<p>Yeah, OU is pretty strong in astro. Of course, not up with schools like Boulder and U of Arizona, but it seems to have a very nice program. I was at the AAS (American Astronomical Society) conference this January--the largest meeting of astronomers in the world, I believe--and I met a number of undergrads from OU, all very smart kids with really nice projects. I actually don't recall seeing more undergrads from very many other schools, if any...</p>
<p>Amherst
Arizona
Boston U.
BYU
Colgate
Connecticut Coll.
Emory University
Fla. Tech
Haverford
Johns Hopkins (pretty tough, wasn't sure what what was your def. of "high rank"
Lehigh
Michigan State
Ohio U.
Penn State
Rice (again...pretty tough)
Swathmore (tough)
Tufts (tough)
UC-Berkeley (tough)
UCLA
Colorado-Boulder
Florida
Georgia
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Iowa
Kansas
Maryland-CP
U Mass
Michigan
Middle Tennessee State U.
Rochester
UT-Austin
Virginia
U Wash
Vassar
Villanova
Wesleyan
Williams Coll. (pretty tough)</p>
<p>Now, I don't know the quality of these programs I just loooked them up on collegeboard.com and weeded out what I didn't think seemed very prestigious/good, but I probably missed some.</p>
<p>Mmm, we forgot Hopkins. Decent astro department but the great thing is that it's right across the street from STScI (Space Telescope Science Institute), which is most famous for running the Hubble Space Telescope but has a TON of interesting research going on, so as a JHU student you'll have lots of opportunities for some great research there!</p>
<p>Of that list, there are some very mediocre programs, btw, but also some of the nation's best...standouts include UCLA, Boulder, Arizona, Illinois UC...</p>
<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>You might try Wesleyan Connecticut. I know a girl graduating with a masters in astrophysics that had her choice of pHD programs from which to choose.</p>
<p>
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<p>Wesleyan is a tad competitive, but, probably has the best small college astronomy department in the country right now. One of their alum was recently chosen to head the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.</p>
<p>UChicago is competitive but it does have a great astrophysics program.They like it when you have a particular program in mind when you apply to their school.</p>
<p>Check it out:
<a href="http://astro.uchicago.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://astro.uchicago.edu/</a></p>
<p>UChicago has a very strong program--the one concern is that there is no explicit astronomy major, it's a component of the physics major. MIT suffers from the same problem. Whether or not that's a big deal is a matter of personal preference, really.</p>
<p>Williams is rather famous for its astrononomy/astrophysics grads, and if you did a survey of working astronomers around the country, you'd find a huge number (many more per cap. than you would from undergrad HYP). </p>
<p>The Five-Colleges (Amherst/Smith/Mt. Holyoke/UMass/Hampshire) have a consortium program, particularly well-known for radioastronomy.</p>
<p>Honors Program at UArizona would provide you with tremendous opportunities.</p>
<p>I would definitely check out the University of Michigan. I will be studying astronomy/astrophysics there next year and I chose it because traditionally they have had strong science programs. Of course, I am an in-state student, so it wasn't a problem for me to get in, but I would imagine that out of state, applicants face some pretty stiff competition, especially for that major.</p>