Anyone know what CU’s acceptance rate was this year?
I know which school I’d choose if I were in OP’s shoes…and I get the sense OP’s choice is same.
@CU123 – funny about the whoaaaa… I don’t know much about Mammoth, but I figure if it’s good enough for Olympians and a slew of X Game champs, it’s good enough to make the trip from UCLA 
And it WAS open until July last year! Not too shabby…
Although probably too late, CU has some nice options like Engineering Physics if you qualify for CU Engineering.
CU Boulder offers research work at JILA on campus labs , and Southwest Research, a private company off campus, the group that studies planets like Pluto and moons of Jupiter is in Boulder.
Physics is CU Boulder’s strongest department at CU, because of JILA, an NSF funded collaboration of NIST and CU.
its a joint government/university physics lab with the very top physicists who study Bose Einstein condensates and other atomic physics. I think you should go for a straight physics major, if you want to get into U of Chicago at either UCLA or CU Boulder. Do not do a light weight astronomy degree. Also take a LOT of mathematics to get into graduate school, even a double major if you are up for it, in math and physics. And also you must do summer research work which is available at either school. . For Astrophysics, you are going to be looking for a certain advisor, so for grad school, you may want to look at many options, do not limit yourself to Princeton or Chicago.
Also NIST in Boulder routinely hires physics students, look up Dave Wineland, Physics Nobel Laureate. At JILA
look up Eric Cornell. You really cannot beat CU Boulder for physics, because the research labs are accessible to undergrads.
UCLA is very strong too, but be sure to take a lot of math and get a regular physics degree, the hardest one they offer, do not go lightweight with astrophysics, take the whole banana.
Stay with a general physics major and Figure out later if its really astrophysics that you want, you may change your mind! Good luck.
@Coloradomama thanks for the advice. I decided to go physics/math double major at UCLA and start this summer. I was wait-listed at Chicago and got in, but just feel like UCLA is a better fit for me. Besides my folks are already shelling out $ and Chicago was another 18K.
Congratulations @smedgehog, and go Bruins!