Hey, I was wondering what it’s like to study physics at Haverford. Most liberal art colleges don’t usually get listed on physics ranking and I’m not sure if this is because they don’t usually offer graduate courses or because liberal art schools just aren’t very good in the hard sciences. But I was just wondering if it’s better to study physics at a larger research school or at a liberal arts school, particularly Haverford
Many LACs are exceptionally good at the hard sciences. LAC grads often top the rankings for students going on to PhDs. The PhD programs wouldn’t accept them if they weren’t prepared. Haverford is one of a handful or two that are known for being very strong in the sciences. Plenty of student research, engaged professors, great facilities and labs, great outcomes.
If you search here on CC, you’ll find many threads discussing sciences and LACs in general and Physics and LACs in particular.
For Haverford in particular:
– Small number of physics majors (7-8 per year per AIP); excellent majors:faculty ratio.
– For the upper-level (jr-senior) courses, Haverford and Bryn Mawr operate as a combined physics department. Bryn Mawr has a physics PhD program, so it is probably even possible to take some graduate level courses at BMC as an advanced undergraduate physics student at Haverford.
– 4+1 program with UPenn SEAS is potentially interesting.