<p>My daughter is seriously considering Denison, and is currently interested in pursuing physics, perhaps through the PhD level. Can anyone provide good/bad experiences or other wisdom with Physics courses, professors, research, grad school receptiveness, for Denison?</p>
<p>I just checked with DD1 who was an English major but knew physics majors. She said that curriculum is fairly linear (for good or bad) and students don’t have any major problems getting into their classes (apparently Bio is very popular and some classes fill up quickly). She also said physics has the usual mix of great and not so great teachers.</p>
<p>My D is a chemistry major/math minor, so she has experience in the physics department and with physics majors. She had a year of (non-majors) physics with one good and one outstanding professor. After a mediocre experience in AP Physics in HS, she learned to love it again.</p>
<p>Bio (or maybe biochem) is the biggest major of the sciences, while chem and physics are both small/er. D loves that, because of the contact with professors, and opportunities for working as lab monitor, doing research in the lab, and the like. She knows the whole department, even though she’s only had 2 chem profs so far. I suspect it’s not that different in physics.</p>
<p>D has a good friend who is a physics/math double major; he went to Germany this summer to do research there (I think connected to NSF?). He’s planning on going on to grad school, too. (Denison participates in the Oakridge Science semester, but it didn’t work for D’s schedule).</p>
<p>The science departments give good opportunities for research in a lab during the year, and intense summer research experiences (funded by various grants); D did that this summer (she received a stipend + housing). They have very nice new facilities; the chem lab was rebuilt over the last 18 months and will open this fall. </p>
<p>Check with the profs about where students have gone on the grad school. I did some research on the chem faculty (who hold their degrees from top schools like Yale, Caltech, and others known for chem/science), and on placement of graduates in doctoral programs (again, a number of top schools in recent years). That’s of course chem, but you should be able to find out similar info from the physics folks.</p>
<p>I know physics is considered a challenging major and the students work hard. Like chem, it is “linear” in its requirements as Erin’s Dad put it. I’ve emailed D to ask what else she can add that’s more specifically physics oriented.</p>
<p>Good luck to your daughter.</p>