Hey, I am an Arizona resident and I was recently accepted to the University of Arizona Honors Program and received a good scholarship. Combined with the discount I receive from my mom being employed there, UofA is looking to be a virtually debt free option. I want to study astrophysics and I have heard that UofA is quite good for it, but I am still not clear. I also applied to programs like MIT, Caltech, University of Chicago - can UofA stand up to these in terms of astrophysics education? Thanks in advance for your responses.
It’s a fine school, but it is not on the same “Astrophysics” tier as the ones you mentioned.
However, take heart, as doing undergraduate there as an Honors student would not put you at a disadvantage to enter any of the top programs for graduate school.
UA is ranked #1 in astronomy. It is ranked #36 in physics. It is probably one of the best places to go for an undergraduate degree in astrophysics. Most physics professors will tell you that you need the basic physics education before you can really get into astrophysics which is usually done in graduate school. Good grades at UA will get you into the top graduate programs. My daughter and I are in Tuscon looking at UA (I may be a little biased). She also wants to go into astrophysics. She has been accepted to the honors program as well. Her plan is to do wlll at UA and graduate debt free then get her PhD in astrophysics. Good luck.