<p>I am a physics professor at Brown (my son will attend U Chicago in the fall though not to study physics). Chicago has a first-rate physics department. I second what CesareBorgia wrote: do not be misled by what is in a course catalog. An undergraduate physics curriculum is pretty much the same at every school. What matters is how smart your fellow students are (that will determine the level at which the professor can teach the course) and how willing the faculty are to interact with undergrads, particularly in terms of supervising research.</p>