<p>So what schools are good for a (potentially) aspiring astrophysicist?</p>
<p>I'm thinking
U Chicago
Cornell
Rice
Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>Who does it best, what other ones should I consider (I have more schools on my list, these are just some I'm musing about)?</p>
<p>CalTech should be added to the top your list.</p>
<p>^especially since you're a girl! i think that helps a lot in caltech admissions</p>
<p>UC Santa Cruz is in the top in this area, I think.</p>
<ul>
<li>Berkeley, Cornell, MIT</li>
</ul>
<p>I heard UNC too has a good program.</p>
<p>Are you cool with studying other things, besides astrophysics? Chicago's core curriculum is reading and writing intensive; make sure you want it:</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me with any Chicago-specific questions.</p>
<p>The best astronomy graduate programs in the country are, in no particular order (area of strength in parenthesis):</p>
<p>UC-Berkeley (everything)
UC-Santa Cruz (opical and IR observation)
Harvard (everything)
Princeton (theory)
Caltech (everything)</p>
<p>Nnote that is a listing of schools with departmente of astronomy or astrophysics, so that leaves out schools like MIT or Stanford where astronomy and astrophysics are lumped together with physics.</p>
<p>Schools with programs a notch below these five but still outstanding:</p>
<p>University of Washington
UCLA
University of Texas-Austin
University of Colorado-Boulder
Univerity of Hawaii
University of Arizona
University of Chicago
Penn State
Cornell
Ohio State</p>
<p>The Chief of the Rose Center for Space and Science at the Museum of Natural History in NYC, Neil D. Tyson, is an Astrophysics graduate of UTexas-Austin and Harvard U. The guy is brilliant and engaging.</p>
<p>Wellesley College has an Astrophysics Program as well. It's a joint program between the Physics Department and the Astronomy Department. Yes, they are separate.</p>
<p>The department owns over 12 major telescopes, all on campus and near the other academic buildings (bad for light pollution, great for getting to them): A 24" telescope that is used very regularly for research on Asteroid rotation, two historic Clark refractors (6" and 12"), seven 8" Meade LX200s, a small radio telescope, a spectrohelioscope, as well as an 8" dobsonian owned by the Astronomy Club.</p>
<p>The Astronomy Department's webpage is here: <a href="http://www.wellesley.edu/Astronomy%5B/url%5D">http://www.wellesley.edu/Astronomy</a></p>
<p>Wellesley is also part of the KNAC constortium, which is a group of 8 Liberal Arts Colleges with good Astronomy departments: Colgate, Haverford, Middlebury, Swathmore, Vassar, Wellesley, Wesleyan and Williams. Those schools are worth a look into.</p>
<p>Students get into top grad schools, and have found themselves well prepared for the experience.</p>
<p>@amykins- yes! I'm looking for something where I can get astrophysics AND a nice liberal arts core, which is why Chicago is one of my top choices!</p>
<p>All of the other posts- thanks for the lists! </p>
<p>Much appreciated- it is one thing to have a list of schools that have astronomy or astrophysics majors, but I wanted to know which ones were excellent. </p>
<p>Is astrophysics a good major for someone who wants to go to grad school for theoretical physics or something of that sort?</p>
<p>Katia</p>
<p>It depends somewhat on how far you want to go (M.S. PhD). If what you want to pursue includes graduate school then where you go should include an evaluation of how graduate schools will view your choice. I have also been told by someone in the field that one should also consider schools with a top notch physics department. I am a junior looking at the same field and have narrowed my colleges down to those that I believe have excellent programs and where I can enjoy the undergraduate exp. I am looking at:</p>
<p>Illinois, Univ.
McGill
Cornell
Michigan, Univ.
Chicago, Univ.
Columbia
Maryland, Univ.
Ohio State
Wisconsin, Univ.
UCSB
UCSD</p>
<p>I also considered Cal Tech, MIT and the others but thought that my resources are better spent on those schools for a graduate degree. Good Luck!</p>
<p>Awesome. PM me with any Chicago-specific questions. I'm not a physics major myself, but I have tons of friends who are and I know quite a bit about the program.</p>
<p>@Wormhole1- I'm definately shooting for that PhD (LOL I said in third grade I wanted my doctorate in something or another and have always wanted one)</p>
<p>Thanks amykins! I'll PM you soon.</p>
<p>I’m looking for the same thing…I was actually thinking MIT for undergrad and then Cornell for a graduate degree.</p>
<p>@amykins:
Can I pm u, too? I’m also interested in Chicago’s physics program.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins also does very strong work in astrophysics, although the undergraduate major is physics. Among other things, Hopkins is the home to the Space Telescope Science Institute (i.e., the Hubble Space Telescope) and is the number one recipient of NASA research funding. The department has Nobel Prize winners, and the facilities are amazing. Also, unlike most other top programs, it is located in a major city on the east coast, if that is important or relevant to you.</p>
<p>Why JHU?</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins is also the leading recipient of NASA research and development funding. The Director of NASA spoke very highly of the astrophysics research conducted at Hopkins… </p>
<p>Johns Hopkins is probably one of the universities at the forefront of physics and astronomy research today. Johns Hopkins can easily claim world leadership in astronomy research, a fact that ppl really do not know.</p>
<p>Hopkins is a powerhouse when it comes to astronomy and physics research.
</p>
<p>Here is a ranking of Astrophysics according to Chronicle Higher Education</p>
<p>[Chronicle</a> Facts & Figures: Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/page.php?bycat=true&primary=4&secondary=38&year=2006]Chronicle”>http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/page.php?bycat=true&primary=4&secondary=38&year=2006)</p>
<p>Astronomy and astrophysics - 2006</p>
<p>1) UC Berkeley
2) Harvard
3) Princeton
4) Caltech
5) Cornell
6) Johns Hopkins
7) Penn State
8) U. of Washington
9) UIUC
10) Yale</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Many (possibly most) undergrads who go on to grad school in any type of physics, including any type of theory or astrophysics, majored in plain old physics. If a school has lots of other things that you want, but doesn’t have a flat-out major in astrophysics, that shouldn’t be a showstopper. Be sure to find out if you’ll be able to get involved with a research group as an undergrad. Finding professors who actively support undergrads is something to look out for.</p>
<p>I’d say MIT and caltech</p>