<p>Hello on my college search I've visited:
Dartmouth (first choice)
Tufts
Brown
GW
Georgetown
Haverford
Swarthmore
Upenn
BC
edit: Bates too!</p>
<p>I also won the rpi medal and was interested in places like:
carleton
rice
williams</p>
<p>How are the physics departments at some of these places? I really haven't seen a lot of info on it on their websites and books really don't go in depth with physics.</p>
<p>So a few general questions...
How large intro classes? I know science classes can generally be huge, but what about physics? Does this nubmer get much smaller as you continue?</p>
<p>Is it more difficult to study abroad? (When I was at haverford the tour guide talked about a "superlab" that takes up your junior year, making more difficult to go abroad as a science major</p>
<p>Is it difficult to change majors? Certainly I don't know for sure if I want to major in physics for sure, but looking at some sample schedules, it looks as if you would have to know immediately that's what you wanted to do (sample schedules show students taking it every term/semester, at least one or two classes)</p>
<p>If someone could answer in general, or for a specific school(s), that would be great.
Thanks!</p>
<p>The majority of the schools you listed don't have the strongest science programs, at least in comparison to their other programs. I'm a physics major at Rice, which has a pretty good physics program.</p>
<p>At Rice changing majors is very easy...and people often double and even triple major. Study abroad isn't hard to do either. Many of my friends are studying all over the place. However, studying abroad can be tough for science majors since it is hard to find certain courses at other universities.</p>
<p>There are 3 intro physics courses you can take. People who don't major in physics typically take the biggest course which has about 100 people in it. But premeds take a different physics intro class which is a lot smaller.
And finally, actual physics majors take the honors class which has about 30 people in it.</p>
<p>So you'd only be in that huge class if you were an engineer or something. I think that may actually be the biggest class on campus, too. Once you get into your major, your classes become a lot smaller. Next year, I have 20-some people in my physics course, a spanish class with 7 people, and the others have enrollments in the teens.</p>
<p>that's cool about rice, I realize most of the places I listed aren't known specifically for physics, two reasons for this:
1. Not entirely sure if I'll like physics at a college level, want a lot of other options as backups
2. I'd like a smaller department where research opportunities would be easier to find (not as much competition) and I'll have more personal attention from professors.</p>
<p>btw: the 3 most non science orientated schools (imo gw, georgetown and bc) were more at the bottom of my list.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley, Cornell, MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Cal Tech are all the top schools (according to the national research council). Plus they are also good in most other fields</p>
<p>BC actually has the biggest electromagnet on the East Coast... fairly decent in physics all things considered.
I looked into Haverford and Swarthmore for physics, basically they're both excellent (Haverford is more biophysics-oriented if that interests you), and while I wouldn't put Dartmouth and Brown as the best Ivy-league caliber schools for physics their departments are quite reputable (though Dartmouth does have a more grad school bent), and UPenn is pretty good as well. Physics at Tufts is good for particle physics and the like, but not very good at things like astronomy, and I wouldn't really go to Georgetown or GW for physics personally. </p>
<p>Regarding your general questions-</p>
<p>~ misterme2009 did a pretty good run-down as to the three-tiered system for the kinds of physics courses offered, though at my particular school all the classes are pretty decent-sized on the intro level. Professors usually make up for this by having ample office hours and recitations, however, and I've never met someone who was turned off by the size of intro classes. If looking around the huge lecture hall is intimidating, sit in the front few rows and the problem is solved. ;)</p>
<p>~ Regardless of where you go for college, study abroad will be difficult if you're a physics (or any science) major- I'm going through the process right now so trust me on this! You are going to be limited to English-speaking countries pretty much and it's often vital to get the correct labs and classes for the sake of continuation, so there will probably be a lot of course catalog searching in your future. The good news is science is science and taught pretty much the same way everywhere, so you should probably find something in your country of choice.
Also as an aside, you mentioned Haverford superlabs, and my sister was a chemistry major who survived hers while doing a semester abroad junior year. The good thing about a school like Haverford where study abroad is well-established is there's probably a program in place for the science majors/ someone else has already tried to go to your country of choice, so you can get your classes in pretty well.</p>
<p>~ It's easy to switch out of physics but very difficult to switch back into once you're out if you want to graduate in four years. My advice is sign up for the physics classes you need to start as well as as many other kinds of classes as possible for your first semester, as usually you just need one physics class for the first year. You'll figure out if physics is right for you pretty quickly.</p>
<p>According to the National Research Council (admittedly somewhat out of date plus grad focused- meaning LACs are not included) Penn has the best physics program of the ones you are considering, while Brown is second. Of course the LACs could be a good choice as well, though I'm not sure how they compare.</p>
<p>Thank you very much stargirl for the specific example for haverford, it had been one thing that worried me about the college.
Anyways, I'm interested in eventually getting a ph.d in some branch of physics (astronomy maybe) but what really got me into this was this marine bio research trip I took. We went out on a boat, collected samples, synthesized etc. Although I think bio/ecology/zoology are really cool subjects, I enjoy a lot of math so and have always been interested in the unknowns, that's why I'm more into the physics side of things.</p>
<p>looking at the official course guide for Swarthmore (I can look at Haverford's guide too but they don't list individual class sizes)... sorry if this is way too long, but I like being thorough :)</p>
<p>Fall 2005, General Physics I had an upper limit of 80 and a final enrollment of 61. there were 4 lab sections, upper limit of 20 each.</p>
<p>Character of Physical Law is a seminar meant for potential physics majors. Last year there were 3 separate classes. upper limit 15. final enrollment 11-12. 3 lab sections, ranging from 6-24 people.</p>
<p>Spring 2006, General Physics II had an upper limit of 99 and an enrollment of 56. 4 lab sections, similar to the fall class.</p>
<p>Introductory Mechanics (meant to follow Character of Physical Law) had an upper limit of 99 and a final enrollment of 28. 3 lab sections, the biggest one had 10 people.</p>
<p>hope you find that useful somehow :)</p>
<p>and yes, they get smaller as you go along - one cool thing is... there are lots of classes numbered 100 or higher, these are advanced seminars mainly for upperclassmen. they're capped at 10 :)</p>
<p>just to let you know....General Physics I and II at Swat are strictly for non-majors. The classes for physics majors don't usually have any more than 30 students per class, with decreasing enrollments as you advance. The seminar on character of physical law is only for freshmen so you can get a better idea if being a physics major is for you. BTW, my son's a junior physics major at Swat.</p>
<p>You have to ask why you want to study abroad?</p>
<p>Nothing is impossible, especially at a top LAC, because the professors will be willing to work with you to adjust your schedule as needed. In biology and chemistry at Haverford, I know a few classmates who studied abroad at Cambridge, Oxford and Heidelburg their junior years. They had to take a semester of supervised lab senior year, which is challenging but doable. In addition, they did say that the opportunities and access to advanced equipment is much more limited at a large university and especially foreign institutions that generally have less research/teaching support than American institutions. A junior student (especially visiting) with access to an electron microscope, an atomic force microscope or fluoroscope or the equipment to create monoclonal antibodies like at Haverford? No way. Same thing for physics as well. You do, however, gain other knowledge by studying away, so you have to decide if the trade off is worth it?</p>
<p>As a side note, working and studying away is what summers are for. As a Biochem at Haverford, I realized that I would not learn more or better anywhere else so, although difficult, I chose to not do a study abroad. I did however conduct Hughes supported research @ U Wisconsin Madison my sophmore year and was in DC junior year on Capitol Hill... so that made not studying abroad more bearable. Also, many physics, astrophysics majors at Haverford do research @ NASA, Livermore, Oakridge and conduct research at observatories in Hawaii, Chile and Spain during their summers (see physics page). ... or even, as sophmores, land summer research positions with the Chair of Physics @ Penn... </p>