<p>Anyone?
Is it as super-cool as it seems?</p>
<p>I'm planning to major in physics as well. Anyone currently attending yale, please tell us more about the course.... :)
How are the professors? Are classes small? Do you get to interact with your professors on a more personal level? Oppurtunities for research? Workload?</p>
<p>First of all congratulations and welcome to Yale. I'm not a physics major nor have I taken any physics classes but because of the very little response here I thought I would chime in with some of my friend's experiences. [Just to note I am a physical science/math major so if you have questions there PM me.] There are varying levels of introductory physics courses at Yale ranging from an algebra based course (Physics 150) to a extremely mathematically rigorous (and mathematically theoretical) course (Physics 260). In between there is Physics 180, your typical AP Physics C course and Physics 200 which is slightly more advanced than Physics C both in terms of material covered and the complexity of the math. Most physics majors select either physics 200 or 260 and also couple that course with either Math 120, Math 222, or most commonly Math 230. Apparently Math 230 and Physics 260 go hand in hand from what I'm told. Now that I've discussed introductory courses, there is a decent selection of pure physics courses to take, all of which are very small courses. I believe in the physics department the student faculty ratio is 2:1 or 3:1. You'll find that Yale gives many opportunities for research but if you contact a professors in the physics department, getting a position during your first year at Yale should not be difficult at all, even if you have zero experience. From what I'm told professors at Yale love to have students that are committed to research join their labs. Physics professors at Yale from what I have heard are phenomenal, you'll get a lot of personal attention even in the introductory courses (especially 200 and 260 since the lectures are considerably smaller; 150 and 180 might have as many as 100 students, keep in mind that pre-meds also take these courses to fulfill requirements.) The workload varies and equates to how much you're willing to put in. You can most certainly breeze through the physics major with Cs but to get As you will have to work hard. Also you can choose to also select the rigor of your major, Yale lets you have a BA, BS, and an intensive BS I believe all of which have varying degrees of requirements including research and theoretical math courses. Hopefully, I've answered some of your questions and if you have anymore PM anytime. Also yes, the physics department is as super-cool as it seems, the underground particle accelerator laboratory is amazing!</p>
<p>Also on another note, you can take courses in the graduate school, in the applied physics department, and not to mention any of the engineering departments where there is a 1:1 student faculty ratio. Also if you're interested Yale launched an online course for Physics 200. There should be a link on the yale.edu homepage, hopefully this will give you a glimpse into the high quality of teaching at Yale.</p>