<p>I have been trying to find out which colleges have the best physics programs (more detailed: Cosmology, or theoretical physics) but I havn't been able to find much. I have found a few list of different colleges; MIT, Harvard, Cornell, etc. but non of them tell what makes those programs better. Any help you can give would be really appritiated!</p>
<p>Through the years the six schools in bold below have been close to, or #1, in Physics.</p>
<p>[Rankings</a> - Physics - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-physics-schools/rankings]Rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-physics-schools/rankings)</p>
<p>Rankings
Physics
Ranked in 2010 </p>
<p>Sort by Rank | Name
Rank College name Distance Score </p>
<p>**1 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA Enter your zip 4.9<br>
1 Harvard University Cambridge, MA Enter your zip 4.9<br>
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA Enter your zip 4.9<br>
1 Stanford University Stanford, CA Enter your zip 4.9<br>
5 Princeton University Princeton, NJ Enter your zip 4.8<br>
5 University of California–Berkeley Berkeley, CA Enter your zip 4.8 ** </p>
<p>7 Cornell University Ithaca, NY Enter your zip 4.6<br>
7 University of Chicago Chicago, IL Enter your zip 4.6<br>
9 University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL Enter your zip 4.5<br>
10 University of California–Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA Enter your zip 4.4<br>
11 Columbia University New York, NY Enter your zip 4.2<br>
11 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI Enter your zip 4.2<br>
11 Yale University New Haven, CT Enter your zip 4.2<br>
14 University of California–San Diego La Jolla, CA Enter your zip 4.1<br>
14 University of Maryland–College Park College Park, MD Enter your zip 4.1<br>
14 University of Texas–Austin Austin, TX Enter your zip 4.1<br>
17 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA Enter your zip 4.0<br>
17 University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI Enter your zip 4.0<br>
19 Johns Hopkins University (Rowland) Baltimore, MD Enter your zip 3.9<br>
19 University of California–Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA Enter your zip 3.9<br>
19 University of Colorado–Boulder Boulder, CO Enter your zip 3.9<br>
19 University of Washington Seattle, WA Enter your zip 3.9<br>
23 Ohio State University Columbus, OH Enter your zip 3.7<br>
23 Pennsylvania State University–University Park University Park, PA Enter your zip 3.7<br>
23 SUNY–Stony Brook Stony Brook, NY Enter your zip 3.7</p>
<p>If you’re looking for an undergrad school, here are 100 to consider. These one hundred colleges and universities produced the highest percentage of future Physics/Astronomy PhDs per graduate over the most recent 10 year period. Obviously a lot of tech schools are represented, but there’s something for just about everybody (different sizes, different locations, different selectivities):</p>
<p>PhDs and Doctoral Degrees:
ten years (1994 to 2003) from NSF database</p>
<p>Number of Undergraduates:
ten years (1989 to 1998) from IPEDS database</p>
<p>Formula: Total PhDs divided by Total Grads, multiplied by 1000 </p>
<p>Note: Does not include colleges with less than 1000 graduates over the ten year period</p>
<p>
1 California Institute of Technology 96
2 Harvey Mudd College 64
3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 29
4 New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology 20
5 Reed College 13
6 Carleton College 13
7 Princeton University 13
8 University of Chicago 13
9 Rice University 13
10 Case Western Reserve University 9
11 Harvard University 9
12 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 9
13 Swarthmore College 9
14 Haverford College 8
15 Stevens Institute of Technology 8
16 Whitman College 8
17 Grinnell College 7
18 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 7
19 Colorado School of Mines 7
20 Yale University 6
21 Williams College 6
22 University of Rochester 6
23 Amherst College 6
24 Goshen College 5
25 Cornell University, All Campuses 5
26 University of Dallas 5
27 Wabash College 5
28 Stanford University 5
29 Beloit College 5
30 University of California-Berkeley 5
31 Carnegie Mellon University 5
32 Johns Hopkins University 5
33 Hastings College 5
34 Lawrence University 5
35 Illinois Institute of Technology 5
36 Columbia University in the City of New York 4
37 Oberlin College 4
38 Monmouth College 4
39 Bryn Mawr College 4
40 Gustavus Adolphus College 4
41 Kalamazoo College 4
42 College of William and Mary 4
43 Earlham College 4
44 Worcester Polytechnic Institute 4
45 Pomona College 4
46 St Olaf College 4
47 Georgia Institute of Technology, Main Campus 4
48 Rhodes College 4
49 St John's University (Collegeville, MN) 3
50 Bates College 3
51 Macalester College 3
52 Brown University 3
53 Wesleyan University 3
54 Bethel College (North Newton, KS) 3
55 Brandeis University 3
56 Kenyon College 3
57 Hope College 3
58 St John's College (both campus) 3
59 Franklin and Marshall College 3
60 Bowdoin College 3
61 Washington University 3
62 Walla Walla College 3
63 Middlebury College 3
64 University of Missouri, Rolla 3
65 Drew University 3
66 Guilford College 3
67 Southern College of Seventh-Day Adventists 3
68 Moravian College 3
69 Clarkson University 3
70 Polytechnic University 3
71 Hamline University 3
72 Tougaloo College 3
73 Vassar College 2
74 Andrews University 2
75 University of California-San Diego 2
76 Lehigh University 2
77 College of Wooster 2
78 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2
79 Wake Forest University 2
80 Duke University 2
81 Albion College 2
82 University of Virginia, Main Campus 2
83 Trinity University 2
84 University of Alabama in Huntsville 2
85 Benedictine College 2
86 University of Puget Sound 2
87 Michigan Technological University 2
88 Dartmouth College 2
89 Cooper Union 2
90 Pacific University 2
91 Florida Institute of Technology 2
92 Xavier University 2
93 Northwest Nazarene College 2
94 South Dakota School of Mines & Technology 2
95 Hendrix College 2
96 Bucknell University 2
97 Millsaps College 2
98 Southwestern University 2
99 Bethel College and Seminary, All Campuses 2
100 Wofford College 2
101 Wellesley College 2
</p>
<p>[first posted by interesteddad]</p>
<p>If you’re interested in theoretical physics then the short list would be:</p>
<p>Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley with Cornell/Chicago just a notch below. </p>
<p>They’ll all provide a fantastic UG physics program but theyre all very different schools, I suggest you pick on fit after that.</p>
<p>Thanks 
i hadnt seen either of those list before, any chance you could post the links to the sites you got them from? Also another question, do you think that it’s better to the same college to get your graduates degree as undergraduates degree?</p>
<p>A number of them, at least, won’t let you go to the same college, they don’t accept their own undergrads into their grad program. Too much inbreeding, is the theory, better to go elsewhere and get new perspectives.</p>
<p>interesteddad did the original NSF/IPEDS lists; he might say how he did it if you ask him.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for a LAC with a good physics program, I went to one:</p>
<p>Eldon Hall (Ph.D. Harvard University), who designed the guidance computer for the Apollo spacecraft, was an Eastern Nazarene College graduate.</p>
<p>John Rigden (Ph.D. The Johns Hopkins University), former editor of the American Journal of Physics, is an Eastern Nazarene College graduate.</p>
<p>Carl Crouthamel (Ph.D. University of Chicago), who worked on the Manhattan Project with Enrico Fermi and started the program that developed the gamma ray lens for use in astronomy, is an Eastern Nazarene College graduate.</p>
<p>John Free (Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology), chair of the Physics & Engineering Department at Eastern Nazarene College and director of the Research Experience for Undergraduates at Harvard University, is an Eastern Nazarene College graduate.</p>
<p>For engineering (applied) physics, Cornell is #1.</p>