I am a high school junior in Northern Virginia, 1550 SAT (1600 scale), 800 physics SAT subject test, 800 Math 2 SAT subject test, GPA 4.5 weighted (4.0 unweighted). I would like to major in physics, would prefer to go to college closer rather than farther from home, want to have a lot of research opportunity, and need good financial aid if going out of state. What schools would you recommend applying to? As of now I am thinking Princeton, MIT, Virginia tech, UVA, Harvard.
With respect to your private university choices, MIT, Princeton and Harvard all make sense.
Along similar lines to the above, look into RPI and Cornell.
For excellent undergraduate research opportunities and some of the country’s best-funded financial aid programs, consider appropriate NESCACs.
If for some reason you decide you would prefer to travel, Caltech and Harvey Mudd match your interests.
I’d suggest adding William and Mary in state. It is a very strong department, and there will be a very favorable student to faculty ratio. Jefferson Lab is nearby. W&M, along with Berkeley, produces the highest percentage of undergraduates getting STEM PHDs on a per capita basis of national public institutions.
I also suggest not overlooking smaller schools, like the NESCACs, as suggested above. They are overlooked by some due to size. I assume the thought is a large school is needed for STEM. But that isn’t true at an undergraduate level and the focus on undergraduate education and research is a big, big plus.
Check out this post from a few months ago - http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/2007911-college-suggestions-with-good-physics-major-p1.html
When it comes to physics research, the LACs lag far behind the top universities in every respect, except for one. The one exception is: research by undergraduates. If that particular form of physics research is of interest to you, then the top LACs are powerhouses.
The highest honor that an undergraduate can achieve for physics research is the Apker Award, conferred by the American Physical Society. You can check the list, but I believe that the physics programs with the most Apkers are Williams College (with 5) and Harvey Mudd College (with 4). Note that schools like this have no physics grad students – the faculty have no choice but to get undergraduates involved in their research, because there isn’t anyone else around to help.
https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/awards/apker.cfm
Definitely consider Harvey Mudd. My husband did his undergrad there and started his PhD in Physics at UIUC and was one of only two 1st year grad students to pass his quals without ever taking a graduate course. He ended up only doing a year at UIUC before finishing his PhD in Physics at Caltech in less than 4 years. He felt extremely well prepared for PhD classes and research after studying at Mudd
This program at UCSB – highly selective – offers often unparalleled opportunities. It should be considered if you’re looking at the best undergraduate physics programs. (However, this being a public UC, financial aid for an OOS student could be tricky. Still, you should know about it.)
https://ccs.ucsb.edu/majors/physics
Check out Johns Hopkins, UPenn, and Columbia
(in addition to other NE/Mid-Atlantic colleges mentioned above).
UMCP might also be worth a look.
Wow thank you so much! As far as out of state goes, do you think some of the colleges that are listed here that aren’t top level like MIT, Caltech, Princeton would be worth it since it would likely be much more difficult financially? I am able to go to any Virginia state school tuition free.
Nearly without exception, the colleges mentioned here thus far have been top-level. The suggestion has been, also, that several could offer you better opportunities for research than would be available at larger schools.
For an external perspective, undergraduate-focused colleges such as Amherst place exceedingly well in this Forbes article, “10 Expensive Colleges Worth Every Penny”: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliesportelli/2017/04/26/10-expensive-colleges-worth-every-penny-2017/amp/. Though the title may be hyperbolic, and the included schools would certainly not be scientifically determined, the article does seem to accurately place some of these colleges in an economic and, particularly, academic context.
Free tuition at UVa, VT, or W&M is a great option to have. If you are successful in the undergraduate physics programs at any of those schools, get involved in some research, and do as well on the GREs as you did on the SATs, you would likely be a strong candidate at any physics graduate program.
You would need to (1) get admitted and (2) get a financial aid offer before you could compare OOS schools to your instate options. But Harvard, Princeton, Williams, and MIT are among the 10 wealthiest schools in the country, on an endowment-per-student basis, and offer generous financial aid. If you can get in, they would likely be cost-competitive with your in-state options (although we know nothing of your family’s financial situation so no guarantees here).
A couple notes about undergrad physics programs:
- You may find that at many universities, the actual number of undergraduate physics majors is smaller than you might expect. This is because the students who are good at physics and math gravitate towards the engineering school, which is often larger by an order of magnitude, and which offers better employment options for BS graduates. Introductory physics classes may be larger than you might expect, because the physics majors have to share them with the much larger cohort of engineering majors.
- Given point 1, you may find that at many universities, the undergraduate physics majors are actually outnumbered by the physics graduate students. The research opportunities available to undergraduates may be primarily oriented towards working with the grad students, rather than working directly with the faculty.
- The environment for physics majors is very different at a traditional LAC with strong physics (like Williams or Reed), because there are no engineering students and no graduate students. The faculty are much more focused on grooming undergraduate physics majors, which is why LAC grads do very well in terms of undergraduate research awards and grad school placement. One downside is that LAC physics majors don't typically have the option of taking engineering courses or possibly switching majors to engineering (although a few LACs, like Mudd or Swarthmore, do have small engineering programs).
I mentioned Reed because it is well-known as a “feeder” to top physics PhD programs, as well as ifor ts undergraduate-operated nuclear reactor. However, Reed is in Portland, Oregon, which may be outside your geographic comfort zone.
Imo, financial difficulty / more than FAFSA loans are not worth it for undergrad, given the choices you have in-state. I am a fan of the physics department at W&M- very committed faculty, clear pathway through, major emphasis on good quality research experience right from the beginning. Less familiar with the departments at Tech & UVa, but know that you can get into top grad programs from any of them. Of the others you mentioned, Princeton & MIT would be the ones I would pick, and both will pay 100% of need and are pretty accessible from NoVa.
I’d add UChicago to the list for physics. Also Rice.
Also want to reiterate what some others have said - for an undergrad, the top LACs are an excellent choice for physics.
On a per-capita basis, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Carleton, Reed, Haverford and several other LACs are all top feeders for PhDs in physics. Remember, as an undergrad, it doesn’t really matter if a school is doing cutting edge research at the very top level if you don’t get to have anything to do with that research.
The National Science Foundation has ranked the top “feeders” to US science and engineering PhD programs on a size-adjusted basis. It’s Table 4 at this link:
https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf13323/
You can see that LACs (i.e. “baccalaureate” institutions in the table) do in fact rank very highly. And note that LACs are actually handicapped in the NSF ranking, because it includes PhD programs in engineering. Most LACs don’t offer engineering, and so they probably feed few graduates into engineering PhD programs. If the ranking was for “feeders” to science PhD programs specifically (excluding engineering), the LACs would rank even better.
Georgia tech.