<p>FWIW, when I looked at them in the past, the Honors sections of Cornell’s intro physics classes were similar to MITs intro physics classes; or at least they used the same (very advanced level) text. I asssume cal Tech’s classes would be at least as advanced as MIT’s. The famous Feynman lectures in Physics were created for the Cal Tech intro physics sequence in the early 60s; the level of that series is way, way beyond Cornell intro physics courses. (Though IIRC they were also beyond the Cal Tech students who took the class. And Feynman came there from Cornell!)</p>