<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>
<p>Couple of comments:</p>
<p>1) I’m surprised you have discounted Chicago already, as I can see that as being a good place for physics/math as well. Probably not as good in astronomy as Cornell, and would probably end up being a bit more difficult/stressful. At least in my opinion, Chicago is a better place for graduate study.</p>
<p>2) You’re right that Cornell’s physics program is lively and heavily focused. Everybody I knew at Cornell who was a physics major really enjoyed it. Most of them went on to PhD work in physics – Berkeley, Chicago, Harvard, Caltech, Columbia, and Cornell – and thought that Cornell prepared them well. And one of the exciting things about Cornell is that it is finishing a brand new physics building this year.</p>
<p>There’s also the fact that the Mars Rovers are controlled from a building on campus and there’s a particle accelerator under your feet as you walk toward’s the Ag Quad. That’s pretty cool, if you ask me.</p>
<p>I can’t really comment on Columbia’s undergraduate physics program. I do know that generally speaking, Cornell’s graduate physics research is considered to be slightly better than Columbia.</p>
<p>Cornell obviously can’t offer the urban setting or the Core Curriculum that Columbia offers. But it does offer a much more ‘traditional college’ experience, and you can certainly take the Great Books courses at Cornell if you’re interested in that. The major difference is that at Cornell only students who want to take the Great Books courses will be in them:</p>
<p>[Courses</a> of Study 2009-2010](<a href="http://courses.cuinfo.cornell.edu/CoSdetail.php?college=AS&number=2020&prefix=COML&title=Great+Books+(LA-AS]Courses">http://courses.cuinfo.cornell.edu/CoSdetail.php?college=AS&number=2020&prefix=COML&title=Great+Books+(LA-AS))</p>