<p>Would appreciate any input, thoughts, on size of classes, access to professors, access to research opportunities. Do students help each other out, are there study groups? Are research opportunities for grad students primarily or intensely competitive or accessible for undergraduates? </p>
<p>Many thanks for any response.</p>
<p>Any anecdotal info is welcomed. Just opinions would be great too. Looking to learn…</p>
<p>I would guess that Chicago would be a more ideal choice. That is because I heard from a current student at Chicago, who takes physics, that there are some very well renowned professors in the field as well as research opportunities. (I posted for a free bump 
)</p>
<p>Fermilab and Argonne just got a load of money from the government. That can translate into a lot of opportunities for internships, etc. for UChicago students.</p>
<p>Is that true for undergraduates as well as grad students?</p>
<p>Imperfect and J’adoube make excellent points. UChicago is filled with applied and theoretical physicists who oftentimes work with undergrads at both the Hyde Park campus and Fermi/Argonne. The really cool thing about Chicago is the relative lack of formal separation between undergrad and grad student by the time you hit your 3rd and 4th year. </p>
<p>For the non-science people, the core gives you a chance to meet a lot of top researchers in fields that you would normally only read about in newspaper articles. </p>
<p>I was a first year non-science concentrate taking my physics core requirement when who would walk into our lecture hall but Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the Nobel prize winning physicist. He gave us a talk on the “Chandrasekhar Limit” and how it related to the current state of the art. It was a bit excruciating and more than a little amusing to see him trying to explain this complex theory in non-mathematical terms to us bozos. Despite this, I spent the rest of the day bragging to my friends about our surprise lecturer.</p>
<p>As an add’l point of interest, my physics core was taught by Mark Oreglia, who was one of the most awesome teachers I’ve had at Chicago. I’ve had nothing more to do with physics since leaving his class, but that core class has remained stuck in my head.</p>
<p>[Mark</a> Oreglia Main Page](<a href=“http://hep.uchicago.edu/~oreglia/]Mark”>Mark J. Oreglia)</p>
<p>If you are interested in studying physics at UChicago, drop him a line/email. He is a prof at UChicago and the Fermi Institute as well as a winner of the Quantrell award for outstanding undergraduate teaching.</p>
<p>S1’s 2nd quarter physics class was taught by Sidney Nagel and loved every minute of it especially this from his current research:
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<p>I’m thankful for all your responses. I’m still running a similar thread in the Columbia forum. I know at Columbia there is a Scholars program in the Physics department, like an Honors program, for some, with guaranteed research opportunities, advising, etc.etc. (I’m not one of them.) Does a similar situation exist at Chicago?</p>
<p>I really think that you should contact the physics department or a prof as suggested above. I know nothing of physics research opportunities but my 2ond year student has found labs and profs welcoming him in chemistry and math. It seems like he just needs to bring his wishes into conversations or email a prof or dept head and up pop choices. As his interests develop and refine themselves, his chosen lab has bent over backwards to encourage him.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your responses; they do help getting a bit of a picture of physics at Chicago from a student perspective. I’ll be coming to visit next week and look forward to learning more.</p>
<p>I’m visiting this thursday and friday, 4/16-17. Any suggestions on a particular physics class or another prof to visit?</p>