<p>I have some questions for you current Yalies that I'd like answered.
-What's the approximate Student to Teacher ratio in the physics department?
-About how big are the intro and advanced classes in the department?
- If I apply to a top Grad Schools for Engineering, would a physics major instead of an Engineering major at Yale be fine? (Would it put me at a disadvantage compared to Engineering Majors? Do I have to pursue a practical physics route vs an theoretical one?)
-Can anyone post the distribution of current majors at Yale?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Is Yale rigorous enough to be comparable to schools like MIT & Caltech when I student takes the hardest classes available? Sorry for all the questions, it's just this information is almost impossible to find elsewhere.</p>
<p>The are many levels of freshman physics. The most advanced (Phys 260) typically has about 20 students. Others are larger because students majoring in other sciences (chem, bio, and engineering) take them too. Upper level undergraduate classes have ~10 students. A lot of undergrads who are serious about grad school take grad classes. If they're part of the first year grad curriculum, they typically have about 20 students in them.</p>
<p>The student:faculty ratio is quite good. It varies, but there are only about 10-20 B.S.s in physics awarded each year. You will have no problem finding awesome research opportunities and getting to know professors.</p>
<p>If you do well in the most challenging classes at Yale and take advatage of research opportunities, you should have no problem getting into a graduate program in engineering and getting fellowships, etc. People from my year got into MIT, Stanford, Berkley, UC Boulder, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell.</p>
<p>A lot of engineering schools like to see a degree in physics. People from Yale applied physics have wound up in the MIT EECS dept for grad school.</p>