<p>I'm jut wondering. Cuz I'm applying to grad school here (it's actually my top choice), and am already talking to one of the professors in the dept who seems to like me so far. My main interest right now is modelling exoplanetary atmospheres. </p>
<p>I might also apply to the astrophysics program here, but if the professors there denied tenure to Sean Carroll, then they probably aren't inclined to be liberal with my application (since I'm even more unconventional than he is)</p>
<p>Try the Grad School Cafe website- this site in my experience is more high school and undergrad info</p>
<p>Yeah I already go there - but there are so few geoscience people (and zero astro people) there</p>
<p>Anyways, interacting with current undergrads would also work out, since I’d like to learn more about the dept</p>
<p>You may be looking for a needle in a haystack:</p>
<p>Chicago has a sizable Astronomy and Astrophysics Department, erstwhile home of George Hale and Edwin Hubble, but it doesn’t offer any undergraduate majors, just a handful of undergraduate electives and a popular Core astrophysics survey course for non-science majors. I assume that there are physics or geophysics majors who are interested in astrophysics and take those courses, but probably not more than 2-3 people per class.</p>
<p>There is a Department of Geophysical Sciences that does have undergraduate majors, mostly in Environmental Studies, with only a few doing other concentrations within the department. This department has David Archer, a climate modeling maven who teaches another popular Core course for non-science majors on modelling global warming (one that’s good enough that some science students take it too as a pure elective). He’s an impressive, charismatic guy – according to me; according to my kid, who took his course, he’s an impressive guy with an ego whose size and breadth rivals that of the known universe.</p>
<p>And then, of course, there is the straight-up Physics Department, whose tutelary deity is Enrico Fermi. And the Enrico Fermi Institute. And Fermilab. An awful lot of astrophysics seems to go on in the Physics Department.</p>
<p>I assume there is communication and cross-pollination of ideas among these three departments, but I don’t know anything about how that happens, except that I would predict, based on the existence of three departments, that there is some rivalry, turf wars, and byzantine politics involved along the way. Try to get a sense of how this works if you will need to work across departmental lines.</p>
<p>Wow - thanks for the wonderful reply! Wow - I’ve definitely heard of Archer before - the prof I’m closest to has worked with him before. Heh, if he has a giant ego, does this make it more difficult to interact with him, as long as you know when to compromise?</p>
<p>What have you heard of Pierrehumbert, by the way?</p>
<p>Huh interesting - there certainly isn’t any rivalry at all between the physics and astro depts here. Or between the atmos and ESS departments. Or between those and physics/astro.</p>
<p>Actually, JHS, the undergrad majors in geosci (of which I am one) here have a wide range of interests, from paleontology to mineralogy to meteorites to fluid dynamics and climate dynamics. Environmental studies is an entirely different department in the social sciences division-don’t mix them up (there is little environmental science that is required, and almost none at the 200 level). You can, however, do a BS in environmental science through the geosci department (as well as the BA or BS in geophysical sciences).</p>
<p>Anyway, the geosci department has a lot of great faculty members and is pretty close-knit. There are not many undergrads, and a lot of the courses are cross-listed as grad/undergrad, so grad students and undergrads tend to know each other. In addition to weekly coffee hour/lunches/drinking there are pig roasts and a departmental summer softball team.</p>
<p>People like David Archer fine, I think, but there are a lot of other excellent faculty members. I have friends who really like Ray Pierrehumbert. You may be interested in this entertaining (critical) letter he wrote to Stephen Levitt about Superfreakonomics: [RealClimate:</a> An open letter to Steve Levitt](<a href=“http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/10/an-open-letter-to-steve-levitt/]RealClimate:”>RealClimate: An open letter to Steve Levitt)</p>
<p>Wow nice Aardwolf - thanks very much for the excellent reply! 
Just wondering - what is your range of interests?</p>
<p>Ah yeah - I read that entertaining letter too :D</p>
<p>Is it better to have a green roof with darker green plants or lighter green or striped?</p>