What Colleges offer good physics programs?

Question

What Colleges offer good physics programs?

Answer 1

There are lots of good physics schools. It depends a bit on what branch of physics you are interested. But the standard top science schools are good: Caltech, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, etc For public schools: Berkeley, Michigan, Illinois, Maryland, Texas But with an undergraduate degree in physics, you will get what you put into it. You can get a good physics education at a large number of schools. And, in the end, it the graduate school you attend, and more specifically, the graduate adviser you have, that will do the most for your physics career. If you are talking undergraduate schools, I strongly suggest you pick a school that is strong in a wide variety of technical fields, because the chances of you sticking with physics for all 4 years are not that great. You will be better served looking for a school that is strong in science and engineering rather than just in physics. Then, in grad school, that's when you pick the best physics school.

Answer 2

MIT -if you can get in

Cal Tech

Rose Hulman



In high school

all the math your school offers

AP Calculus

AP Physics

and the highest levels of english you can handle. You will need to read and write well.

Answer 3

There are lots of great physics programs. The very top schools will be:



MIT, Caltech, Harvard (yep, it's known for more than just its law school), Princeton, and Stanford



But any of the Ivy schools will have strong programs, as will some public schools like U of Michigan, Illinois, Texas-Austin, Berkeley, etc.



As far as types of classes to take, I would just get a well rounded education and take classes that challenge you. Obviously science (especially physics and chemistry) along with math, will be helpful to you in physics. So will computer and electronics classes, if you have them available to you. But you should realize that the math and science you learn in high school is well below the level of math and science you will need as a physicist, so these classes will be more for building a low level platform for your education rather than being directly helpful to you as a physicist.



Try to take the most advanced classes you can (that means AP or even college courses if possible). You will need that to have a shot at getting into any of those top Physics schools. You will also need advanced english and other not-so-obvious classes. There is a tendency for technically minded people to ignore the non-technical subjects, which is really to their detriment. In fact, at the top technical universities, the verbal scores for your SAT or GRE often have more of an effect on your admission than your math score does (this is for 2 reasons: (1) the verbal score is a better indicator of future success at that university and (2) everyone will have very close to perfect math scores anyways.) So make sure you prepare by getting a well rounded education and not focusing on only math and science.