<p>I was wondering how big is the department (how many students in every class are in each subject)</p>
<p>@YaleBlue hopefully you could answer?</p>
<p>I’m an astrophysics major. Yale offers a BA in astronomy and a BS in astronomy and physics, but basically no one does the BA (maybe one every couple years). This year’s graduating class has 3 astro majors; 2015 will have 6, and right now it looks like 2016 will have 4 or 5. </p>
<p>This is actually pretty cool, because there are still quite a few profs in the department and it’s really easy to get friendly with them and start doing research. The graduate astro department is a bit bigger (something like 20 grad students) and there are 10 full-time astronomy professors and another 5 or so who teach physics but do research in astronomy. Upper level classes tend to be small - 5 students or so - but by their junior year lots of people start taking grad courses, and they’re a little bigger. </p>
<p>I took a class this term that involved a free trip to observe at the Arecibo telescope Puerto Rico (the world’s biggest radio telescope). The trip attracted people from the physics department, so it had maybe 15 people.</p>
<p>Anyway, things are comfy and everyone knows everyone.</p>
<p>IDK about CS but it’s probably on the department website.</p>
<p>WOAH. That’s so cool! I applied early as an astro major so hopefully my astro Siemens research pays off :/</p>
<p>How much programming do you use at Yale and is it possible to double major in astrophysics and computer science (and still graduate in 4 years?)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Beyond the introductory classes, programming is a huge part of most astro classes and is essential to doing research. I’m taking a class right now that focused on numerical simulations of galaxy collisions and the evolution of large-scale structure, and as can be expected, it’s 80% programming. (A mix of Python and IDL; you could probably use C++ too).
Other classes, especially observational ones, are less programming-heavy, but you still need to learn at least Python within the first couple of terms for data reduction and plotting things. Some classes do a lot of statistical analysis and require you to use R, and Matlab will be usefulf for others, but all that can be learned during the classes. </p>
<p>I’m sure it’s possible to double major, but beware that CS is taught very differently in the CS department (which is highly theoretical and focuses on the “philosophy of computer science”) than in astronomy (which is mostly practical and focused on learning languages to do science). </p>
<p>Especially the astro department is known for being flexible in the classes people use to fulfill the requirements, so I’m sure you’d be able to get some credit toward the astro major with CS classes even if they aren’t cross-listed.</p>
<p>IDL how fun! Worst programming language for astro research haha, lost countless hours over the summer figuring it out just to sort some bin files for my project.</p>
<p>Regarding CS is it practical to study it at Yale if I’m definitely going to launch my startup in college in addition to learning the material for practical real world use? And do you know if there are any iphone development classes there or any profs into that stuff?</p>
<p>Important to note, but there are a few tracks for the astro major: one overlaps with parts of the intensive major and another overlaps with the non-intensive major. If you’re interested in astro and want to go to grad school, also consider the intensive physics major as it gives some flexibility. I have an acquaintance who’s a senior majoring in astro, and she said she wishes she did the intensive major because she’s had to do most of the classes anyway to have a good chance at theoretical astrophysics stuff. There are also a lot of students in the intensive physics major and in the mathematics and physics major who do research in astronomy. I’m doing research in geophysics and I was told by some professors that if I wanted to go to grad school, a strong background in physics is more important than a background in geology, and I can imagine that there’d be some truth to that in a lot of astrophysics fields. </p>
<p>For the development sort of stuff, look into HackYale. Most of the computer science classes are theoretical and the most useful one for science research is CPSC 223. People launch start ups here, but most do it through the YEI.</p>