<p>Any thoughts on the Physics department at Princeton? My son applied because he felt that it had a great reputation and lots of history. He is planning on eventually getting a phd and hopefully doing research. Are undergraduate research opportunities readily available? Does anyone know how Princeton physics graduates fare in graduate school acceptances (I would think/hope very well)?</p>
<p>The two STRONGEST departments at Princeton is math and physics. This is a great place to be majoring in physics. There are extremely challenging physics courses taught by the best physics professors in their field, which your son will probably enjoy very much. </p>
<p>Undergraduate research opportunities are very easy to get. Most of the time you just ask a professor formally/informally over the email and he/she will take you as long as you show the interest. There’s a lot of focus on undergrads here, so it’s not like say… Harvard/Yale where professors prefer to do research with grads over undergrads. </p>
<p>For the last question, I’m afraid I don’t have the data on physics grad school acceptances.</p>
<p>[Physics</a> Department, Princeton University - Undergraduate Program](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/physics/academics/undergraduate-program/]Physics”>Undergraduate Program | Department of Physics)</p>
<p>This site may be helpful in addressing some of your questions.</p>
<p>EDIT: I forgot to mention their is a “grade deflation policy” here, which is a rule that limits the number of A’s (A & A- included) each class can give. I think it’s like ~30% or something. Since grad schools care a lot about your grades, this may be an important factor to consider. Keep in mind because physics is so hard here, most of the physics majors are very smart (i.e. they’ve done physics olympiad or reached somewhere close to that level during high school). Since your son would be eventually taking higher level physics classes with these kinds of people, it may or may not be a problem, depending on how talented your son is at physics. These are a lot of assumptions I’m making though, because I’m a freshman majoring in Computer Science so I don’t have perfectly reliable info regarding physics. I personally don’t find grade deflation a problem at all… as my grades are still at the top. I believe it depends a lot on the person, and that most of the complaints you here from Princeton students about grade deflation are from those who are hurt from it. That is not to say, I’m supporting this “grade deflation policy.” I would also prefer they get rid of it, as all it does is make you spend extra time on things you might not want to. I would much rather have more time to academically pursue things I am actually interested in.</p>