My DD is planning on a Physics major and a Doctorate. She has narrowed her decision to the above mentioned schools. All three are within our financial ability (lots of FA, minimal to no loans)
She loves the vibe of all three but is having the most stressful time deciding.
For a physics major which offers most opportunity for the future?
Also, she is very driven but not competitive. I’m curious how much Barnard students are affected by the intense competition of Columbia since many classes in her major will be at Columbia. Is it also extremely competitive at Barnard?
If your DD wanted to go to grad school, don’t go to Harvey Mudd. Not only is the courseload a lot heavier, the competition among kids are very high(since literally everyone is a smart STEM kid) and HM has grade deflation. Williams is very strong in physics, but it is even stronger in Math. Kids there are more laidback(but still competitive to some extend. This is the nature of STEM kids.) No grade inflation or deflation for STEM at Williams.
Huh? That’s crazy. It’s a pre-PhD school. Many students go on for their PhDs.
We visited Barnard with my daughter who was interested in science. It started getting funny that every student we talked to thought science meant pre-med. I would not do science at Barnard.
Agree that Williams would be a great choice, but so would Harvey Mudd.
Physics is really strong at Williams. As of 2015, Williams was the leading LAC for Apker Awards, which is the APS award for undergraduate research in physics. The President of Williams is a physicist (Harvard PhD, postdoc at SLAC, Dean at Johns Hopkins), and doubles as a physics professor. Williams is also one of the strongest LACs for math.
I checked Section J of the respective Common Data Sets for % of degrees in the categories of physical sciences and math.
Harvey Mudd: 26.6 % of all conferred degrees were in physical sciences or math (not including another 29.6 % for engineering)
Williams: 21.1 %
Barnard: 5 %
So there appears to be a lesser degree of interest at Barnard, although In fairness, the physics/math community at Barnard would presumably also include Columbia.
In terms of the percentage of grads sent on in to PhD programs, it’s Caltech by a long mile over Mudd and Mudd by a long mile over every other school in the country.
Don’t think it needs to be said that both Caltech and Mudd kids who get PhDs get them in STEM fields.
Did accepted student visits help her? My daughter is a senior physics major at Mudd, heading for grad school next fall. Message me if you have questions.
If she’s up for a heavy work load and major challenges, then go for Mudd. As others have mentioned it comes in second in the country in terms of producing STEM PhDs. Also, in looking at degrees granted by major, physics comes in third (after engineering and CS), so definitely an emphasis.
Hard to see a strong argument for picking Barnard over Williams or Mudd, unless she really wants to be in NYC. I’d at least narrow it down to those 2.
Thanks! She is just coming from the HM accepted student weekend and about to do a quick turnaround at Barnard for the day. Her heart is at Williams but I think Harvey Mudd made a huge impact this weekend. The SP(2) program at Barnard is very new (second group is 2017-18 frosh class) so she want to get a more I depth look at that in person.
She is reading this thread and appreciating all the input
My Barnard grad daughter also fits that description – very driven but not competitive - and she did not experience either Barnard or Columbia as being competitive, certainly not “intensely” so – but definitely filled with highly driven students on both sides of the street. D was not a STEM major, but did take a year of astronomy to fulfill her lab science requirement; the prof who taught that course is currently the chair of the Physics & Astronomy department.
