<p>Hello, i'm a junior in high school and i am trying to decide whether i should major physics or computer science. I am really good and interested in complicated mathematical problems in physics and i would like to use those skills to code the kinematics, especially for the games. So should i major physics first and get into computer science or just start with Computer Science?
Also, what college do you guys think will fit me the best? I am thinking about Stanford University, MIT, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, and UIUC (University of Illinois Urbana Campaign). Also, our family aren't that rich and i don't really want to be in huge student loan, so i want a college with lots of scholarship opportunities.</p>
<p>There are people here who can clue you in on the physics-CS dilemma, so I’ll tackle the other one.</p>
<p>In order to help you choose schools, we need to know a lot of information: unweighted GPA, rank, standardized test scores, year in school, state residency, extracurriculars, etc.</p>
<p>We also need to know something about what your family can afford. So go to the financial aid page of each of the above schools and click on the “net price calculator.” Get your parents to help you fill in the info they ask for. The calculator will provide your family with an estimate of what each college will cost you: the Expected Family Contribution.</p>
<p>The combination of physics and computing is a very valuable one. A physics degree often has a significant amount of computing in the curriculum these days. it is not the same as the kinds of courses you would get in a CS degree but they are more oriented toward numerical methods. Physics degrees also have free electives that you could profitably use for taking CS courses. Alternatively, you could flip the two and take a lot of physics courses as electives in a CS degree. As a physics professor, I have a bias toward the first option which is what I did myself back in the day (at UIUC, I might add). The physics degree gives you a bit more general background and flexibility as regards jobs after graduation. You can still compete for the software jobs but will also be able to go for more engineering oriented work.</p>
<p>Take a look at the programs that are available at your target institutions and see what kinds of combined degree options might exist. You might just find the ideal program like the one we have at Illinois Tech, where the Applied Physics degree lets students take almost a complete second major in a second area without sacrificing the physics part of the curriculum.</p>
<p>Do you think UIUC is a great school for physics? Because in Us News and World Report, i found out the physics program is top 10 and computer science is top 5 of the united states. However, what really concerns me is that i never heard about this college until now. I want some specific advise about UIUC please.</p>
<p>How soon we forget, OP. Does the word netscape mean anything to you? Mosaic? You say you’re interested in CS and you don’t know the story of UIlinois?!</p>
<p>Read up on it, OP. Oi!</p>
<p>For heaven’s sake! UIUC is one of the strongest public research universities in the country by any measure. i am disturbed to think that some people think that the only “real” universities are the ivies. USNWR is one measure of university quality but it is flawed, just like every other ranking. Public universities are at a disadvantage with respect to private universities in these measures but that does not mean they aren’t excellent.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the physics and CS “rankings” are for the graduate programs, not the undergraduate programs so you need to be careful to look at the measure which is relevant to your situation.</p>
<p>UIUC is one of the top schools in the world. It doesn’t have the name recognition of MIT, Harvard, Yale etc., but UIUC consistently ranks in the top 10 for many of their programs. They rank -higher- than the generally perceived ‘top’ schools quite often. In some areas of engineering UIUC has been ranked #1. For physics they’re ranked #9 overall. #5 for computer science. This is unrelated to your major, but they’re currently ranked #2 for accounting. They rank near the top in many other areas as well. </p>
<p>Not only that, but they’re one of the largest research universities in the world. There is some truly cutting edge stuff going on there. I’ve gotten a chance to tour some of the physics research labs there, and some of the things people are doing there are incredible. There’s a ton of undergraduate research involvement too. </p>
<p>UIUC has nothing to be ashamed of in comparison to any school in the world. That’s why I’m transferring there as a physics major in the fall. :)</p>
<p>Wow! Thanks! Now i’m more confident aabout UIUC! It’s just that my parents are typical asian parents who wants me to go to Ivy leagues and they didn’t want me to go to UIUC b/c it had a pretty high acceptance rate. But really do want learned more about the school and i really want to go to this school. Thanks guys!</p>
<p>There’s a huge international student population there as well. The Asian community there is quite large. So that may be a draw for you, or potentially for your parents. </p>
<p>You should also explain to them that acceptance rate gives virtually zero indication of the quality of a school. </p>
<p>A lot of the statistics for acceptance rates are artificially inflated by sending out “recruitment letters” to a ton of students that have absolutely no chance of getting in. The Ivy’s know that these students have no chance, but they want more applications coming in because it helps to boost their perceived selectiveness. </p>