Chicago professors reputations are no better than Illinois professors reputations. At the graduate level, the programs are equals. Really. I have a PhD in Astrophysics, so I know of what I speak. A student who does well at Illinois, engages in research as an undergrad, and gets a strong letter of rec from from a faculty member would not be at any disadvantage at all vis a vis the same from U Chicago.
There are a handful of states that have public flagships with truly outstanding STEM on par or exceeding Ivy League caliber schools. Illinois happens to be one of them.
“A recommendation from a Chicago professor for physics will carry a lot more weight than a recommendation from a professor at UIUC.”
Says who? Admission committees are going to care a lot more about the content and enthusiasm of the recommendation letter than merely a big name on the letter and a generic recommendation. Also, UIUC also has had its share of physics Nobel prize winners on its faculty.
At top schools, many of the foreign students come from colleges that are the best in their home country, like Peking University, Sharif University of Technology. Because of the way admissions for work for those countries, these are students who are the top 1% academically in their nation.
The lower ranked PhD programs in the US would love to have more domestic students enroll, but the applicant pool just isn’t that strong. There are many reasons for this, including that STEM has been valued in other countries for longer than in North America, that US citizens in STEM can more easily get a good job with a BS and forego grad school, and that the more broad based curriculum at some US colleges leaves students less prepared for research unless they have lab experience.
As for comparing uChicago and UIUC, the rankings of the schools are similar, but having been at both public and private schools working in academic research, the private schools are generally more comfortable… Look at the quality of the facilities, the efficiency of administration, the number of research scientists they have to maintain, operate and train users on advanced equipment.
And as for professors, there are leaders in the field at both schools. A letter from one prof at uChicago does not necessarily trump that of one from UIUC, and vice versa. Academia is a close knit and highly political community, and each subfield has its own quirks and gossip.
Right, that’s why I asked folks what their background is when they make assertions about how much more weight a recommendation from faculty from a specific school vs. another carries.
My understanding is that a strong recommendation from a respected prof does carry weight, but that would depend on the specific prof and not whether UIUC or U of C as both would have them in roughly equal amounts.
And yes, the U of C would offer more goodies for undergrads. Also possibly better opportunities if you don’t actually go on to get a physics PhD. That should be what’s considered; not the respective strength of the physics faculty, which are about the same.
FWIW,I can share our ds’s recent experience as an applicant from a university not even ranked in the top 100. He was accepted into top programs in the country (including a top 5) A student from his U that graduated the yr before his freshman yr was accepted to Stanford’s grad physics dept. (He was the last really serious physics other than ds. Ds has not had a direct physics peer group. He says the current sophomore class, though, has 3 serious physics students.)
If students from such lower ranked programs are getting into top programs, it is hard to imagine that either school the OP has listed would negate his ability to be accepted into competitive grad programs. What a student is doing outside of the classroom, not just in the classroom, matters. Not just matters, but matters a lot. Pursuing on-campus UG research, REUs, presenting posters, if possible-being published, plus keeping top grads, etc are what it takes.
^Indeed it is, and in this case somewhat deliberately - it was meant to evoke the wishy-washiness I think exists on this subject. I apologize if it’s difficult to follow, though!
My point is simply that when it comes to getting into a PhD program in physics, and probably most things in life, there really won’t be much of a difference between UIUC and University of Chicago. However, elite private universities like Chicago do have a certain je ne sais quoi, a quality that is difficult to sum up or describe in words. That may give you a leg up in some fields super focused on prestige, but it may not be worth the price differential (or the sacrifice in experience, if you really prefer UIUC’s environment, atmosphere and offerings).