<p>Well I just drove down to the physics freshman introduction thing today at Loomis Lab and I was quite impressed with the department.</p>
<p>I know all colleges are proud of some statistic or ranking but the claim that UIUC ranks number THREE in the entire nation in undergraduate physics piqued my interest. Is this true? Or is something more specific like "UIUC is number three in physics in public, undergraduate schools in the Midwest"?</p>
<p>And I met 1/10th of the entire girl population of the physics department. Three people, harhar.</p>
<p>Yes. UIUC does have nationally ranked physics program. I am assuming that the program you got admitted to is engineering physics? If so, be prepared, since it is considered the hardest major within engineering.</p>
<p>As for the undergraduate rankings, here you go:</p>
<p>Undergraduate engineering specialties:
Engineering Science/Engineering Physics
(At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)
Methodology
1 Cornell University (NY)
2 University of California–Berkeley *
3 U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign *
4 California Institute of Technology
5 Pennsylvania State U.–University Park *
5 Princeton University (NJ)
5 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor *
8 Harvard University (MA)
8 Virginia Tech *</p>
<p>UIUC is ranked 3rd in Engineering Physics, but keep in mind that many schools like MIT and Stanford don't offer that major. In any case, UIUC is ranked in the top 5 in many other Engineering disciplines as well, so you can't really go wrong.</p>