Best Ivies for Physics/Engineering Physics?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi. As an international applicant, I'm obviously applying to the Ivies as they are very generous when it comes to financial aid and that's something I need. I also want the colleges that I apply to to have great physics/engineering physics programs. Also, I intend to double major/minor in either astronomy or computer science.</p>

<p>Academically I would rank the Ivies(as per my interests and on the basis my understanding of the following factors: the popularity of the major, some profs that I've heard of, availability of interdisciplinary majors, no of Nobel Laureates, UROPs etc.) as:</p>

<p>1.Columbia=Cornell=Princeton
2.UPenn
3.Harvard
4.Dartmouth
5.Brown=Yale(astronomy and physics are great at Yale, but the majors don't seem too popular)</p>

<p>In terms of financial aid, I would rank the Ivies as:
1.Princeton=Yale=Harvard
2.Columbia
3.Dartmouth
4.UPenn
5.Brown
6.Cornell</p>

<p>I will certainly apply to Princeton and Cornell. Need help to select atleast two more Ivies, as I don't want to apply to too many of them without any reason.
Can you rank the Ivies,according to the best fit for me, using these two lists and/or additions of your own so that I can get some help in selecting the Ivies that I should apply to?
Since I'm focusing on Physics/Engineering(Nuclear/Mechanical, preferably), I'm also okay with applying to very few Ivies. So any help/opinions, non-Ivy suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!
(I am also applying to MIT and UChicago and considering Amherst,Vassar,Williams,Wesleyan College, and others like the ones listed here
<a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2012/02/21/10-colleges-that-offer-international-students-most-financial-aid%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2012/02/21/10-colleges-that-offer-international-students-most-financial-aid&lt;/a>
Any opinions on that will be appreciated too.
Not applying to Stanford.
)</p>

2

<p>Erm, did I say something stupid? I know all the Ivies are pretty good at almost everything, but some are better than the others at some stuff. Could you guys please help?</p>

3

<p>The NRC does periodic rankings of PhD programs. The most recent version was published last year and entitled “A Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States”. You can download the report and data at [A</a> Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States](<a href=“http://www.nap.edu/rdp/]A”>A Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States (with CD) | The National Academies Press) .</p>

<p>While your criteria for ranking programs differs from theirs’, I think it should give you an idea about how academia ranks them. Their ordering of physics programs would be:</p>

<p>Harvard
Princeton<br>
Penn
Columbia
Cornell
Yale
Brown
Dartmouth</p>