Wesleyan Physics

Colleges & Universities Wesleyan University
1

<p>Whats the deal? Hows the program?? Any Deets will help!</p>

2

<p>Physics, like Mathmatics, is one of those departments that lends itself to both broad inter-disciplinary demands and peak academic specialties. For example, there’s a biophysics program which is pretty rare for an LAC: <a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/molbiophys/[/url]”>http://www.wesleyan.edu/molbiophys/&lt;/a&gt; and, it supports undergraduate research as well as awards degrees at the doctoral level.</p>

3

<p>But how is the program in terms of prestige? Do lots of physics majors from Wes end up going to grad school? Thanks</p>

4

<p>I’m not sure how one measures the prestige of a small college program. It’s a fairly popular program, if that’s any heuristic:
[Wesleyan</a> University Physics Department People](<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/physics/people/students.html]Wesleyan”>http://www.wesleyan.edu/physics/people/students.html) in line with Wesleyan’s closest competitors:
[Williams</a> College Department of Physics](<a href=“http://www.williams.edu/physics/]Williams”>http://www.williams.edu/physics/)
[Swarthmore</a> Physics and Astronomy<em>»</em>People](<a href=“Physics & Astronomy :: Swarthmore College”>Physics & Astronomy :: Swarthmore College)</p>

<p>In terms of PhD production it’s probably more in line with Middlebury, if one believes this widely circulated CC thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/559039-top-producers-phds-physical-sciences-comp-sci-math.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/559039-top-producers-phds-physical-sciences-comp-sci-math.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The problem with using PhD production as a marker for prestige is that it doesn’t capture graduates who might have opted for other career choices like medicine, and especially in the case of Physics, we know anecdotally that quite a few have been opting for careers in finance.</p>

5

<p>Like johnwesley said, it’s fairly difficult to measure the program’s prestige. Do grad schools “know” it? Of course. Wesleyan is one of the top liberal arts colleges with a very reputable science program in general, and there really aren’t any weaknesses in the Wesleyan sciences. Keep in mind that Wes does have a grad program in physics, so this does give the department more visibility and more advanced research opportunities than other LACs.</p>