College physics programs

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Yes, it's now the time for me to choose colleges and complete all my applications. I'm seriously considering both physics and mathematics as degree choices.

 

What colleges do you know of that have excellent physics and math programs? I'm aiming high here -- I've already sent an application in to MIT (here's to optimism) -- but feel free to suggest something from any part of the spectrum. I'd just like to get a feel for what programs are particularly well-known or generally awesome.

 

Thanks in advance.

[ydoaPs]

Purdue

 

My friends like Ball State.

 

 

And everyone knows Notre Dame has the best football.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

How about colleges for mathematics?

[iNow]

I've always heard good things about Cal Tech for both topics, but can't offer first hand knowledge.

[DJBruce]

If you want you could cross the pound to Cambridge.

[Bignose]

Cap'n, don't overlook some of your local large state colleges. I've attended or been friends with people who've attended 6 different state/public schools, and while none of them have the giant reputations that MIT or CalTech or Cambridge have, they still have very excellent programs, and very excellent professors. * Good questions to ask those kinds of schools would be to find a course catalog (probably online) and ask the administrators in the physics and math programs how often the advanced classes have been taught. I.e. if most of the advanced physics or math classes have been taught once every two years, then there is a good group of faculty there. If there haven't been taught in a long time, then there probably is no one knowledgeable enough to teach them or no interest from the students, and the program may not be good at the higher levels.

 

Really, apart from "bragging rights" the name of the school on the diploma isn't that big of a deal. Even in the academic world, the quality of your work (research) means many times more than the name of the school you are stationed at.

 

* I wanted to interject a comment at that point, but it didn't flow with the rest of the paragraph, so I'll add it here: Depending on the kind of experience you want, going to a "big-name" school can be downright awful. I had a friend who did go to MIT. And while they overall enjoyed the experience, he told me quite some horror stories about faculty availability. Things like, if you wanted a half-hour meeting with a professor to talk about the subject material you are covering in class, you'd have to get with the secretary and schedule something 3, 4, or even 6 weeks in advance! Now, today, all professors are busy. The average professor sits on something on the order of 10 different committees now (i.e. school committees, that doesn't count thesis/research committees). But, the average professor at a larger state school isn't anywhere near as harried as the average professor at MIT or CalTech. All my friends and I who attended state schools noted that while there were some individuals in the departments who were that busy, most of the faculty members were happy to have open-door polices, and invited students to come in and talk at length about the class material, or even just talk about the subjects in general. I would confidently count several professors in my department as friends. They weren't super-close friends or anything like that, be we had good discussion on what I wanted to do as a career, the experiences the professor had had in industry and academia, etc. My friend that went to MIT pretty much confirmed that such a thing would be impossible there. So, again, every individual's experience will vary, but I am more of a laid-back casual person, and I don't think that I would be very happy as a student at such as place as MIT. But, that is just me. Some people crave and thrive in such an environment, so, it really comes down to how well do you know yourself.