<p>Well, here’s your problem. Others may disagree, but I’ve always viewed physics as a field where you need to have access to top labs and top research programs to really make your mark. That’s because top-end physics research tends to be an extremely capital-intensive enterprise. And that’s generally going to mean top research universities with a high throughput of research dollars. </p>
<p>But if you look at the top 50 grad school rankings in physics–a proxy for best faculty/best research programs–you’ll end up with 7 of the 8 Ivies (Harvard #1, Princeton #5, Cornell #7, Columbia, and Yale #11, Penn #17, Brown #30); another 11 or so non-Ivy but top 30-ish privates (Caltech, MIT and Stanford tied with Harvard for #1, Chicago #7, Johns Hopkins #19; Rice #26; Carnegie Mellon, Duke, and Northwestern tied for #30; Boston U, NYU, and WUSTL tied for #40); and 31 OOS publics (UC Berkeley #5, Illinois #9, UCSB #10, Michigan #11, UCSD, Maryland, and Texas #14, Wisconsin #17, UCLA, Colorado, and U Washington #19, Ohio State, Penn State, and Stony Brook #23, UC Davis & Minnesota #26, Georgia Tech & UC Irvine #30, Michigan State, Arizona, Florida, and UNC-Chapel Hill #36, Indiana, Purdue, Texas A&M, UCSC, and UVA #40, and Arizona State, Florida State, Iowa State, and UMass-Amherst at #48).</p>
<p>Of these, Stony Brook, Minnesota, and Iowa State probably have the lowest sticker price for OOS students, and are worth a look. Among the privates, BU and NYU are the least selective, but both are known for lousy FA.</p>
<p>So that pretty leaves Rutgers, which at #26 has a darned good physics program, and you have the advantage of being in-state so the sticker price should be reasonable. The question then becomes, what school can beat Rutgers in program quality and/or in net cost? My guess is that Rutgers will be hard to beat, but I’d look at the lower-COA OOS publics and the higher admit rate publics on these lists for comparison shopping purposes. And I’d probably go back and add some LACs with a strong track record of producing physics Ph.D.s.</p>