Anonymous
06/16/2025 23:10
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
A lot of people are mistaking graduate programs and labs with undergraduate opportunities. If she's interested in going to a top graduate institution, competition is stressfully stiff. You are going to need publications, and these days, first author isn't out of the picture as a damn near requirement for MIT/Caltech. My advice? Leave the country. Europe trains their physicists a lot better, and admissions actually makes sense compared to the mess that our current process is.
Anonymous
06/16/2025 23:00
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DD is pretty neurotic and a high scorer on exams but simply lacks extracurriculars. She aspires to be a physicist and in her free time, she’s president of the Quantum physics and robotics team. I’m concerned that without going to a top 20 university, she won’t be able to ever achieve her dream. Looking through the assistant professor page at Princeton, every one of them has a degree from MIT, Stanford, Tsinghua, and IIT, so what chance does she have getting into the professsion?
So many questions:
What school has a Quantum physics and robotics team? Sounds weird.
Why don't you look at the full professors, not the assistant professors?
Stony Brook is very good and getting better in the sciences, particularly physics. State school but not huge. Though many of them get cherry picked to Wall Street
Lots of random large state schools are great at scientific research. Iowa State, Illinois, Colorado.
It seems like your child got her neurosis from you.
Assistant professors are recent talent. Tenured professors are at least 50-60 years old, many endowed chairs are decades past social security.
Also the physics to Wall Street pipeline is extremely overstated and a very small sliver of physicists.
Anonymous
06/16/2025 22:57
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
Anonymous wrote:DD is pretty neurotic and a high scorer on exams but simply lacks extracurriculars. She aspires to be a physicist and in her free time, she’s president of the Quantum physics and robotics team. I’m concerned that without going to a top 20 university, she won’t be able to ever achieve her dream. Looking through the assistant professor page at Princeton, every one of them has a degree from MIT, Stanford, Tsinghua, and IIT, so what chance does she have getting into the professsion?
So many questions:
What school has a Quantum physics and robotics team? Sounds weird.
Why don't you look at the full professors, not the assistant professors?
Stony Brook is very good and getting better in the sciences, particularly physics. State school but not huge. Though many of them get cherry picked to Wall Street
Lots of random large state schools are great at scientific research. Iowa State, Illinois, Colorado.
It seems like your child got her neurosis from you.
Anonymous
06/16/2025 22:32
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
https://www.highereddatastories.com/2024/12/doctoral-recipients-by-undergraduate.html
You can do your own research with this. Top undergraduate schools for producing PhDs. Select Physics and look at the past 10 years and don't forget to take undergraduate enrollment into consideration.
You can do your own research with this. Top undergraduate schools for producing PhDs. Select Physics and look at the past 10 years and don't forget to take undergraduate enrollment into consideration.
Anonymous
06/16/2025 18:27
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
Given IP's description, any good undergrad Physics will be fine.
For the UK, I definitely would look at Oxbridge, Edinburgh, and St Andrews for a Physics undergrad.
I also would consider Imperial College London (which is the MIT of the UK). The only issue with Imperial is that student housing is ridiculously tight in London, so it can feel like a commuter school.
For the UK, I definitely would look at Oxbridge, Edinburgh, and St Andrews for a Physics undergrad.
I also would consider Imperial College London (which is the MIT of the UK). The only issue with Imperial is that student housing is ridiculously tight in London, so it can feel like a commuter school.
Anonymous
06/16/2025 15:37
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
Physicists go to work at Wall Street, not universities.
Anonymous
06/16/2025 15:36
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
"Looking through the assistant professor page at Princeton"
OP, but in at least the minimal level of basic thought before giving up on trying.
OP, but in at least the minimal level of basic thought before giving up on trying.
Anonymous
06/16/2025 15:32
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
Anonymous wrote:I did my best to calculate an Apker Awardee rankng a couple of months ago (updating the info on Wikipedia with results from the past three years), and my result was that Williams and Mudd are tied for most awardees.Anonymous wrote:
For hot schools for physics, look into Hamilton and Pomona, which have graduated multiple students who have received recognition by the American Physical Society (APS) as Apker recipients/finalists (the highest award in the nation for undergraduate research in physics) in recent years. Additionally, a Hamilton professor was recognized recently by the APS for his contributions to the field of physics (in fundamental neutron physics) and his mentoring of students. Williams, whose graduates have received more Apker Awards than those from any other school of its type, should be considered as well. Haverford, Bowdoin, Wesleyan and Reed, which maintains a nuclear reactor on campus for research, also may be of interest. Tech-oriented Harvey Mudd will appeal strongly to some students. For merit scholarship recognition, consider Grinnell and Lawrence.
And delete "of its type" -- as if this is only comparing LACs. Willams and Mudd are tied for the most awardees, period -- for what that's worth. (It may be that these schools place special emphasis on getting their students to compete for this award. My kid was using this as one among many criteria of excellence.)
Let’s try that again! Pomona, Williams, Hamilton, Wesleyan, Harvey Mudd, and Swarthmore are basically tied for top LAC physics departments. It’s the same specialties in different fonts, and the students will have good outcomes from any of these colleges. DD goes to Pomona and the difference between the work she’s had in her Pomona classes and Harvey Mudd courses are very small- all the Claremont colleges use Emeritus Prof. Townsend at Mudd’s book, and the intro curriculum for Pomona is a prof in the department whose book is used at sister schools like Bowdoin. I will add that Wesleyan gives you access to labs with graduate faculty if that interaction is of interest.
Anonymous
06/16/2025 15:31
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
If you would like to consider schools by their science lab facilities, this Princeton Review site may offer you ideas across a range of selectivity, with examples including Union and Caltech:
https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/?rankings=best-science-lab-facilities
https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/?rankings=best-science-lab-facilities
Anonymous
06/16/2025 15:30
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
I did my best to calculate an Apker Awardee rankng a couple of months ago (updating the info on Wikipedia with results from the past three years), and my result was that Williams and Mudd are tied for most awardees.Anonymous wrote:
For hot schools for physics, look into Hamilton and Pomona, which have graduated multiple students who have received recognition by the American Physical Society (APS) as Apker recipients/finalists (the highest award in the nation for undergraduate research in physics) in recent years. Additionally, a Hamilton professor was recognized recently by the APS for his contributions to the field of physics (in fundamental neutron physics) and his mentoring of students. Williams, whose graduates have received more Apker Awards than those from any other school of its type, should be considered as well. Haverford, Bowdoin, Wesleyan and Reed, which maintains a nuclear reactor on campus for research, also may be of interest. Tech-oriented Harvey Mudd will appeal strongly to some students. For merit scholarship recognition, consider Grinnell and Lawrence.
And delete "of its type" -- as if this is only comparing LACs. Willams and Mudd are tied for the most awardees, period -- for what that's worth. (It may be that these schools place special emphasis on getting their students to compete for this award. My kid was using this as one among many criteria of excellence.)
Pomona, Williams, Hamilton, Wesleyan, Harvey Mudd, and Swarthmore are basically tied for top LAC physics departments. It’s the same specialties in different fonts, and the students will have good outcomes from any of these colleges. DD goes to Pomona and the difference between the work she’s had in her Pomona classes and Harvey Mudd courses are very small- all the Claremont colleges use Emeritus Prof. Townsend at Mudd’s book, and the intro curriculum for Pomona is a prof in the department whose book is used at sister schools like Bowdoin.
Anonymous
06/16/2025 15:24
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
For hot schools for physics, look into Hamilton and Pomona, which have graduated multiple students who have received recognition by the American Physical Society (APS) as Apker recipients/finalists (the highest award in the nation for undergraduate research in physics) in recent years. Additionally, a Hamilton professor was recognized recently by the APS for his contributions to the field of physics (in fundamental neutron physics) and his mentoring of students. Williams, whose graduates have received more Apker Awards than those from any other school of its type, should be considered as well. Haverford, Bowdoin, Wesleyan and Reed, which maintains a nuclear reactor on campus for research, also may be of interest. Tech-oriented Harvey Mudd will appeal strongly to some students. For merit scholarship recognition, consider Grinnell and Lawrence.
And delete "of its type" -- as if this is only comparing LACs. Willams and Mudd are tied for the most awardees, period -- for what that's worth. (It may be that these schools place special emphasis on getting their students to compete for this award. My kid was using this as one among many criteria of excellence.)
Anonymous
06/16/2025 15:05
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
These suggestions appeared in another forum:
For hot schools for physics, look into Hamilton and Pomona, which have graduated multiple students who have received recognition by the American Physical Society (APS) as Apker recipients/finalists (the highest award in the nation for undergraduate research in physics) in recent years. Additionally, a Hamilton professor was recognized recently by the APS for his contributions to the field of physics (in fundamental neutron physics) and his mentoring of students. Williams, whose graduates have received more Apker Awards than those from any other school of its type, should be considered as well. Haverford, Bowdoin, Wesleyan and Reed, which maintains a nuclear reactor on campus for research, also may be of interest. Tech-oriented Harvey Mudd will appeal strongly to some students. For merit scholarship recognition, consider Grinnell and Lawrence.
Anonymous
06/16/2025 15:02
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
Haverford is really good for physics. You can take advanced classes at Bryn Mawr and UPenn, and they have a strong record of sending students to top PhD programs.
Anonymous
06/16/2025 14:56
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
Anonymous wrote:DD is pretty neurotic and a high scorer on exams but simply lacks extracurriculars. She aspires to be a physicist and in her free time, she’s president of the Quantum physics and robotics team. I’m concerned that without going to a top 20 university, she won’t be able to ever achieve her dream. Looking through the assistant professor page at Princeton, every one of them has a degree from MIT, Stanford, Tsinghua, and IIT, so what chance does she have getting into the professsion?
Pick any school.
No one cares about Physics.
Anonymous
06/16/2025 14:56
Subject: Top school to become a physicist?
I'm an academic whose kid applied widely this past year with this very aim: physics major, then physics PhD, then research career in physics.
Posters have already made most of the necessary points:
(1) Undergrad really doesn't matter at all if you can get into a good PhD program, which students from middling schools often do. My own middling university sends some of its physics majors to top physics graduate programs nearly every year.
(2) LACs can be great. Judging by Apker awardees over the past three decades (including recently), the best undergrad physicists in the US are at Mudd and Williams (more Apker awardees there than at MIT, Caltech, and other research universities).
(3) CU Boulder is an easy admit but looks excellent for physics. Based on our experiences, the school seems serious about recruiting good students. CU is also very strong in my own field (in the humanities). We don't know what to make of the CU's general non-exclusivity; it probably wouldn't actually matter at all.
(4) Egad, don't use the CVs of junior faculty at Princeton as a measure of anything! Anyway, as I think someone already pointed out, academics usually don't even list their undergraduate degree on their webpage: you're probably looking at their graduate degrees.
(5) Our kid is going abroad. Future scientists in general will be going abroad. As we visited US schools this past spring and considered our kid's acceptances and offers, every one of these physics departments was seeing its research funding cut -- even the LACs. The brain drain is happening, even at the level of undergrad admissions.
Posters have already made most of the necessary points:
(1) Undergrad really doesn't matter at all if you can get into a good PhD program, which students from middling schools often do. My own middling university sends some of its physics majors to top physics graduate programs nearly every year.
(2) LACs can be great. Judging by Apker awardees over the past three decades (including recently), the best undergrad physicists in the US are at Mudd and Williams (more Apker awardees there than at MIT, Caltech, and other research universities).
(3) CU Boulder is an easy admit but looks excellent for physics. Based on our experiences, the school seems serious about recruiting good students. CU is also very strong in my own field (in the humanities). We don't know what to make of the CU's general non-exclusivity; it probably wouldn't actually matter at all.
(4) Egad, don't use the CVs of junior faculty at Princeton as a measure of anything! Anyway, as I think someone already pointed out, academics usually don't even list their undergraduate degree on their webpage: you're probably looking at their graduate degrees.
(5) Our kid is going abroad. Future scientists in general will be going abroad. As we visited US schools this past spring and considered our kid's acceptances and offers, every one of these physics departments was seeing its research funding cut -- even the LACs. The brain drain is happening, even at the level of undergrad admissions.