Hi! I am interested in going to UChicago and do a double major in Physics and Intermolecular Engineering (with the Quantum track)! I know that UChicago is an excellent place for undergrad, however, I was wondering about the placement of Physics undergrads into top grad schools. Is it common for UChicago Physics undergrads to get admission into top grad schools like MIT, Caltech, Stanford etc? Does anyone of you know any statistics regarding this? Also, regarding the double major, I have chosen, what are the career opportunities I have and grad school opportunities?
You can use the NSF WebCASPAR database to count the number of physics PhDs earned by UChicago alumni in recent years. However, I don’t know of any systematic way to expose where they earned those degrees. You may have to rely of anecdotal reports, or else contact the physics department for comprehensive information about where its recent alumni have been accepted (or where they’ve enrolled). I would think UChicago alumni have a very good track record for admission into top graduate programs in physics … but I don’t think enough data is available to quantify and compare that record to other schools.
For absolute number of alumni-earned physics PhDs in the past ~5 years, Chicago appears to rank in the top 20 but not the top 10. The top 5 producers appear to be Berkeley, MIT, Cornell, Caltech, and Michigan. Now, Berkeley and Michigan (as well as some other T20 producers) are much larger universities than UChicago. However, the number of physics majors at some big state universities isn’t necessarily very much greater than the number at Chicago or some of the Ivies. Whether in absolute numbers, or after adjusting for the number of majors, UChicago seems to rank in the mid-teens for physics PhD production over the past ~5 years. After adjusting for the number of majors, the top 5 research universities for per capita physics PhD production appear to be Cornell, Columbia, Caltech, Stanford, and Wisconsin. The next 5 by this measure: Berkeley, Michigan, Princeton, Harvard, and UIUC. My data is coming from the NSF/WebCASPAR site (for earned PhDs, 2012-16) and IPEDS (for the number of majors, 2010-14). Absent better data, I think we have to assume that top students at any of these top producers have a similar shot at admission to top graduate programs.
My take-away from this exercise is that, to the extent per capita PhD production is a good program quality indicator, some of the top state flagships stack up very well against top private schools (including the Ivies, Stanford, and UChicago). So, if physics program quality is your primary college selection criterion, it may be hard to justify a big price premium to attend a top private school, especially if you live in a state with a top public flagship (like California, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas, or Washington). But be sure to run the online net price calculator for any college that interests you.
One of the best physics students I ever met was accepted to UChicago, but chose to attend Pittsburgh instead (based on cost). When he applied to top graduate schools, where he went to college apparently wasn’t nearly as important as the nature of his research interests and how they aligned with those of prospective mentors. He wound up at a famous university in the UK.