Philosophy/Physics double major LACs

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Howdy-</p>

<p>Looking for an LAC where I can study both physics AND philosophy in respected programs. Both are very important to me.</p>

<p>I just completed my interview for Reed, which is a top choice school for me at the moment...I am also planning on applying to Haverford, Swarthmore, and Whitman. Kalamazoo as a safety.</p>

<p>stats:
3.8 gpa. NEVER taken a non-honors course. ALL honors or AP.<br>
Currently I spend half my day at the University of Colorado for Calculus II for engineers, and Masterpieces of American Literature.
I am a member of SAAC, photography clubs, a physics tutoring program, speech and debate. I created a service learning project for younger children.
I row on the Crew team, varsity.
35 on my ACT. 2250 on my SAT. 730 SAT II physics, 710 Math II, 730 literature. Perfect score on the english part of the ACT.</p>

<p>I am the assistant systems administrator at my highschool school. I love buidling/working on computers.</p>

<p>200 hours of community service, as a co coordinator at the local Community Food Share.</p>

<p>At the semester, I am leaving for a foreign exchange to Belgium, to perfect my french speaking.</p>

<p>I currently have a job that I've held for over 6 months. I have had previous work experiences.</p>

<p>One the teachers writing my Rec is a Swarthmore graduate, another got his PhD from MIT in physics.</p>

<p>I interview EXTREMELY well, my essay is very, very well written.</p>

<p>I plan on applying to U of Chicago as well, my grandfather went there, got a PhD in chemistry, full ride, graduated top of his class.</p>

<p>Essentially, I want to know which schools I should be applying to, besides the ones mentioned before. They don't need to be LACs, but I like the notion of a liberal arts college.</p>

<p>Thank you so much for your time, and in helping me through this stressful point in my life.</p>

<p>-Spenser</p>

2

<p>wesleyan sounds good...maybe brown if you can stand 6,000 kids.</p>

3

<p>I'm of the lesser gender, or else I would be considering Wesleyan.</p>

<p>Thanks, though :)</p>

4

<p>Wesleyan is coed. It's in CT, not quite as highly regarded as Swat or maybe Reed, but certainly up there in the LAC world.</p>

<p>You're probably thinking of Wellesley (MA), which as you clearly know is also a very excellent LAC, but all women...don't worry, lot's of people do that.</p>

<p>As a side note, there are several other Wesleyans throughout the country, and probably the second most well known, after the one they were recommending to you, is an all women's school in GA, just to add to the confusion.</p>

5

<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesleyan_University%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesleyan_University&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

6

<p>I am surprised that no one mentioned Harvey Mudd College. They have an excellent science program and are part of the Claremont Schools such as Pomona, Scripps, and Pitzer. You can get both an excellent physics education at Harvey Mudd and get top notch training in philosophy at the other Claremont schools. Students can and do take courses at the other schools. In addition, these schools have the added benefit of ideal weather. It is hard to beat California weather.</p>

<p>Also consider NYU. You might be surprised that I mentioned this. NYU not only has a good physics department but has one of the top rated graduate programs for philosophy in the country. In fact, their philosophy program may even be number one in the US. See <a href="http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I think your choice of University of Chicago is an excellent choice,but I frankly wouldn't want to go to school in Chicago.Princeton would also be a good choice for you because they are known to be historically very strong in both areas of study.</p>

7

<p>A recent post in Other Majors on "unique majors" mentioned that Yale has a Philosophy/Physics major.</p>

8

<p>I think my chances of getting into Princeton or Yale are slim....though I do know about the Physics and Philosophy major at Yale. My English professor went to Yale and speaks fondly of it, it'd be great to go, but my grades and ECs aren't really up to snuff.</p>

<p>Any other recommendations? Still looking for that perfect LAC...</p>

9

<p>When I was there, philosophy was considered Colgate's strongest major and it is also in the top 10 of LACs in producing physics PhDs; so it may present a combination that could interest you.</p>

10

<p>Like the other posters suggested, I'd give Wesleyan U. a really close look... Colgate too. Maybe Grinnell C. too.
St. Lawrence as a safety, with a good prog in physics.</p>

11

<p>Lawrence University in Wisconsin, Trinity U in Texas, and Oberlin in Ohio would all be worth a look for someone interested in philosophy and physics.</p>

12

<p>Spencer, I'd suggest you take a look at Williams. Excellent departments in both physics and philosophy and double majoring as such is very common. If you're interested in rowing crew, you could also contact the coach.</p>

13

<p>According to the Philosophical Gourmet:</p>

<p>Amherst*
Barnard
Bates
Colby
Colgate
Davidson
Franklin & Marshall
Haverford
Mount Holyoke
Oberlin
Occidental
Pomona
Reed*
Smith
Swarthmore
Trinity (TX)
Vassar
Wellesley*
Wesleyan</p>

<p>Almost all of these have excellent physics programs too.</p>

<p>*Particularly strong</p>

14

<p>Harvey Mudd would be a terrible choice. It's a pure tech and science school. </p>

<p>It doesn't even have a Philosophy department. It has a "Social Sciences and Humanities" department that offers a smattering of courses. They are offering two Philosophy courses this semester.</p>

<p>If someone is interested in Philosophy, there need to be some other Philosophy majors around or there won't be anyone to talk to!</p>

<p>I think the poster's list looks good. I know Swarthmore would be a superb place to combine Physics and Philosophy -- and it wouldn't even be unusual for a student to do so.</p>

<p>Both departments are really well liked on campus. Students love the Philosophy profs, especially Schuldenfrei who may be Swat's most loved professor. He's featured in the admissions DVD, if the poster has a copy. He's the one sitting in front of the class with his feet on the desk saying, "Don't believe the BullS..t".</p>

<p>Physics Department is cool. Potential physics majors follow a different track. First semester, they start out with a seminar taught by John Boccio on Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. It meets once a week at night for three hours, a max of 12 students in each section. The seminar meetings revolve around student presentations of problem sets -- so there is also a lot of time camped out in Boccio's office during the week trying to figure out the problem sets one-on-one with the professor. When my daughter took it, there was also a weekly Sunday night study group where everyone tried to figure the stuff out together. She really enjoyed the seminar -- and that seems to be a pretty widespread view. It's fun, Boccio is fantastic, and the seminar is not brutally demanding.</p>

<p>They follow this approach because it gets Physics majors into the swing of small interactive seminars from the start, since that's most of what Physics majors will be doing for four years. Non-majors and all the Engineering students take the more typical general Physics survey course. Majors pick that stuff up with a two semester advanced survey course after the Relativity seminar. Smaller classes and more in-depth than the standard intro courses.</p>

15

<p>Try for Williams, very selective though. I agree with Wesleyan, good for you definitely</p>

16

<p>Interesteddad notes,"Harvey Mudd would be a terrible choice. It's a pure tech and science school"</p>

<p>Response: Yes, Harvey Mudd by itself would only be strong in Physics; HOWEVER, it is my understanding that these kids can take a double major and take courses in any of the other sister schools such as Pomoma, Claremont-McKenna, Pitzer and Scripps. Pomona,by the way is one of the recommended LACs for philosophy by Philosophical Gourmet noted in post 13. </p>

<p>I would certainly check out these schools to see how readily you can both take courses and majors at the other sister schools. If you can, Harvey Mudd would be a very strong option.</p>

17

<p>I just have to comment on what InterestedDad said about Swarthmore's physics department. While it is an excellent department, some of the information given was wrong. The first semester course is no longer a seminar but a lecture course that teaches some Relativity, Cosmology, and Quantum Physics. It is in fact by far my largest class this semester at 40 people (the rest are 11-12.) Furthermore, it is used as both a starting course for non-majors and a first course for majors, this means that it verges on tedium to some and is very difficult for the others. </p>

<p>However, one not so great introductory course is no reason to dismiss a school. The rest of the courses seem fantastic from the people I've spoken to, and all my other classes are great. Also, despite a relatively slow start the physics department is notoriously accelerated and so you really get into the "meat" of physics relatively quickly.</p>

18

<p>Schoenhs:</p>

<p>I wonder if that's a one-year deal because Boccio is on sabbatical this fall? He usually teaches three sections of the Physics 005 special relativity, cosmology, and quantum seminar to a total of about 36 students.</p>

<p>The sequences are stil the same. The general sequence is:</p>

<p>General Physics I 003
General Physics II 004 -- your basic survey courses </p>

<p>OR </p>

<p>Physics 005
Physics 007 (Introductory Mechanics)
Physics 008 (Electricity, Magnetism, and Waves)
Physics 014 (Thermodynamics and Quantuum)</p>

<p>The second of the two tracks is almost always taken by potential Physics majors and minors. The first sequence is for Chem, Bio, and Engineering majors.</p>

<p>I have a hard time believing that Boccio would not teach 005 as a seminar when he returns from sabbatical. It would be like the Rolling Stones not performing "Satisfaction" and "Start Me Up". It's what he is known for.</p>

<p>This would be a great question to ask for a prospective student visiting the Physics department this fall.</p>

19

<p>To the initial poster,</p>

<p>Any of the top LACs will have strong physics and phil departments. Among these, the deciding factor should be school location, campus culture and financial aid. Don't get caught up in minutiae... as they are "fun facts" at best and distracting at worst. </p>

<p>As a "fun fact", the ONLY National Academy of Science member to teach at a LAC teaches physics at Haverford (Gollub) and the Physics department also counts as one of it's faculty a Rhodes Scholar as well. Phil @ HC is spectacular with several current luminaries and an impressive history as well... (Ira Reid, Lucius Outlaw and Cornel West...)</p>

20

<p>ID: I could ask when I get back after fall break. The problem is the sheer number of people taking physics 5 this semester. There are a total of just under 80 students enrolled in the class this semester. It might be due to the decision on the part of the physics department to convert the course from a pure physics course to a physics/astro cross list. Either way, the rest of the department is great, and when Boccio returns maybe he'll change the structure back. Also, in the second track Physics 14 is taken concurrently with Physics 50 (Mathematical Methods) in the spring of sophomore year.</p>

<p>Although this may seem like a slowish start, the track is pretty much the same, or slower, at most other schools.</p>