My son has applied to 3 UCs (Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Diego) San Diego State and Univ. of Col.-Boulder, for Astrophysics. They all seem to have solid programs and they are listed in various orders, depending on which source you access. What order would you place them, with #1 the best, along with any comment/rationale. Thanks!
Undergraduate programs in Astrophysics are all going to offer the same kind of curriculum. The decision should be made based on the best fit for the student, finances and research opportunities available. Rankings of Astrophysics programs are based on their graduate programs not the undergraduate programs. They are not as important for undergraduates.
Thank you very much. That does help considerably. He has been accepted to SDSU and Colorado and should hear from the UCs very soon.
Appreciate your input as crunch time nears!
There are not very many positions in astronomy/astrophysics even at the PhD level, so your son should have a very good fallback option in place. He can or will get plenty of math and computer science, and a degree in a science does provide evidence that you are smart, or at least not stupid. However, employers are probably going to primarily look at candidates whose degree has a “marketable” subject, written out in large letters, on it.
@DTBTSE Yes that’s why many people major in physics and go into astrophysics in graduate school so they have a basic foundation to fall back on in the future
A solid astrophysics degree will have plenty of physics included and a number of the Astrophysics majors at my university, Illinois Tech, also take a Physics degree. We have had not issues with students finding jobs as long as the student is flexible about the type of career.
I worry about the future employment options but he is only 18, so may morph over time. I like the thought of the physics as a fallback. He actually struggled on his major selection, but was always fascinated by the study of space. Nowadays, many schools want you to pre-select a major. A crap shoot for many HS seniors, many of whom are lucky they even know how to boil water. ?
I would say UCSC has the best undergraduate program among these school. It’s among Tier 1 in astrophysics. The other are not.