<p>Can someone make me a list of very good colleges for physics. I really am not looking for anything like public schools (Rutgers being my state flagship), or any high flying universities (MIT/Caltech). I am just looking for some very good physics colleges that might be just a bit under the radar that are highly looked upon. PLEASE do not link me USNEWS.</p>
<p>Look at engineering schools. RPI (it’s in NY) is something you may want to look at-but without aid it is expensive.</p>
<p>But surely there are a few that are a bit more recognized than others (other than of course the elites)</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you consider a “high flying” private school but…</p>
<p>Brown University
Carnegie Mellon University
Duke University
Northwestern University
Rice University
University of Pennsylvania</p>
<p>Well I want to be realistic about my chances in getting into the universities that I am applying to. I would think anything around 30%- 40% acceptance rate would be in my field. Obviously there is much more to the college than the acceptance rate, but I think that would be my ball park.</p>
<p>Currently I am looking at
CMU, RPI, Case, NYU, Lehigh, and such</p>
<p>Boston University
U Rochester (reach)
Brandeis
Syracuse
Reed
Carleton
Bryn Mawr (if you’re a girl)
Lawrence
Clark (?)
Grinnell</p>
<p>I am not sure why URoch would be a reach for me but thank you.</p>
<p>For hard sciences like physics your better publics are going to be much better than non-elite privates and many do not have hordes of physics majors. For example big school UW Madison has about 35 physics majors per year graduate. Pretty small tight group. And lots on interesting research going on from CERN to the South Pole. [Welcome</a> | Department of Physics](<a href=“http://www.physics.wisc.edu/welcome]Welcome”>Welcome, 2020-21 new faculty! – Department of Physics – UW–Madison)</p>
<p>Check out the following research universities:
Boston U.
Tulane
Carnegie Mellon
URochester
Boston College
Brandeis
Case Western</p>
<p>These meet the following criteria:
- private
- don’t rank in the USNWR top 20
- do rank in the NRC top 50 physics graduate programs (by “S-Rank High” [NRC</a> Rankings Overview: Physics - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“NRC Rankings Overview: Physics”>NRC Rankings Overview: Physics))</p>
<p>If you’re willing to consider small liberal arts colleges, check out the following:
Harvey Mudd
Reed
Swarthmore
Carleton
Haverford
Grinnell
(these schools are among the highest in percentage of alumni who go on to earn PhDs in physical sciences; however, they are quite selective. The University of Puget Sound and Lawrence University are less selective LACs with relatively high physics PhD production.)</p>
<p>Caveat: There does not seem to be any reliable ranking of the best undergraduate physics programs. You may be better off making a list of ~20 schools that meet other criteria you value (financial aid, location, size, etc.) then investigating the physics programs at each one.</p>
<p>The reason I am avoiding publics is because I cannot pay out of state tuition and am hoping for a quite a bit of need based financial aid from privates. If not, my destination will be Rutgers University and hopefully grad school from there.</p>
<p>That makes sense. My brother did physics degree at RU. He liked it well enough.</p>
<p>Isn’t Rutgers generally considered to be a good place for physics?</p>
<p>Perhaps Stony Brook and Minnesota may be worth a look as out-of-state publics with lower list prices.</p>
<p>The physics undergraduate major is rather well defined, typically including courses like:</p>
<ul>
<li>Frosh/soph math (calculus, multivariable calculus, linear algebra, differential equations)</li>
<li>Frosh/soph physics using frosh/soph math</li>
<li>Quantum mechanics</li>
<li>Electromagnetism</li>
<li>Advanced mechanics</li>
<li>Statistical and thermal physics</li>
<li>Advanced physics lab</li>
<li>Advanced physics elective(s)</li>
<li>Recommended advanced math like real analysis, complex analysis, etc.</li>
</ul>
<p>So you may want to check the offerings at each school to see how complete they are and how frequently they are offered. Undergraduate research opportunities are obviously helpful if the goal is to go to a PhD program.</p>
<p>I never really looked at Rutgers hard enough. Everyone in NJ, atleast in my area completely shoves it off because “everyone else goes there”. I honestly don’t know how good it is. What do you guys think about RU?</p>
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<p>That’s pretty popular here on cc. NJ residents can go anywhere except Rutgers. </p>
<p>I think SUNY Stony Brook is an ideal option. </p>
<p>Iowa State is also cool for Physics.</p>
<p>Firstly, just because everyone goes there does not mean that everyone graduates/ stays in their major. Many majors, especially the hard sciences, have fairly intense weeding which causes students to decide to pursue other, less demanding fields. </p>
<p>Secondly, who cares if everyone in NJ goes to Rutgers (they don’t btw)? One of the best schools for geology has infamously easy admissions standards, yet their geology professors are among the best in the world, undergraduate courses within the major are quite rigorous, and opportunities abound. Sure the school lets in many a 2.7 HS GPA slacker but that doesn’t mean that they can keep up with the work. By the time sophomore year rolls along most of the students left in the geology program are extremely hard workers. I suspect the same is true with Rutgers physics.</p>
<p>
As you note, most of those are pretty selective. Wesleyan would be an obvious addition to the list, as one of only two LACs with a PhD program in physics. </p>
<p>Bucknell might be more up the OP’s alley – very strong in physics but easier to get into than the above. It’s also quite strong in chemistry and engineering. St. Olaf is very strong in math…my impression is that it’s also good for the physical sciences, but I am not familiar with its physics program.</p>
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This is something I think everyone should keep in mind when selecting colleges. Most colleges estimate that between 60% and 75% of their students change their majors at least once, and the average is three times. (This is totally unsurprising. Most high schoolers haven’t ever been exposed to fields like geography, anthropology, and linguistics. Many prospective students are “sure” they want to major in a field simply because they liked their AP Bio or AP Calc class.) For this reason, I usually recommend using major preference as a last step in the winnowing process rather than first, unless you are (a) extremely confident about your major choice and (b) it’s an extremely rare program.</p>
<p>**darkaeroga - ** Additional info like desired size and location (urban/rural? which parts of the country?) would help posters give you feedback. Yale and UT Austin may be both awesome for physics, but they couldn’t be more different. Odds are that you have at least some idea of what kind of college you’re looking for.</p>
<p>Another vote for Lawrence here. For their size they have a strong physics department (better than St. Olaf). My D2 just finished applying to college as a physics major, so we looked pretty hard at a lot of physics programs. She is going to Harvey Mudd, but of the “less elite” schools she applied to Lawrence had the best Physics. They give some merit aid, too.</p>
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<p>However, if a student goes to a school without his/her intended major (or has a weak department in it), then s/he may have to transfer to another school if s/he is one of the 25% to 40% who does not change major.</p>
<p>There is no point in do a lot of research on the school, visiting, applying, etc. if it is academically unsuitable for the student’s likely academic path.</p>
<p>A student who is uncertain about major should favor schools with a good selection of majors that s/he may be interested in. But this criterion does favor larger schools in general. Then again, if the student is really going for the “college experience” and does not care that much about what s/he majors in, then s/he may deprioritize the selection of majors.</p>
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<p>What in the world does that have to do with my post? Obviously someone should not select a college that lacks the intended major…and that is not what I suggested people do. </p>
<p>What I said was that I typically recommend people start with preferences – large university vs. LAC, city vs. countryside, public vs. private, cost and need for financial/merit aid, selectivity, etc. – and then move to narrowing down based on strength in the major. “Give me all the colleges with a good program in [English/biology/etc.]” is a very slipshod method of college selection because for every suitable college that gets recommended, there’s at least a dozen that aren’t, simply because there’s no way everyone can list all of the dozens or even hundreds of colleges that fit that vague criterion. Starting with a more concrete set of colleges - only northeastern universities, for example, or only full-need liberal arts colleges - provides a better starting point for a list that can be narrowed down based on academic strength and other factors. </p>
<p>[I</a> dislike repeating myself, so I will link to a very detailed post in which I outline my recommended college selection route.](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/15856700-post2.html]I”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/15856700-post2.html)</p>
<p>Haha, I never said I had the mentality of my peers. While your guys suggestions look great, I think I would rather stay away from the LACs deep midwest as I would feel very isolated in the homogeneous mixture. I have put Bucknell in my list. I am definitely not a fan of city schools, I much more like a beautiful isolated regular college campus as long as it is somewhat diverse. I have been in the selection process for a while. But only recently have I changed from being an Engineering major to a Physics major because I realized what I truly wanted to do. Whether I change or not in the future is not in my mind, but right now, I am very much set in majoring in Physics. Problem is, it is very difficult to find any source that provides reliable accuracy about the quality of programs, and most lists tend to list state schools over and over. I am also looking for colleges that its extremely easy to get into research, even as early as Freshmen year.</p>