I’m thinking of majoring in physics/astronomy, Are there any liberal arts schools that are good in those fields? isn’t liberal arts mostly focused on, as the name says, arts like sociology etc?
also, if there is a LAC good for studying physics/astronomy, is it true that because the class sizes are smaller, students get more opportunities for early research work even though the LACs might not have as much resources as public universities do?
Many LACs are very strong in the sciences.
Some of the stronger schools include Carleton, Haverford, Wesleyan and Williams
Here’s a few recent stories from the Haverford website on work being done by current students/recent grads (I’m sure there are similar stories for students at the others schools as well):
https://www.haverford.edu/college-communications/news/summer-centered-david-zegeye-‘19-studies-evolution-galaxies
https://www.haverford.edu/college-communications/news/lee-rosenthal-15-selected-fulbright-us-student-award
https://www.haverford.edu/college-communications/news/summer-centered-cora-hersh-16-seeing-light-dark-matter
ok, i was doing some research just now, colleges like williams is as hard to get into as harvard? is that true? just how selective are these LACs?
Depends on the LAC. The ones I mentioned above have acceptance rates ranging from about 15%-25%. But there are other great LACs which are less selective where you can also pursue the sciences.
Liberal arts colleges are much more than humanities and social science majors.
What are your stats like? I’m sure fellow CC posters and I can recommend schools with a range of selectivity.
Liberal arts colleges are best thought of as liberal arts and sciences colleges. However, this clarification should not strictly be necessary, in that sciences and math are themselves liberal arts. Along these lines – and worth noting – schools, for example, such as Carleton, Hamilton and Bowdoin graduate math majors at over five times the national average.
Reed is notable in physics. I think some poster keeps track of LACs with Apker award-winning students, and another poster has a list of LACs whose alumni have won Nobel prizes in science fields (Oberlin and Swarthmore are two in the latter group).
This list would be worth looking at: http://qz.com/498534/these-25-schools-are-responsible-for-the-greatest-advances-in-science/
You need to check each school specifically.
Physics is not that hard to check out. When looking at the course catalog and schedules, you can check for the following junior/senior level courses to see that they are offered on a regular basis (minimum once every two years, preferably at least once per year):
- intermediate/advanced (classical and relativistic) mechanics
- electromagnetism (often a two semester sequence)
- quantum mechanics (often a two semester sequence)
- statistical and thermal physics
- intermediate/advanced physics lab
Of course, there can also be physics electives like plasma physics, atomic physics, particle physics, etc… If you have an interest in astronomy, check for astronomy and astrophysics courses, which may be in its own department or under the physics department.
You may want to compare the offerings to those at your state flagship to get an idea for comparison.
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And when you do follow @ucbalumnus advice to delve into each school’s departmental offerings, also look at the offerings that are available to you within participating consortium schools. For Amherst, for example, that would be the 5 Schools, or the Claremont colleges in California, or the Quaker Consortium for Swarthmore or Haverford. The consortiums will expand the offerings.
You might find this to be informative with regard to physics:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19394047#Comment_19394047
ok, can someone explain what ucbalumnus said in words i can understand? courses once every two years? how does that work?
also what is a consortium school?
my stats
test: sat 2040, 2170
sat subject test math II:780 physics:800
PSAT/NMSQT qualifying score (results come out in september)
At many schools, not every course is offered every semester or even every year but in alternate years. So, one myst plan their course load scheduling accordingly, which can make it a little more challenging.
A consortium is a group of schools whereby students at one of the participating schools can take classes at the other participating schools in the consortium.
Some examples:
5 School Consortium in Amherst, MA area: Mass Amherst, Amherst College, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Hampshire
Quaker Consortium: University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mar, Haverford, Swarthmore
Claremont Consortium: Claremont McKenna, Scripps, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer
Smaller departments may not have the faculty to offer every junior/senior level course every semester or every year. They may offer each course on a rotating basis. For example, supposed there are junior/senior level courses A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H that students in a given major should take. They may offer them like this:
Fall 2016: A, B
Spring 2017: C, D
Fall 2017: E, F
Spring 2018: G, H
Assuming that a student is about to be a junior in fall 2016, having completed the lower level courses in the major, s/he can take all eight of these courses, but has only one chance during his/her remaining two academic years to take each course. This can limit the choices of what time of day s/he can take each course, and can prevent him/her from taking out-of-major electives that happen to be offered in the same time slots. Also, if s/he gets a D or F grade in one of these courses which is required for the major, that could be much worse in terms of delaying graduation.
Some schools nearby have cross registration agreements where students may take courses at the other schools. The level of convenience varies. Consider the following when evaluating the convenience of cross registration.
- Commuting between the schools. Some are adjacent to each other (e.g. the Claremonts, or Barnard/Columbia); others require taking a bus or other transportation.
- Administrative limitations at both your own school and the other school (e.g. the other school may give registration priority to its own students, so its most popular courses may effectively be unavailable for cross registration).
- Academic calendars – if they are different, that can result in one school’s final exams happening during the last week of regular classes at another school, or after dorm move-out day at another school.
Look into Lafayette, Union, Bucknell as some options. You can check the course offerings/majors online.
ok so if i got in to haverford i could potentially study at upenn.
wow so many things to research… college list still incomplete
Seconding Union, which appears to be a match school for you.
You could look into Boston College, which feels like a LAC but has a national university research program. Same with WUSTL.
BC and WUSTL have over 14,000 students. They don’t feel like LACs in any of the usual senses (great schools, though, of course).
A friend of mine went to Bryn Mawr where she met her husband, who was at Haverford. She said that, in practice, there were a lot of Bryn Mawr students taking classes at Haverford and vice versa, which was easy to do because the schools are very close to each other, there was easy, convenient transportation and the schools coordinated class schedules. In practice, BM or H students taking classes at Penn or Swat was much rarer because it was. UChicago less convenient. This was a while ago, somethings may have changed, but before counting on cross registration within any consortium, I’d ask very careful questions about logistics and the actual number of people from school A taking classes at school B.
“Much less convenient” not “UChicago convenient.” Thank you, autocorrect.