Vassar vs. UChicago - help?

UMTYMP_student
Sat, 14 Apr 2012 01:44:10 +0000

The culture at UChicago has changed considerably in recent years so your teacher’s experience might not reflect the current environment there. When I visited UChicago for an overnight it was not overly intellectual and certainly not sadistic. Given how minimal the physics curriculum at Vassar is compared to UChicago’s it seems extremely unlikely that a strong physics students would do as well going to Vassar as UChicago. Vassar’s offerings in physics are quite limited. At Vassar, only a single semester of quantum mechanics is offered, and excluding topics classes there is only one upper division physics elective. From the course descriptions the physics classes at Vassar also seem to cover much less material than classes at other UChicago. I imagine that UChicago would prepare you much better for physics graduate programs and would probably substantially increase your odds of getting to top programs as well.