<p>I want to major in either phyics, astronomy, or cosmolgy...or perhaps get a double major of physics and astronomy....I'm not 100% sure yet. I know that MIT offers a major in physics, but does it also offer a major in/have a strong program for astronomy?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>PS. Random question: what is the male : female ratio at MIT?</p>
<p>MIT has no astronomy major, it doesn’t matter though. Because undergrad astronomy majors are kind of BS, and I dont mean bachelor of science. If you want to go INTO astronomy/cosmology/astrophysics, it will help you much more to have a degree in general physics and focus on those particular topics within. And a lot of astrophysics/astronomy goes on at MIT, too much to name, and cosmology? Well you might have heard of Alan Guth. But yeah, don’t worry that there is no astronomy major. It’s kind of like economics, almost all economics PhD students are math undergrads or physics and it is rare for someone with only a degree in economics to get into top graduate schools.</p>
<p>Most folks who go into Astronomy major in physics- which you plan to do (good). They may or may not take Astro courses on the side. While there isn’t a centralized “Astronomy” department, MIT scientists in several different courses do Astronomy-related things, the two most notable being course 8 (physics) and course 12 (Earth, Atmospheric and PLANETARY SCIENCES :-)). I would say the undergrad program is fairly strong, and its students have had opportunities to travel for observing, and seem to get into good REUs as well. You can find general info here: [Astronomy</a> at MIT](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/astronomy/]Astronomy”>Astronomy @ MIT)</p>
<p>As for the ratio, it can be looked up, but unlike most tech schools, MIT’s M/F ratio is fairly even. The grad school ratio has the typical male skew. Some months ago, the Tech ran an article breaking down the individual ratios by department- sex and Course are rather correlated.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting that the Earth & Planetary Sciences major probably has the same required physics classes as a physics major at other schools.</p>
<p>Oh, um, in physics the gender ratio is not even. If this is something that bothers you (and I can see why, it’s not a completely ridiculous concern), you will have to either get used to it or study something else… just as an example for the classes that I did notice this in, in my junior lab section I think it was 3 girls out of 18 students, most core physics classes you kinda take with the same people (depending on your track), and I’d say the ratio is about… 3:1 men to women, maybe 2.5. Grad classes are almost all men. GR (only grad class I’ve taken) has a ratio of maybe 9:1 (1/10) there are only a handful of girls in the class.</p>
<p>Like Wendy said, you can find some stats online about this, but be wary that when they quote stats for physics, 8 and 8b are put together.</p>
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<p>I don’t know about that… I can’t really imagine a reputable program not teaching quantum to its physics undergrads.</p>
<p>Self correction: ok, 8.04 is required for Planetary Sciences major, but 8.04 is 1/3 of the undergrad quantum sequence here and by design not very formal.</p>
<p>^^I’ve been very surprised at how a lot of physics majors at some schools have very few required classes.</p>
<p>Holy ****, Alan Guth teaches at MIT?!</p>
<p>I should really research that kind of thing… I had no idea! That’s insane. And so cool.</p>
<p>And thanks for the help, I’m like 80% sure I’m going to be majoring in physics, and although astronomy is my passion, I kind of figured that I’d study astronomy at grad school.</p>
<p>And as far as the male to female ratio goes, it can probably be used to my benefit as I’m a girl. Hooray for unfair advantages!</p>
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<p>come again?</p>
<p>^^Sorry, there’s no advantage to be gained from the male/female ratio in the physics major. MIT doesn’t admit by majors; once you’re a student, you can declare whichever major you want to pursue.</p>
<p>it’s always kind of fun seeing people like alan guth or frank wilczek walking around or eating lunch next to you</p>
<p>^This is a bio Nobelist rather than a physics one, but nonetheless – I ran into a Nobel prize winner during my sophomore year, literally. (I stepped backwards from the copier in my lab and almost knocked him over.) :)</p>
<p>Tonegawa?</p>
<p>He’s probably bragging to people he almost got knocked over by the famous mollieb of the mit blogs…</p>
<p>No, Phil Sharp. And I was a sophomore, so I wasn’t a celebrity at the time.</p>
<p>(I worry that no one will get the sarcasm, but I am absolutely not, in any sense of the word, a celebrity. Not even a MITlebrity.)</p>
<p>I have a friend advised by Sharp. She gets to bask in Nobel Prize-winning glory twice a semester, even more if she so desires.</p>
<p>This year 59 women are enrolled in Course 8, aka physics. I don’t believe you’ll find a larger group of female physics majors anywhere else in the country.
To see the numbers of women enrolled in the various departments offered at MIT, see: [Enrollment</a> Statistics: MIT Office of the Registrar](<a href=“Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar”>Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar)</p>
<p>There may still be more males than females in the physics department, but women nevertheless comprise a relatively substantial portion of the population, especially compared to undergraduate physics enrollments elsewhere.</p>