Which Ivy for Physics?

College Search & Selection
21

<p>If there is a chance you might want to switch in the future to engineering or somehow combine physics with engineering/applied physics, then I think Cornell would be best. Princeton is also strong. Harvard and Yale might not be good choices if you want to keep an engineering option.</p>

<p>Cornell is especially strong in low-temp physics, nuclear physics. astrophysics, nanoscience, (and perhaps other areas).</p>

<p>Cornell and Columbia have had the most physics Nobel winners among the Ivys (and I think in the entire US) who have actually done their award-winning work while at the university. However, I am not sure what that implies about the quality of undergraduate physics education today.</p>

22

<p>Well, Cornell and Princeton were top of my Ivy list because of their focus on undergrads. Cornell is big, but it is mostly undergrads. (Unlike other similar schools with mostly grads).</p>

23

<p>"Well, one nice thing that I've found through e-mailing department heads is that astronomy departments are often VERY small--a plus at a big school like Cornell, which has like 3 majors a year....so that's cool."</p>

<p>At Williams, they had the following astronomy/astrophysics majors:
5 in 2006
4 in 2005
8 in 2004
8 in 2003</p>

<p>You should know I'm not a Williams honk. I am an alum, but my d. turned down Williams to go to Smith (and, for her, it is frankly a better school.) I'm actually not a great fan, generally speaking. But I honestly don't think you could do better than Williams for an undergraduate astronomy/astrophysics major. Anyhow, check 'em all out for yourself.</p>

24

<p>I'm heading to Stanford for physics (picked it over H and P because I liked the CA location and the culture of the place -- seems to have a nice flexibility and interdisciplinary focus), but I won't reallllly know 'till I get there. Anyway, if you like the school, keep it on your list for sure!</p>

25

<p>I hear many people mentioning stanford and berkeley, but if you're talking west/west coast for astrophysics, you cannot exclude UC Santa Cruz and U of Arizona. UC Santa Cruz has one of the top astrophysics departments in the country with heavyweights like Frank Drake and Joel Primack. Plus, Santa Cruz is a great place to live and the university and town provide a uniquely west (left) coast experience...</p>

26

<p>Why not MIT?</p>

27

<p>MIT is excellent for physics, but I don't think that it has an astro specific major (only grad stuff).</p>

28

<p>Caltech is the handsdown best school for physics.</p>

29

<p>Well, MIT doesn't have a specific astrophysics major, but the major requires that students take at least 5 unrestricted electives, which could easily be astrophysics classes.</p>

<p>Additionally, there's a minor in astronomy offered jointly with the dept of earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences. Think outside the box!</p>

30

<p>What makes for a great physics program? Isn't it more the ability of the professors to teach than the equipment or having a nobel prize?
How do you assess teaching ability apart from word of mouth.</p>

31

<p>Where's Feyneman when you need him? Sheez</p>

32

<p>lol, guess we'll have to settle for Brian Greene @ Columbia ;)</p>

33

<p>i agree with entropic girl. UC Santa Cruz - although not top in presitge or anything uppity - does have one of the BEST ASTONOMY/ASTOPHYSICS programs in the nation for over 30 years. i'm planning to major in this too (and i even started a thread almost exactly like this... and i didn't get this many answers lol). but definitely UC Santa Cruz and Caltech. Stanford does NOT offer any astrophysics majors (and astonomy, i think), but they're pretty good for just plain physics.</p>

34

<p>bump~ I want to see more posts~</p>

35

<p>I'd suggest Cornell. Though I'll probably go the humanities route, I actually have quite a huge interest in astrophysics as well, and Cornell's department is simply amazing. I mean, they actually head the Mars Rover project there, Carl Sagan and Richard Feynman used to teach there, and just the strength of the department is incredible. </p>

<p>Also I'd say that Princeton has a good one, but this is just based off of books that I've read by Feynman.</p>

36

<p>What about colleges that are not ivy? any suggestion?</p>

37

<p>brian greene is amazing</p>

38

<p>I have a a BA in Astrophysics from Harvard and a PhD from Berkeley.</p>

<p>The top research universities for astro are (in no particular order):
Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Yale, Chicago, Caltech, MIT,
Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, Arizona, Hawaii, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Wisconsin, UMass, Maryland, Virginia.
(Note the good mix of elite private schools AND flagship publics).</p>

<p>Good small colleges for astro include:
Williams, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Wesleyan, Vassar, Wellesley, Middlebury, Carleton, Reed, Smith, Amherst, Mt. Holyoke.</p>

<p>By the way, Stanford has absolutely phenomenal PHYSICS, but almost NO ASTROPHYSICS (though they are just starting to get into it).</p>

39

<p>Advice from a physics/astronomy major reading over this thread: many of you are confusing a university's prestige in its graduate school in physics and astrophysics with its undergraduate program. I would urge you all to NOT DO THIS. Although many schools have kickass equipment you can only dream of, many of these schools also have a reputation for ignoring their undergraduates in favor of their graduate students (ie you have to compete with them should you do research). Wherever you go make sure you do your homework on what the undergraduate reputation is like for the school and don't get sucked in by the prestige!
It's also worth noting that there are a lot of schools that are considered to have less prestige by the general public that actually have some of the best programs in undergraduate physics and astronomy you can find. For example the school I go to, Case Western Reserve, is considered to have one of the top physics/astrophysics programs out there complete with the most highly rated labs for undergraduates out there (which is really important in undergrad regardless of what you want to do), I have a lab job working on CMB Radiation, and regularly stop by Dr. Lawrence Krauss' office to talk about whatever's on my mind (if the name sounds familiar he's of "The Physics of Star Trek" fame). It's a position even my friends at Ivies like Cornell and Harvard get a touch jealous of!</p>

40

<p>I applied EA to Harvard with my goal of an astronomy Ph.D as one of the top things in mind. Stanford, by the way, from what I've heard from people in the field does not have as good an astronomy programs as schools like Harvard, Caltech, Chicago, Berkeley, MIT, etc. I picked Harvard because the impression that I got was that that and Caltech were the two "best" schools for astro, and Harvard on the whole appeals to me more of the two. Let's not forget, Harvard has CfA, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics which, I believe, has the most Ph.D.s of an astro research institution in the world. Loads of research opportunities, and that's what you need in order to get into a top graduate program. Now I already have a bit of research experience behind me so I'm feeling confident (maybe over-confident) that at a school like Harvard I'll be able to get some research opportunities if I really want.</p>

<p>And radio astro doesn't really interest me, personally, so that's why I won't be applying to Cornell...</p>

<p>Anyway, where you go for undergrad matters little as long as you can get some research done, and if your school doesn't have many opportunities then you can do REU. Get three or four publications under your belt, they don't even need to be first authorships, and you're in good position for just about any grad school's admission</p>

<p>But if you can get into such schools, and you are sure you want to do astro, definitely put schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Caltech, MIT, Chicago, and Berkeley on your list.</p>