Physics at CMU

<p>How prestigious (good) is the physics and math programs at CMU</p>

<p>not very. unless you transfer to engineering or something.</p>

<p>What is that claim based upon? Why is it not "good" in your opinion? I ask because I am considering physics as a major and CMU is one of the schools I am considering attending.</p>

<p>Just based on the rankings and the sheer quantity of quality courses offered I would venture a guess to say that the math and physics programs are top notch. Take a look at the undergraduate course catalog and you can see for yourself. Many of the majors and courses are not even offered in any other schools except MIT.</p>

<p>how about the bio and chem programs?</p>

<p>from what my interviewer said the bio and chem programs are good. she was a bio major with a minor in chem and chem engineering. she currently has a job in a loreal place near my house. She said she got an internship there summer after sophmore which she also said was rare. so based on that the bio and chem programs seem to be very good.</p>

<p>Lbtg47 is wrong. Physics is just as good as the rest of MCS which is just as good as the rest of CIT and therefore the rest of the school. You can check out post-graduate surveys here and I think you will be quite impressed.<a href="http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/employ/salary/physics05.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/employ/salary/physics05.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>How good are undergraduate student research oppurtunities?</p>

<p>MCS and H&SS are average schools at CMU. they are the two easiest to get into and have the lowest quality. while still good, they are just average.</p>

<p>^ This guy is HIGHLY mistaken. He is not even a current student!!! Please refrain from commenting on CMU matters if you do not know anything about them.</p>

<p>MCS had a higher avg GPA and rank % than CIT last year. MCS also boasts a very high salary considering a lot of its students go on to Grad school. Look at the link I gave you (type of job, salary, graduate work, etc.).</p>

<p>though i might be biased because i got into mcs, id say that it is definitely not the easiest to get into.. so many kids got rejected this year</p>

<p>I just thought I would write a quick reply... I graduated from CMU with a BS in Physics in 2000. The physics program at CMU is very good. Although it is a smaller program (around 30 - 40 per class back then) the students were on par with any school in the country. In my physics class we had a Rhodes Scholar, several people who went to Cal Tech, and a bunch that went to other top grad schools. We also had people go work for Lincoln Labs, Johns Hopkins, and some good tech companies. There a number of undergrad research opportunties as well. Starting my sophmore year I did pretty interesting work in biophysics and condensed matter physics.</p>

<p>i was accepted to H&SS and MCS. these two schools are.. decent. The reason CMU is a top 25 university is because of the comp sci and business school.. NOT because of H&SS and MCS, which are average.</p>

<p>trust me i wish i wouldve got accepted into some ultra presitgous program as much as you guys, but we have to be realistic.</p>

<p>Whatever. </p>

<p>I'm going to listen to the testimonials of faculty, alums and current students, as they are clearly in a far better position to judge the quality of the school's educational programs than an applicant. Several of them have given plenty of evidence supporting why CMU's physics program is excellent, while the one dissenting voice has not cited a single shred of evidence hinting at the opposite. <em>WHY</em> do you think MCS is only "decent" and not as "prestigious" as the other programs? I'm sorry, U.S. News is not a credible source for me. </p>

<p>To many of people in research, government and industry, CMU is CMU, regardless of the internal college attended.</p>

<p>Lbtg... You really don't know what you're talking about... Have you taken physics classes at CMU? The physics majors on avarage are smarter and better students than engineering students (on par with ECE but below SCS)... I'm friends with people who have gone to other top schools (MIT, Stanford, Harvard, GATECH) and my education was pretty similiar to theirs... The only problem with CMU's physics department is that the number of research areas are less than other top schools because it's a smaller program...</p>

<p>well no **** faculty, alums, and currents students are going to say its a good program.</p>

<p>RAHH RAHH GO CMU!!</p>

<p>I don't know a large sampling of MCS people, but many individuals from MCS have really impressed me. A chemistry major in the room adjacent to mine is pretty brilliant and got a perfect score on the SAT. A physics major across the hall is also really smart and is doing better than my roommate and I (CS majors) in our programming class (and we're doing better than the class average). I naively assumed that CS majors would be a step above MCS people when I came to CMU, but it didn't really turn out that way.</p>

<p>My point is that even though MCS has high acceptance rates, etc. compared to other schools at CMU, there are definitely a lot of talented people in the program. However, I don't really know much about the amount of research and prestige of the faculty, which is what subject rankings are usually based on.</p>

<p>"well no **** faculty, alums, and currents students are going to say its a good program.
"
Current students are MOST likely to give a true opinion about a school. Applicants are usually MISINFORMED (like you) or plain biased. How many graduating MCS seniors have you talked with? I am friends with over 40 of them. Are you friends with any of them? Do you attend career get-togethers and do you read the emails of job opps/interns/research opps given to MCS students? </p>

<p>Do you even HAVE ANY SINGLE SHRED OF EVIDENCE to back your ridiculous statement?</p>

<ol>
<li>MCS has a higher avg GPA than CIT.</li>
<li>MCS boasts TOP grad schools and even Harvard/Columbia/Cornell/Ivy Law along with the best Med schools! Look at the link of the career center. MCS has an avg salary equal to CIT majors and Tepper majors even though its students are more likely to go off into Grad/Med school after grad.</li>
</ol>

<p>The only thing you have going for you is the acceptance rate of MCS.</p>

<p>OMG UMICH HAS 60% ACCEPTANCE RATE! CLEARY ITS WORSE THAN NORTHEASTERN WITH 42% ACCEPTANCE RATE!! i hope all UMICH ppl transfer to northeastern B4 ITZ 2 LATEEE!!</p>

<p>Heard of self-selecting applicants?</p>