WCASParent

I am trying to find a school for my son that offers a first rate liberal arts education, but where he can major in physics.
Does anyone know how good the physics dept. is? Are the profs good teachers? Are there many majors, and if so, how happy are they?
Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks

dietcokewithlime

The physics department is definitely solid. Those who go on to the PhD get in to what I imagine are pretty good programs. Right now, looking through the alumni directory, looks like there are people who graduated in the past five years now doing physics or physics-related programs at U of MN (several), Cornell (several), MIT (several), W&M, Berkeley, U of Wash, U of Arizona, Columbia, UCSB, Wisconsin (several), Oregon State, Carnegie Mellon, Penn State, UIUC, Texas A&M, Duke, Colorado, Northwestern, BU, U of Chicago. Looks like there are ~16 majors in the senior class, ~26 in the junior class, at least 13 in the sophomore class (perhaps a few more once people add it as a double major). Most majors seem happy with the quality of teaching. I think the biggest drawbacks to the department at Carleton are probably its propensity to schedule required major courses in the earliest timeslot and it being one of the less flexible majors in terms of when you take your courses and how many electives you have.

LACalum

I'm not so much speaking from experience, but the Carleton Physics department is especially strong (particularly for a small LAC). I believe there are 6 full time faculty members (an enormous amount for Physics at a school of under 2000 students) and they have pretty nice facilities as well. I have heard some crazy statistic like Carleton has, on occasion, graduated more undergrad physics majors in a year than the UofMN (although maybe I'm misquoting that). I am also fairly sure that it is usually number 1 among LAC in students going on to get PhDs in physics.