<p>How's physics department at Dartmouth?</p>
<p>my daughter, an 09. is a physics/astronomy major. she is very happy with the department. it is a small department so major contact with professors is almost a guarantee. i believe, for the physics classes she has already taken, the avereage class size is between 10 and 15. she also has found research opportunities to be readily available. i believe, she would rate her professors as above average.</p>
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How's physics department at Dartmouth?
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<p>The classes seemed horrible. I sat in on an upper level class at Dimensions and I basically understood all of the abstract concepts the professor threw at us. Now you're probably thinking, "Wow that sounds pretty good!" except there's a certain level of rigor that's to be expected from such classes. The problem sets were bi-monthly, which I don't think is exposure enough for the aspiring physicists.</p>
<p>That said, it seemed fairly simple to land a research position as an undergrad, and that's probably the biggest draw of the department. I was never really into the classroom anyways so this is pretty cool.</p>
<p>The lower division classes are what they are. You can't get much different from other colleges (except maybe Caltech).</p>
<p>If your goal is to move on to graduate school, I think Dartmouth would be a viable choice. You won't have to work like a horse at MIT/Caltech and you'll still get a pretty decent shot for grad school.</p>
<p>I also had this foreign professor and I had to focus really hard to understand what he was saying. Moral of the story: Avoid foreign dudes.</p>