p>
<p>dayobball--Penn State or UPenn? The former is pretty decent at astro but the latter, not at all!</p>
<p>For the higher-tier schools, look to HYP and Caltech.</p>
<p>For public schools, try UC Berkeley (FANTASTIC astro), UCLA, UC Boulder, U of Arizona. Some of the others mentioned are pretty good too but those are the big ones.</p>
<p>This is unimportant right now, though. For most people, if you want to go on to get a Ph.D. in astro then the important thing is to get a solid physics background in college--the astro is nice, but optional!</p>
<p>Hriundeli, Have you considered Western Ct State University? Take a look. Reportedly good dept. here for those who know about it. Check out the grad school acceptances and so forth. Otherwise, the school is regional typical, although recently improved in graphic arts and business related. Not selective, not expensive, new housing.</p>
<p>Mama--No offense to the University, I'm sure the astro dept. is lovely there (a brief runthrough of the website shows a pretty nice one, from the looks of it), but on a national scale it really is not that well-known as one of the premier programs or departments...........this person could probably get into at least a school like U of A or UC Boulder with PHENOMENAL astro departments.</p>
<p>True, may not even blip on the national scale. But noted OP was fromNY
and was asking for less selective safeties, outside of premier programs,
Western Ct just appeared in Ruggs for the first year under atmospheric sciences. This is probably the only major there that attracts anyone from out of region. But still a safety....</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies</p>
<p>I've made up a list of schools i'm going to apply to (again, with your help)</p>
<p>thank you (just cant stop thanking lol) :)</p>
<p>harvard<em>and</em>berkeley, while ou doesnt seem like the top choice for most students looking for a prestigious university, their astrophysics is top notch, in fact most of their programs related with physics are, mainly geophysics though. top notch school too, lot of my friends who couldve gone to way more prestigious schools like ivies, vandy, rice, emory, chose ou for its many advantages(huge scholarship, nice size, proximity to two cities(Dallas and OKC), and increasingly progressing academics)</p>