<p>I have a friend, yes really, who is looking for schools with solid physics programs. The kid is looking for top, middle, and safety ranges. I know there has been a fair amount of discussion regarding top schools, but what about middles and safeties.</p>
<p>Any help would be very much appreciated.</p>
<p>Reed, Haverford, Grinnell, Whitman, Marlboro, Rose-Hulman, Stevens Institute of Technology, Oberlin, Wabash, Bryn Mawr, Lawrence U, Wesleyan U, William and Mary, St. Olaf, Beloit, Bates, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Wake Forest, Kalamazoo, Earlham, Kenyon, Rhodes, Macalester, Franklin and Marshall, and Bowdoin</p>
<p>UIUC, UCSB, UCSD, UT Austin, Washington, U Maryland-CP, Michigan, Wisconsin, SUNY Stony Brook, U Rochester, Carnegie Mellon, Purdue, Boston U, Brandeis, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, NYU, and USC</p>
<p>Pretty good list, though I am obliged to add Case Western Reserve to the list since I've been hanging out there a few years. It's considered to have one of the top physics programs for undergraduates in the country with what's considered to be the best focus on experimental physics by many.
Ok, I'll stop my shameless plug now... ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback, folks.</p>
<p>there was seriously a discussion on this 2 days ago. you may want to use the search function and look up physics</p>
<p>Thanks--I did use the search function. I believe the thread focused on the top schools rather than the middles or safeties. I'm looking for the 2nd and 3rd tier-type schools that have quality programs. The ones that aren't usually on the radar . . .</p>
<p>some of the schools on warblers list aren't discussed as much St olafs and Earlham for example</p>
<p>I don't know what tuition level you are looking at, but one friend who was freaked, when he was visiting Reed, by students who tossed him a beer, ( even though his dad was very nonplussed), is attending University of British Columbia in physics in Vancouver and likes it very much, even though their semesters are winter 1& winter 2 :D</p>
<p>The physics programs at these lesser-known-for-physics schools are solid; each is in the top ten in the country for the percentage of graduates who go on to earn a PhD in physics:</p>
<p>Carleton
Marlboro
N.M. Institute of Mining
Reed
Rice</p>
<p>The other five in the top ten are indeed well-known for physics:</p>
<p>Cal Tech
Harvey Mudd
MIT
Princeton
U Chicago</p>
<p>Both lists alphabetical.</p>
<p>Nobody mentioned Cornell? Cornell's Physics department is scary good!</p>
<p>well I don't think Cornell would be either a middle or a good chance school- wouldn't it be more along the lines of the schools that are hard to say about your chance of admittance?</p>
<p>The OP asked for top, middle and safety programs. I assume he meant reaches, matches and safeties. Besides, others mentioned Michigan (OOS), Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Chicago, Caltech, Haverford all of which are similar to Cornell in terms of admission standards.</p>
<p>yes I realized that others brought up MIT et al
but the OP asked this
I'm looking for the 2nd and 3rd tier-type schools that have quality programs. The ones that aren't usually on the radar . . .</p>
<p>I was just trying to reel everyone back in for her.</p>
<p>The best are: Caltech, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Chicago. Basically what Alex said.</p>
<p>top schools for Applied Physics from US News:
Undergraduate engineering specialties:
Engineering Science/Engineering Physics
(At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)
Methodology 1. Cornell University (NY)
2. U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign *
3. Stanford University (CA)
4. Harvard University (MA)
Princeton University (NJ)
6. University of California–Berkeley *
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor *
California Institute of Technology<br>
9. Yale University (CT)
Pennsylvania State U.–University Park *</p>
<p>You are such a cornell troll. </p>
<p>Us News sure was wrong about Purdue (8th) being better than Cornell (10th) on Us News Ugrad Engineering but Applied Physics rankings by Us News are okay since they rank Cornell 1st.</p>
<p>Gourman physics
top physics programs according to the Gourman Report, listed in rank order:
Caltech
Harvard
Cornell
Princeton
MIT
UC Berkeley
Stanford
U Chicago
U Illinois UC
Columbia
Yale
Georgia Tech
UC San Diego
UCLA
U Pennsylvania
U Wisconsin Madison
U Washington
U Michigan AA
U Maryland CP
UC Santa Barbara
U Texas Austin
Carnegie Mellon
U Minnesota
RPI
Brown
JHU
Michigan St
Notre Dame
SUNY Stony Brook
Case Western
Northwestern
U Rochester
U Pittsburgh
Penn State
U Colorado Boulder</p>
<p>Thanks again to everyone.</p>
<p>Sternman:</p>
<p>I can see where you got your idea, but the truth is Cornell's AEP program is well-known, very highly regarded and is actually an outstanding program. It is a major that most schools don't offer. Some of the smartest humans i've ever seen were AEP majors. It is an elite program in Cornell's engineering school. I think they deserve that particular ranking, or something close.</p>
<p>On the other hand, my comments on the Purdue matter are given on that other thread.</p>
<p>As for Physics generally, Cornell has outstanding faculty and is very highly regarded. And I can tell you with great authority that it is very very hard. For real hard.</p>
<p>Absolutely cannot forget Harvey Mudd. Go to <a href="http://www.physics.hmc.edu%5B/url%5D">www.physics.hmc.edu</a> and scroll down to read one of our external reviews done by a team from Swarthmore, Williams, and Caltech.</p>
<p>Mudd. (10 char)</p>