Quote:
|
I guess I could find this info elsewhere, but how well do Brown students fair while applying to top grad schools for physics/math? (like cal tech, stanford, etc...)
|
Brown is not a machine the way some other schools are, sending large numbers of people every year to the top 4 grad programs. The level of undergraduate instruction is set to some extent by your peers, who are as a population weaker than at Harvard, Princeton and MIT (so there will not be the high-powered first year math class or a lot of undergrads taking graduate physics courses). In that respect the level is lower. But it would also be easier to stand out in that environment and develop your own program if you're good, and get recommendations from faculty who could hook you up with a PhD admission at a top school at the end of 4 years. It would take some concerted effort rather than being a routine side effect of riding the local wave, but is doable. All in all I would think that in math and even more so in physics, there's some disadvantage to not applying from the leading research departments, but not so large that you can't account for it and get in where you want.