<p>deneb, I wouldn't rule out a school for you just because it doesn't have an undergrad major in astronomy. Many, many schools may offer astronomy coursework but not an undergrad major. If you want to be involved in some kind of astronomy research while you're an undergrad, it's going to be easier if you're at a school where there is a professor who does astronomy. However, astronomy departments are generally very happy to have incoming grad students with a strong physics background, even from schools without astronomy coursework.</p>
<p>Boston University as an excellent program.</p>
<p>
[quote]
"astronomy as a major as an undergraduate may not be vital to becoming an astronomer? "</p>
<p>Yup. A physics major (or other hard science major, sometimes) is just fine for gaining admission to a grad program in astronomy. Keep an eye out for programs that offer and encourage undergraduate research opportunities, which occur at far, far more schools than are listed above.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I agree with SlitheyTove.</p>
<p>Here are some people who are current grad students who didn't actually major in astronomy as undergrads.</p>
<p><a href="http://astro.berkeley.edu/%7Ehmaness/resume.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://astro.berkeley.edu/~hmaness/resume.pdf</a>
Webpage</a> of Brian Metzger
Stephanie</a> Bush's research homepage
homepage[/url</a>]
[url=<a href="http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/%7Ershcherb/%5DRoman">http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~rshcherb/]Roman</a> Shcherbakov</p>