I am hoping some of the prior commenters might be able to hop back on. We are in the home stretch of finalizing application lists. In addition to some larger public universities, including our state public university which is actually quite strong, we have identified a number of smaller privates schools that seem like a good fit for various reasons (some LAC’s) and I am hoping some might be able to weigh in with their assessment of how they compare. We have done a lot of our own research of course, but I would value any input from the group. List includes: Wesleyan, Rice, Colgate, Carleton, and Wash U St Louis - thinking in terms of quality of program, research opportunities, reputation, faculty accessibility, number and rigor of courses (assuming grad school to follow), etc. We have visited several, but may not get to all. (tagging @Regulus7 @intparent @harvardandberkeley @merc81). They may be ED options. Thanks in advance!
Those 5 are all very selective schools with hefty sticker prices.
But if you’re confident your in-state public university (or another school on your list) is a true admission/financial safety, and you also have a couple of admission/financial “match” schools, then you should be o.k.
Yep, indeed they (selective and expensive). But I was specifically hoping to get any “final” feedback on the quality of those particular programs (courses, profs, research opportunities, reputation, etc.) as they compare to each other if anyone has firsthand knowledge, is working in the field, or has done research similar to what we are doing on these schools.
Somebody’s notion of colleges with good astronomy observatories:
http://www.collegerank.net/amazing-college-observatories/
50 colleges that generated the highest number of alumni-earned astronomy PhDs, 2012-16:
University of California, Berkeley
Cornell University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
University of Arizona, The
University of Maryland, College Park
Columbia University in the City of New York
Pennsylvania State University
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Washington
Harvard University
Princeton University
Boston University
University of Chicago, The
University of Colorado Boulder
Rutgers
Stanford University
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Carleton College
Carnegie Mellon University
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Florida
University of Rochester
Case Western Reserve University
Michigan State University
Northwestern University, Evanston
Ohio State University
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of Texas at Austin, The
Yale University
Brigham Young University, Provo
Florida Institute of Technology
Harvey Mudd College
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Wellesley College
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
Rice University
University of Iowa
University of Southern California
Dartmouth College
Johns Hopkins University
Swarthmore College
U. Oklahoma
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The
University of Notre Dame
Whitman College
Barnard College
Haverford College
Source: NSF/WebCASPAR
Keep in mind that many of these schools differ greatly by overall enrollment size;
there may also be big variations in the number of graduating astronomy majors (physics majors, etc.)
Nevertheless, a list like this might expose a few schools you hadn’t considered.
50 colleges that generated the highest number of alumni-earned physics PhDs, 2012-16:
University of California, Berkeley
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cornell University
California Institute of Technology
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Harvard University
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Arizona, The
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Columbia University in the City of New York
Stanford University
Princeton University
University of Rochester
University of Chicago, The
Brigham Young University, Provo
University of Texas at Austin, The
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of Washington
Purdue University, West Lafayette
Colorado School of Mines
University of Florida
University of Maryland, College Park
Michigan State University
Ohio State University, The, Columbus
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Carnegie Mellon University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy
Harvey Mudd College
University of California, San Diego
Pennsylvania State University, The, University Park and Hershey Medical Center
University of California, Davis
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
Yale University
North Carolina State University
Brown University
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Boston University
Rice University
Case Western Reserve University
College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA)
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh
Swarthmore College
University of Notre Dame
Reed College
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick
University of California, Santa Cruz
Source: NSF/WebCASPAR
Again, keep in mind that many of these schools differ greatly by overall enrollment size;
there may also be big variations in the number of graduating physics majors.
For example, according to IPEDS data for 2016-17, Berkeley graduated 64 physics majors, Caltech graduated 21, and Reed College graduated only 15.
Nevertheless, a list like this might expose a few schools you hadn’t considered.
Thanks @tk21769 . I do already have these lists and information and we have done a lot of research and they had been posted previously (and we do have some on our list). Again, just looking for any final input on the specific schools mentioned as they may be an Early Decision option: Wesleyan, Rice, Colgate, Carleton, and Wash U St Louis.
@dogwood18 Your student should contact the dept himself and ask what types of research UGs are doing, if they are working directly with professors on their projects or working for grad students, if their UGs are doing poster/conference presentations, etc. Understanding how a dept functions and how your student perceives himself fitting in the dept is very individual.
I can share that if I had asked a similar question on this forum based on a list of schools that at least 2 of the schools ds took off his list would have been more highly recommended than where he attended. Why? bc they have better general reputations. But, how the depts really functioned for UGs and research did not match our ds’s individual goals.
Don’t base anything on other people’s opinions. Your ds needs to research and make contact himself and decide what he wants from his UG experience.
Some of the other posters commented on this, but I think it is worth reinforcing that a good undergraduate physics and astronomy option does not have to be a big research university or highly ranked at the graduate level (graduate is a very different environment). A number of LACs, as you can see from the per capita NSF data, are very good at producing STEM PHDs. Look for opportunities to do directed research with a professor appropriate for an undergraduate.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek of course yes. thank you. again, just hoping for any “color commentary” for anyone with firsthand experience with these schools if there was any. we are absolutely doing our own research and have visited and met with profs in the departments when it has been possible.
@IzzoOne Agree! That’s why some of these smaller schools are on his list, in addition to some of the larger research universities too. That opportunity for close relationships with teachers and opportunities for research was very enticing to him, among other things.
A little late to the party but:
To whittle down the list, the second paragraph of post # 58 can be important IMO.
Look at the registrar’s list of courses actually given over the last two semesters for each of the schools, and determine the frequency that relevant upper level courses are actually given, the number of sections of relevant courses offered, etc. This relates to the likelihood of actually being able to take those courses.
So for example my D1 attended a large LAC. Her last semester there was exactly one course she wanted to take to complete her major (and a number of other courses offered in the major that she was not interested in). She hadn’t taken it before because they only offered it every other year. That course, offered only in one section, conflicted with the one course offered to complete her desired language sequence.
These types of conflicts can occur anyplace but they are more likely in smaller schools where courses may be offered only every other year, only single sections are offered, some may be taught by only a single professor who may leave or go on sabbatical (also happened to D!), etc.
There is a lot of good advice above, but here’s the thing: there is a point at which you have enough / too much data and need to id the crucial variables that matter to your student. Pretty much any of the places that have been suggested here will be good enough- and ‘good enough’ is an important concept.
After ‘good enough’ the rest is up to your student, And that will come down to things like engaging with profs, taking the initiative, finding a cohort to get through what will be a lotof hard work with, and so on.
There can be every kind of course option, lots of high-flying faculty, research opportunities, etc, but what will make the difference is what the student does with them. So things like fit matter. Ime of physics kids, they are not allrounders: they tend to know where they feel comfortable. Between the school with [insert objective metric] and the school where your student feels that they belong, go with the fit.
Come back & tell us how the process is going!
haven’t seen this here, might be of interest:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120314110829/https://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/highlite/bachplus5c/bachplus5c.htm
rosters of physics students from aip was previously linked on this thread (#48).
Hmm link in #113 doesn’t work now.
This is the old webpage
http://www.aip.org:80/statistics/trends/highlite/bachplus5c/bachplus5c.htm
Try putting it in web archive.org till find a date where it works. The one linked above worked when I posted it, but not anymore for some reason. May 28, 2008 is working now, for one…