<p>First of all I want to thank everyone who posts on this thread. Now to the question. I was just wondering what it is like studying physics at U of C. I looked at the course offerings, and there are barely any courses compared to other top 10 schools. So are undergrads allowed to take grad classes? Also, does research opportunities and the ability to have lots of time with the professors make up for the deficit in courses?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>See if you have access to this, it's the online time schedules that students select courses from:</p>
<p>University</a> of Chicago Time Schedules</p>
<p>I know that for many fields, the online course catalog does NOT really reflect what's actually offered. The course catalog often has the "bread and butter" courses but there are usually a lot of "wildcard" courses that get taught each quarter. Such has been my experience with departments like English, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and history.</p>
<p>Undergraduates are allowed to take graduate classes, and in some cases are required to (for the biochem major, at least).</p>
<p>I don't know exactly how research opportunities work, but I do know physics undergrads who have done or currently work at Fermilab or Argonne. There are also a lot of physics-related buildings up around campus (west side of campus) so I imagine there's a lot of cool stuff going on.</p>
<p>It seems like the largest physics class (general physics Var-A) is pretty big as far as class sizes at Chicago go-- it's 144 students. Var-B has capacity for 108, and honors for 78. I don't know the differences in curriculum among the different tracks.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you have particular questions about the physics program, I'm far from an expert. I suggest you poke around Department</a> of Physics for more information.</p>
<p>I have never heard anyone complain about a lack of physics offerings. But then again, every physics major I have known has likewise taken a so many math electives that additional departmental offering become kind of mute. </p>
<p>Pre-MS/PhD level physics turned engineering students do gripe that UChicago refuses to add certain courses on the grounds they are not theoretical enough. Things like robot design or whatever that you would see at MIT or Caltech.</p>
<p>As Unalove noted, use the time scheduales and toggle back a few terms to get a better sense of the diversity of electives. I believe undegraduates though do enroll in certain graduate sequences, particularly if they are seeking honors.</p>
<p>You can take graduate level physics classes. I know of a kid who is taking both undergrad quantum and grad quantum currently. Also, note that the timeschedules link is not completely fleshed out. For example, few if any graduate courses are listed yet.</p>
<p>Also, you will find that many other schools list every course they have offered in the past 5/10 years in their course catalog, even though it was only offered once and may never be offered again. UChicago will not do that. Physics is one of our strongest disciplines (I believe we have over 20 Nobels in Physics), and you will find plenty of courses to take (consider real analysis, complex analysis, functional analysis, ODEs, PDEs, etc. in the math dept.)</p>
<p>Edit: Many physics undergrads come here for the research opps. A physics major friend of mine has not done terribly well (gpa 3.3-3.4 I think) in classes, but has co-authored several papers, and will get to go to her pick of physics phd programs (mit, caltech, etc.). These opps. are available to anybody who is motivated enough to take advantage of them; note that my friend often works 15+ hrs/wk in the lab.</p>
<p>I am a physics professor at Brown (my son will attend U Chicago in the fall though not to study physics). Chicago has a first-rate physics department. I second what CesareBorgia wrote: do not be misled by what is in a course catalog. An undergraduate physics curriculum is pretty much the same at every school. What matters is how smart your fellow students are (that will determine the level at which the professor can teach the course) and how willing the faculty are to interact with undergrads, particularly in terms of supervising research.</p>
<p>Hey, I'm a student at Chicago double majoring in math and physics. I was actually surprised when I read your post, cosmology, because I thought we offered the same courses as most other top schools. In any case, I don't think you'll run out of classes to take. The physics courses at Chicago are very rigorous, and if you do take all the physics courses, the department may let you take graduate courses. I strongly recommend you take complex analysis, functional analysis, and differential geometry in addition to your physics courses. If you study math together with physics, you'll have a deeper understanding than about 90% of physicists.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, what courses do other schools offer that we don't?</p>