<p>i've posted once before on another thread, but i didn't seem to get much help. i'm a rising junior looking for great colleges in california with anything from pretty decent to excellent physics or astronomy programs. what i know so far is UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, CalTech, and some other random UCs. are there any other schools besides UCs? i wanna stay in-state for college. i know that with my 3.37 uw gpa, all of these schools are reaches. but it's still worth looking at.</p>
<p>thanks!!</p>
<p>UCSD!!! I love San Diego..I know they have good science program, but I don't know about astronomy. If you did want to go out of state...there are a couple of schools in Florida..that have really good astronomy programs and I don't think their admissions is too selective.</p>
<p>University of California, Santa Barbara supposedly has an excellent physics program.</p>
<p>UCSB has a Kavli Institute -- I think in astrophysics -- which provides them with a good amount of funding... and UCSC has either the highest, or one of the highest, research productivity in the physical sciences in the nation.</p>