Purdue, Indiana, or Illinois for Physics?

<p>My son has been accepted as a freshman in physics at Purdue-West Lafayette, Indiana-Bloomington, and Illinois-UC. We are Indiana residents. He has been offered the Trustee scholarship at Purdue and the Excellence scholarship at Indiana so right now the net cost at these two schools is nearly a wash. As best we know, he is still a candidate for the Beering scholarship at Purdue and the Cox at Indiana. Although Illinois has offered their Achievement scholarship, our UI OOS cost PREMIUM would be $100K over four years (painful but not a show-stopper). My son has been invited by all three schools to participate in their honors programs on the university level and on the department level.</p>

<p>We know that we are very fortunate to be in this position of choosing from three great offers from three great schools, but any input on these schools and their undergrad physics programs would be appreciated. I am posting this on all three forums for bias balance.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>I have a friend who is a physics major, and he told me that the physics department at IU is very friendly and accommodating to students. They want students to major in physics, and enjoy teaching. I can also personally vouch for the honors college at IU- it’s very forward thinking, personal, and allows for some really awesome opportunities for it’s students.</p>