<p>Hi. Which schools are the best at teaching Physics??? Specially between Rice and Cornell or just Rice!? Also feel free to throw in LACs.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Princeton, University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins all have fairly legendary physics departments, as do Caltech/MIT. For undergrad I would guess you can’t get much better than Princeton (top research+undergrad focused).</p>
<p>
Cornell has the stronger program, but there would be very little difference between the two. Other factors (e.g. climate, size) would be far more important. </p>
<p>Physics is a key department at most colleges. Virtually all of the top universities and LAC will have decent departments. Could you be more specific?</p>
<p>Random suggestions of good physics programs (and/or alma maters) will be, I suspect, rather useless to you. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>university of chicago</p>
<p>I really don’t know about departments, etc yet, but I am very interested in Theoretical physics–also math annd philosophy; which schools can I double major or take math or philosophy as minor??</p>
<p>
No, that wasn’t what I meant. </p>
<ul>
<li>Which part of the country (Midwest, Southeast, etc.)?</li>
<li>Public or private?</li>
<li>Coed or single-sex?</li>
<li>Rural, suburban, or urban?</li>
<li>Small (< 2000), medium (2000-10000), or large (10000+)?</li>
<li>Is cost a concern?</li>
<li>Do you want certain extracurricular activities, like a fencing team?</li>
</ul>
<p>Caltech, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Yale</p>
<p>Cornell, Chicago, Rice, Michigan, Northwestern, JHU, Penn, Columbia</p>
<p>Rice has a pretty strong physics program. Plus, Rice is one of the few top 20 institutions (besides maybe Princeton, Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth) that is dedicated to undergraduate teaching. Quality of life here is amazing as well (ranked number 1 by Princeton Review)… not a cutthroat, intense atmosphere like most other places.</p>
<p>Brown’s physics department is pretty strong. According to Brown’s website, there’s about 15 physics concentrators every year. And 28 professors. Meaning the departmental faculty-student ratio is about 2.15. Although, admittedly, many non-concentrators take physics courses (engineering, pre-med take phys 70, etc.) But for the advanced courses, and for research opportunities, Brown’s pretty good. And it would be incredibly easy to double major in physics and math (in terms of number of courses you’d take). There’s also a Physics and Philosophy major. And as slik nik said, Brown has a focus on undergraduate teaching.</p>
<p>It’s very hard to rank individual undergraduate departments. Graduate department rankings exist (and may have some bearing) but in general the criteria are controversial or limited, or the studies quickly go out of date. Hence the advice to consider the entire school quality and environment.</p>
<p>For Physics in general one strategy would be to pick a good school that strikes a balance between the scale necessary to support good facilities and research projects on the one hand, and the intimacy (esp. small class sizes) needed to get good instruction on the other. Several schools fit among those mentioned above.</p>
<p>For theoretical in particular, with math and philosophy, Chicago historically has been very friendly to interdisciplinary connections like that. The school has a strong commitment to ug teaching, small classes, great facilities, and a heady intellectual atmosphere. Princeton, once Einstein’s home, is probably the biggest name in this field (tp) but I would think Rice or Brown would be great too. I’d lean toward schools like this (smaller liberal arts & sciences universities with good research) rather than an engineering school. Among LACs, look into Reed College or Swarthmore. Or perhaps Macalester College (which is slightly less selective than the schools cited so far).</p>
<p>Gourman UNDERGRADUATE physics
top physics programs according to the Gourman Report, listed in rank order:
Caltech
Harvard
Cornell
Princeton
MIT
UC Berkeley
Stanford
U Chicago
U Illinois UC
Columbia
Yale
Georgia Tech
UC San Diego
UCLA
U Pennsylvania
U Wisconsin Madison
U Washington
U Michigan AA
U Maryland CP
UC Santa Barbara
U Texas Austin
Carnegie Mellon
U Minnesota
RPI
Brown
JHU
Michigan St
Notre Dame
SUNY Stony Brook
Case Western
Northwestern
U Rochester
U Pittsburgh
Penn State
U Colorado Boulder</p>
<p>US News GRADUATE ranking</p>
<p>1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 5.0<br>
1 Stanford University Stanford, CA 5.0<br>
3 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA 4.9<br>
3 Harvard University Cambridge, MA 4.9<br>
3 Princeton University Princeton, NJ 4.9<br>
3 University of California–Berkeley Berkeley, CA 4.9<br>
7 Cornell University Ithaca, NY 4.7<br>
8 University of Chicago Chicago, IL 4.6<br>
8 University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL 4.6<br>
10 University of California–Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 4.5<br>
11 Columbia University New York, NY 4.3<br>
11 Yale University New Haven, CT 4.3<br>
13 University of Maryland–College Park College Park, MD 4.2<br>
13 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI 4.2<br>
13 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 4.2<br>
16 University of California–Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA 4.1<br>
16 University of California–San Diego La Jolla, CA 4.1<br>
16 University of Texas–Austin Austin, TX 4.1<br>
16 University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI 4.1<br>
20 Johns Hopkins University (Rowland) Baltimore, MD 4.0<br>
20 University of Colorado–Boulder Boulder, CO 4.0<br>
20 University of Washington Seattle, WA 4.0<br>
23 Pennsylvania State University–University Park University Park, PA 3.8<br>
23 SUNY–Stony Brook Stony Brook, NY 3.8<br>
23 University of Minnesota–Twin Cities Minneapolis , MN 3.8</p>
<p>The Gourman undergraduate rankings have taken some heat on CC (mini, are you there?)
[Caveat</a> Emptor The Gourman Report January 2002](<a href=“http://www.siop.org/tip/backissues/tipjan02/07bedeian.aspx]Caveat”>TIP Online)</p>
<p>The graduate ranking above is for Physics in general. USNWR also posts rankings for 7 specialty areas.
[Best</a> Science Schools - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools]Best”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools)</p>
<p>ok which schools do you think I can get in if I am validictorian–been in US for only four years–worked very hard–I have ok EC’s never won any major awards though state vised–and have like a 1900 on SAT? I love math and physics and I think I want to major in mathematical physics</p>
<p>For undergraduate physics, check out the list of [Apker</a> Award](<a href=“http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/awards/apker.cfm]Apker”>LeRoy Apker Award | American Physical Society) winners. It’s an award granted by the American Physical Society for outstanding research by undergraduates. </p>
<p>Several schools have had multiple winners in recent years. You’ll have to review the list for yourself, but I think that Caltech, MIT, Williams, Harvey Mudd, Chicago, and Princeton have been particularly successful.</p>
<p>Also check out New Mexico Tech. A tiny school way out in the desert with a very, very strong physics department.</p>
<p>U Waterloo in Canada has a good mathematical physics program, as does U Toronto. Waterloo is home to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, so if you are exceptionally talented you might be able to do research there (though they do take undergrads from all over the world, not just those two schools).</p>