<p>Which of these schools are good for it?</p>
<p>Rice
Northwestern
Johns Hopkins
University of Chicago
UC Santa Cruz
UC Berkeley
UC San Diego
CalTech
Dartmouth</p>
<p>I don't think UC Santa Cruz and Dartmouth are known for astronomy. Aside from these, the list is good. Rice and JHU have strong physics programs and affiliations with NASA. Cornell has excellent astronomy and physics but is not on your list. There are many other good physics/astronomy schools not on your list.</p>
<p>Pretty much all your schools have decent programs, though I haven't heard of UC Santa Cruz for astro/physics, and I've only heard of UC San Diego for physics (not meaning that they don't do astronomy, just physics is better). I do know someone who went to Dartmouth as an astronomy major and had a good time doing it, so they definetely have a presence in the field. Otherwise the list looks good.</p>
<p>I imagine UChicago has some great physics internship oppertunities because of their affiliation with Fermilabs. I'm not sure about astronomy.</p>
<p>U Chicago has produced some great astronomers, Carl Sagan amongst them. :)</p>
<p>Also forgot to mention: while odds are you really really want to do astronomy, when push comes to shove it is only a branch of physics so what you need to look for first and foremost is an awesome physics department (and odds are if said physics department IS great, then they have a few astronomers in the mix). People who want to do anything astro-related for a career need to go on to graduate school, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with majoring in physics then switching over to astronomy, or vice versa...</p>
<p>Thanks! you guys have all been very helpful! Do you have any other suggestions for good physics/astronomy schools? I am still so confused on where to apply!</p>
<p>Well what sort of schools are you interested in? Because it's a big world out there...
In general, though, I will reaffirm that you should choose a school that is good in physics, as this is really what matters for undergrad. Ideally you'll find schools as a result that have strong astronomy programs as well, as if you don't go this route some astro degrees become compromised at lesser-known schools and are worth very little, in which case physics is the way to go (this is typically found at LACs and the like where one might be compromised for the other). That's probably the most general advice I can give, but I can get more specific if you like...</p>
<p>Obviously Caltech is much stronger than the rest, except may be for Chicago and Berkeley. You also should look at MIT, Stanford, Harvard and Princeton.</p>
<p>YAAA look at Harvard, Yale, Princeton. </p>
<p>**** the ivies. If your serious about physics/astronomy, look into public universities. UIUC, Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan, UC-Berkeley. UChicago is good, along with your "top" ivies as well as Stanford (Stanford is a good pick actually), but odds are you wont get the research needed there. If you have a strong emphasis on astronomy, look to west coast schools. You have to get away from the lights. New Mexico, Hawaii (forgot how to spell that state lol)...or go for a school with good study abroad programs (like to Puerto Rico, Chili, etc).</p>
<p>Take all those top-notch universities with a grain of salt. Most kids/people have no idea what they are talking about and just use US News rankings. Harvard, Princeton and so on have good programs, but compared to a bigger, public university, they cant match the research capabilites (for the most part). Also, like someone stated, your undergrad school really doesnt matter (another reason why you shouldnt fork out 40K plus). All you need is the research if your serious about continuing in that field.</p>
<p>I'm a physics major at Rice, PM me if you have questions.</p>
<p>I'm planning to major in physics, and I chose Rice, but that probably doesn't mean much.</p>