Best school for physics major?

xraymancs
Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:34:18 +0000

Speaking as a long-time physics professor and undergraduate advisor. You can get excellent physics training at just about any university and if you do the right things, you can get into outstanding graduate programs. The physics curriculum is more or less the same everywhere from Liberal Arts Colleges, to Tech schools, to large State Universities. If graduate school is your eventual goal, make sure that you can get a solid research experience and good personal recommendations from faculty as well as a full curriculum (for example, a school that offers a full year of quantum mechanics each year is going to be better for your graduate school prospects than one which offers only a single semester once every two years).

Since financing is an important consideration for you, look at that first then choose the physics program which best fits you from the ones which can meet your financial need. You will have a better chance at getting good scholarships from smaller schools which are eager to attract good students but which are not usually the first choice for the very top students. You should look at the smaller [Association of Independent Technological Universities: AITU](http://theaitu.org) schools and see what special scholarship programs are available.