<p>Maybe for most students the differences aren’t that stark but I think for a very serious physic student who has taken lots of college physics in high school those differences may be much more important. The courses ucbalumnus listed should be considered absolute minimum requirements; any physics department that does not offer all of those is not providing a serious physics education. Particularly, if a student has substantial background in physics they’ll want a number of other electives or more advanced physics classes. Granted if there is a phd program in physics students should be able to take graduate classes as well which would presumably provide good preparation.</p>