Not getting into MIT or UChicago just means you are like the other 90% or higher of qualified applicants, stellar but not really stellar.
There are many good schools out there that are in the AITU as well as many good publics like OSU, GTech, Purdue, etc.
I would stay up all night and apply to those that appeal to you and that you can afford. If an application has 12 essays … maybe leave it for tomorrow afternoon and get out a few good reach schools.
And start thinking good thoughts about going to OSU - it likely will have incredible opportunities for you …
His stats and ECs look good - why can’t he go to a LAC ? SAT math 2 scores ? How about a single door admission school with a different major ?
And I did mention fit with Mudd I am earlier post. But you must admit that Reed is not a school where all students will be happy, and a student would be highly advised to visit before committing. But since these are RD applications, hopefully they would get that chance.
Honestly, as a professor of physics with B.S. from UIUC and Ph.D. from UCSD, I can tell you that OSU is perfectly fine for an undergraduate degree in physics. The curriculum is basically the same at all schools and you can usually take a set of courses which prepares you exceptionally well for a Ph.D. program. The only exception to this is if the program is very small and does not offer a full year of the Junior/Senior level core courses every year.
Highly selective (I hate the term “top”) Ph.D. programs take students from all over. They just have to have excellent academics, good research experience, and strong reference letters. I work at a university, Illinois Tech, which is not considered to be a “top” (there’s that word again!) physics program but we have sent our graduates to many selective Ph.D programs, including MIT, Princeton, Berkeley, UIUC, Wisconsin, UT Austin, Cornell, UCSB, and other very good programs. These students are exceptionally well-prepared because they have full year sequences in Quantum Theory, Electrodynamics, and Classical Mechanics plus two courses in Computational Physics. Most of them pass their qualifying examinations right away and then do quite well in their Ph.D. research.
OSU, as a major research university has a lot to offer physics students who want to get involved in research and this can be a big advantage. Furthermore, you can be assured that, given the size of the program, you will be able to have a rigorous curriculum plus electives to prepare you for a graduate program. This is not to say that all the other suggestions for schools you have received in this thread are not good suggestions. In fact, they all have produced fine physics majors who go on to excellent graduate schools. The point is that you should find the school that fits you best and not worry too much about whether it is a “top physics program”. If the school is right for you, you will be able to better achieve your academic goals.
Years and years ago, the professors at OSU in the hard sciences had literally written the book which almost every other graduate school departments for the respective fields used.
Go to Penn State, They Make Physics one of the hardest classes ever.Many engineering, who wants to go to engineering stop at PHYS212 and go straight to becoming economics or business majors.
I would look for a University where you can be involved in research.
I also strongly recommend that you look into the job market for theoretical physics/cosmology and learn about the backgrounds of the people who manage to get jobs in that field before you head too far down that path.
@merc81 ‘breadth in their computer science offerings’: this is about to change now that we will have 3 computer science professors from the next academic year. Microsoft just funded a new tenure-track professorship for us, and Portland’s growing tech scene is only incentive to attend the school (many alums work in that scene).
Your other points may be true, but consider this: I wouldn’t hesitate to argue that Reed has an exceptional history program, but you could come up to me and say that our history program lacks breadth in middle eastern history classes and Arabic professors (speaking of which, we are hiring an Arabic professor from next year). Irrelevant if OP is looking into studying the French revolution, and does not invalidate the strengths of the department. You’d be hard-pressed to find liberal arts colleges to better study biology and physics, especially if you are looking to go into academia.
My husband has a PhD in physics from a top 5 school and his colleagues came from a wide range of schools from your basic State U to Harvard. The biggest similarity was involvement in research as an undergrad. Go to a good school where you can stand out and find a professor to be your mentor. OSU, GA Tech, and IL would all be good choices in terms of research opportunities.
Reed appears to be one of the stronger LACs in physics, which is the OP’s intended major. Its CS offerings are limited, but that may not be a significant factor for the OP.
Have to agree that undergrad research mentorship is key for getting into grad school. This can happen almost anywhere, but may be more likely at certain places.
Highly selective LACs are especially good at this in my experience (PhD married to PhD so I’ve been around this a time or two!) but the most successful student in my spouses PhD program (who is now Prof at one of the schools that rejected this kid) got his UG degree at a low-rung CSU.
I also want to caution against the ecological fallacy (and several other fallacies of statistics/probability). Just because larger percentages of students from certain LACs go to graduate school in a certain field does not mean that’s because of the name of the school or the level of preparation at those schools. I’m sure it’s partially that at good LACs like Reed or Carleton, but it’s at least partially based on interest and knowledge, too: students who go to elite LACs (and universities, frankly) are much more likely to be already interested in getting a PhD and becoming professors than students who go to your local regional university or state flagship. They’re more likely to have had family members or family friends in their network who are professors, and/or to be exposed to what research is at an earlier age. It’s also possible that students who go to LACs are just more likely to want to go to graduate school in the first place.
Any of the (excellent!) universities that the OP listed are good prep for going to a PhD program in physics.
I’d also like to note that UIUC and Ohio State both have top 25ish departments of physics (and UIUC’s is ranked around Chicago’s and MIT’s). Georgia Tech also has an excellent physics department.
It wasn’t about the school tapping into the kids’ abilities and injecting in them a new found capacity or interest in those advanced degrees, or in the subject.
The nascent interest and aptitude has to be there. Proper preparation is essential, of course, and that can be had at the schools mentioned as great LAC options, and, presumably, at the schools to which you’ve given the nod.
The point was that one does not have to be at the HYPM to make it into a great graduate school.
