<p>Does anyone know of any schools that are particularly good for undergrad physics? If anyone has rankings that'd be great, but any other info about the departments is welcome.</p>
<p>University of Chicago. CAL Tech, MIT</p>
<p>Cornell University.</p>
<p>Most "top" schools should have a decent physics program for undergraduates, as this is one of the most fundamental academic subjects. You might want to consider some of the more specific things you're looking for in a physics program, such as department size, the number of physics majors in each graduating class, or undergraduate research involvement.</p>
<p>from US News
Applied Physics</p>
<p>Undergraduate engineering specialties:
Engineering Science/Engineering Physics
(At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)
Methodology<br>
1. Cornell University (NY)
2. U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign *
3. Stanford University (CA)
4. Harvard University (MA)
Princeton University (NJ)
6. University of California–Berkeley *
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor *
California Institute of Technology<br>
9. Yale University (CT)
Pennsylvania State U.–University Park *</p>
<p>SUNY Geneseo. A large physics program for a relatively small school, and a very good one</p>
<p>Gourman undergrad physics
top physics programs according to the Gourman Report, listed in rank order:</p>
<p>Caltech
Harvard
Cornell
Princeton
MIT
UC Berkeley
Stanford
U Chicago
U Illinois UC
Columbia
Yale
Georgia Tech
UC San Diego
UCLA
U Pennsylvania
U Wisconsin Madison
U Washington
U Michigan AA
U Maryland CP
UC Santa Barbara
U Texas Austin
Carnegie Mellon
U Minnesota
RPI
Brown
JHU
Michigan St
Notre Dame
SUNY Stony Brook
Case Western
Northwestern
U Rochester
U Pittsburgh
Penn State
U Colorado Boulder</p>
<p>Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Caltech, and UChicago all have outstanding reputations in physics.</p>
<p>weldon,</p>
<p>Funny thing! I am considering transferring to Geneseo (over Bing) and would like to pursue Physics; in fact I just did a forum search for "geneseo physics". Can you provide some more information about Geneseo, especially its "very good" physics program? :) (I feel like Binghamton is stagnating)</p>
<p>I heart Geneseo. Don't know anything in particular about their physics program.</p>
<p>Blazedd: With regard to Geneseo as a whole, you probably know that it is roughly equivalent to Binghamton with resect to selectivity and general strength of the student body. The environment at Geneseo is one you're either going to love or hate. It is not really "small" (enrollment I think is about 6000), but the school has a small liberal arts college feel. The campus is beautiful (in my opinion) but a lot of people really can't get around how tiny the village of Geneseo really is. One advantage, however, is that the campus is right in "downtown" Geneseo, you can roll right out of most classrooms into town in about 2 minutes. On my visits there with my son, I was highly impressed by the friendliness of the people we met, from admissions to students to faculty. I wanted my son to attend there, but he didn't (long story).
I had not meant to put you off, but I spent some time looking for materials I had gathered on their various departments, including Physics, from 3 years ago. No luck there, I'm afraid. However, you might want to view this link if you haven't already, from the American Association of Physics Teachers, National Task Force on Undergraduate Physics (Geneseo's Physics Department has been cited as "thriving" by them):
<a href="http://www.aapt.org/Projects/ntfup/upload/SUNY-Geneseo.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.aapt.org/Projects/ntfup/upload/SUNY-Geneseo.pdf</a></p>
<p>They also have a brand new facility to house the department, which was under construction at the times I visited. Haven't seen it in person, but it also looks beautiful. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>By the way, the full AAPT report, citing and describing 21 "thriving" Physics Departments, would also be good for the OP to look at. It includes departments at some "prestige" schools as well as some less selective ones.</p>
<p>This is a ranking of how active the faculty of schools are - note this isn't quality of departments, but rather how active the faculty is involved in research/publishing - things that might look good on your resume if you get involved:</p>
<p>At any Top 25 school you will get a great undergrad Physics education.</p>
<p>thethoughtprocess: The NTFUP report is also puportedly an indication of student engagement and persistence, and cites some features of "thriving" physics departments that apparently appeal to the students themselves. Also given is some objective oucome data related to matriculation rates to PhD and other programs.</p>
<p>Weldon - what is NTFUP?</p>
<p>See above. National Task Force on Undergraduate Physics. It is clearly not an ideal source of information, but it does focus on undergrauduate programs at least, evaluation of which seems hard to come by.</p>
<p>You might want to browse the American Physical Society's lists of Apker</a> Award winners. The Apker Award is a prize given annually for outstanding research in physics by undergraduates. Some schools have produced several winners.</p>