Colleges good in physics/math?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>I'm trying to cut down the list of colleges I'm applying to. My eventual goal career-wise is to be a pure physics professor (not very likely to go into engineering). I might also go into pure mathematics. Here's my list of colleges:</p>

<pre><code>* Boston U
* Brown U
* Cal Tech
* Carnegie Mellon U
* Columbia U
* Cornell U
* Dartmouth C
* Duke U
* Harvard C
* Harvey Mudd C
* Johns Hopkins U
* MIT
* New York U
* Northwestern U IL
* Princeton U
* Rice U
* Stanford U
* U Calif Berkeley
* U Chicago
* U Illinois Urbana
* U Michigan
* U Pennsylvania
* Yale U
</code></pre>

<p>Which ones can/should I cut off?</p>

2

<p>Oh, and would anyone recommend adding any that I've missed? If it helps, I have:</p>

<p>Between 2300-2400 SAT
800 Math II/800 Physics/800 Chem/690 Bio
95.5 Avg at HS, top 5/~400 at a public, non-magnet HS</p>

3

<p>CMU's physics department was good, but I don't think it was up to par with their engineering departments. Still a pretty good program, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily one of the school's best departments.</p>

4

<p>You might leave out
Boston U
Brown
NYU
Duke
Northwestern</p>

5

<p>Gourman 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>

6

<p>Don't you think its important to know what field of physics you want to study in depth? Plasma physics would give you an entirely different list of top programs as compared to atmospheric physics.</p>

7

<p>I don't think most people coming out of high school are able to pinpoint exactly what they want to go into that precisely.</p>

8

<p>
[quote]
Don't you think its important to know what field of physics you want to study in depth? Plasma physics would give you an entirely different list of top programs as compared to atmospheric physics.

[/quote]

That's more important for PhD programs. It doesn't matter as much for BS programs.</p>

9

<p>I cannot pinpoint exactly which area of physics :(. I'm only a high school senior. Thank you, collegehelp for those rankings! Any more advice is appreciated very much.</p>

10

<p>I thought NYU's math was very good, why would you remove it?</p>

11

<p>^ I thought NYU wasn't really known for science/math?</p>

12

<p>UCSB has a joint program between the college of creative studies (CCS) and the physics department that you might want to check out. College</a> of Creative Studies, UC Santa Barbara - What is CCS?</p>

13

<p>UMD-CP has a top ten physics department and your numbers would make you competitive for merit $$. If you are in-state, even more so.<br>
S loved Mudd. If you want (physics or math) and humanities, keep UChicago on the list.
Rice might also be a decent shot at merit $$.<br>
Dartmouth and Yale for physics? Nah.</p>

14

<p>Thanks for all the feedback guys! Feel free to post any more helpful stuff :)</p>

15

<p>Bump! .</p>

16

<p>Hey guys, I'm making my final list this weekend, so any more feedback is appreciated :)</p>

17

<p>I'd keep Yale on the list. It has a strong physics program (top 11 program) and math program (top 7), exceptional humanities and social sciences, and an extraordinary financial aid program (average aid given out is around $37,000 per year).</p>

18

<p>California Institute of Technology
Columbia University
Cornell University
Harvard University
Harvey Mudd College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Princeton University
Rice University
Stanford University
University of California-Berkeley
University of Chicago
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Yale University</p>

<p>I have narrowed the list to 15. I would narrow it further based on fit. Harvey Mudd, for example, is the only LAC in your list. Are you interested in LACs? If that's the case, you may want to remove other schools on your list and add more LACs. If not, you may want to remove HMC. Caltech and HMC are very focused on the Sciences. Do you want such an academic atmosphere or would you rather attend a school that is more academically diverse? do you want a party school or a serious school? Is location (urban vs rural or East vs West) and issue?</p>

19

<p>For someone considering an academic career and certainly interested in pursuing a PhD, you may want to consider expanding your options. As a group, the top LACs produce a proportionately much larger number of PhDs than top universities. Among those with particular strength in physics with math as a supporting cast member, you may want to consider:</p>

<p>Carleton
Reed
Swarthmore
Williams</p>

20

<p>1190, that's because LACs attract more students interested in PhDs in the first place. It has nothing to do with the qualityof the insitution. I agree that if the OP is interested in a LAC, he should not shy away. Many LACs have excellent science offerings. But LACs aren't better at preparing undergrads for PhD programs.</p>