<p>Hi everyone. I want to major in physics and I got accepted into Columbia, Cornell, UChicago, Berkeley and CMU. I pretty much am inclined towards Columbia and Cornell right now, but I can't decide which of the two is better in physics.</p>
<p>I've heard/read numerous remarks about their being academically strong schools -- and often one has to make decisions based on rather "minute" details such as location, NYC vs Ithaca, Core vs flexibility and things like that. What really troubles me is I love both Columbia's location and Core Curriculum and Cornell's "more collegey experience" and maybe the number of science majors in Cornell's College of Arts and Science.</p>
<p>Any thoughts to it? How really is Columbia's physics? Is it as lively and heavily focused like that of Cornell's? Is Cornell the better place for an aspiring physicist? </p>
<p>CCians, I need help..:/ What is your take on my problem?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot guys. Would appreciate if you all go completely honest and write what comes into your mind here. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>ps. While I hope to get help between this Columbia-Cornell thing, you guys may write about your take on Chicago, Berkeley and CMU as well so as to help future Googlers find what they might be looking for</p>
<p>pss. Hopefully it's more of Columbia-Cornell though :P</p>
Can you replicate Columbia’s core curriculum at Cornell? You can most definitely choose to take more classes outside of your major than required for the degree. Everything else being equal, I would always opt for fewer or less restrictive general education requirements.</p>
<p>I think the question is how good Columbia is for undergraduate physics majors (as opposed to graduate students). Are the undergraduate students doomed to be in the shadow of the graduate students or are they getting their share of attention as well? Are undergraduate majors encouraged to participate in research? Is there funding for students to attend conferences?</p>
<p>I will tell you one thing, you are not a Physicist until you have a PHD. A BS in Physics is just the appetizer before the meal. You can’t do anything with a BS in Physics and will alwys be overshadowed by the grad students. If you are thinking into doing a PHD then chose the College with the best Gra School program you can get. Undergrad wont matter. So for example if you think Columbia is your better choice for Grad Physics go there as undergrad and no other college, it’s a lot easier to transition to grad school within the same college since the professors already know you and you can build relationships with them early on during undergrad school. By the time you go to grad school you might be already doing something as undergrad that you can keep doing as a grad student.</p>
So what do you guys think?</p>