<p>Coming from England, I am used to subject specific rankings for undergraduate universities. I have applied to a bunch of schools for Physics and my top choice right now is duke, but all the while its been bugging me that there seems to be no such thing as a ranking for schools in physics....or any other subject for that matter. Does anyone know better?</p>
<p>done in 1995 but its a good guide.</p>
<p>thanks...interesting list indeed. none of my top choices, (duke, wash u, rice, northwestern, penn, carnegie mellon) seemed to do that well but im gonna attribute that in part to the 10 year time difference, unless anyone wants to challange me on that. Any opinions on my choices for physics or other rankings for physics would be most appreciated....</p>
<p>How the heck did they do the music ranking?? It has the basic order of all the other lists, and yet I don't see most of the best schools on there... does Harvard really have a better program than Rochester (Eastman)?</p>
<p>njkybert, I don't think you need to worry about the rankings. The US have many top universities. There really isn't much of a difference between #10 and #40. I would replace Carnegie Mellon with the University of Chicago and I would add Cornell and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor to the mix. I would also recommend dropping Washington University from your list.</p>
<p>thanks alexandre. unfortunately its a little late to be changing my lists as I've applied this year and am now waiting on decisions. Interesting to see that you singled out wash u (the only one i got into so far!) as a college i should consider to a lesser degree...could you provide a justification for that? I thought their science reputation was good and they rank well overall (regardless of all the complaints about wash u playing up to the ranking system). So yeah, is it a general problem with the school, or more physics related?</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>The link above is for NRC rankings of graduate programs. I think it is based on faculty research and PhD production. The rankings may not apply to undergrad.</p>
<p>Sources of rankings or lists of top undergrad programs:
Gourman Report
Rugg's Recommendations
US News ranks some undergrad programs</p>
<p>Don't worry about it. Wash U. is a very good university with amazing resources and a very strong undergraduate focus. The reason I "singled out" Wash U. is because its strength lies in the life sciences, not the physical sciences. Wash U. has a top 5 medical school and a top 20 Biology department. However, in the other sciences, Wash U. is not quite as strong. However, at the undergraduate level, the quality of the department is not as important as the quality of the school...and Wash U. is a quality university.</p>
<p>thelarson- NRC ranked music <em>theory</em> programs, not music <em>performance</em> programs. For example, Chicago has a great music theory program, like the NRC report shows, but its performance program lags behind Northwestern's. For music performance, there's different strengths for each school based on vocal/instruments/etc., so there's really no way to rank them in a helpful way.</p>
<p>njkybert, my roommate is a physics major, and he's having a blast. However, depending on what you want to do, Duke's physics department is either very good or very weak. It lacks astronomy, for example. The department is very small, and you can get to know professors very well. They also provide networking of sorts- he managed to get a summer internship at an observatory even though Duke lacks courses in that area. You can also take classes at UNC Chapel Hill, which is an advantage not to be overlooked.</p>
<p>Thanks warblersrule86... do you know of a ranking that rates performance programs? Although I'm not looking to major in music, I am coming from one of the best high school band programs out there, and I don't want to get to college and realize the band or orchestra is a lot worse than my high school and quit. :)</p>