Particle physicists primarily work as researchers in universities or at large laboratories like CERN. Other than that they can go into industry and work as consultants, engineers, programmers, lobbyists, financial analysts, etc. However, those that go into industry will not be doing anything...
The main physics program at the University of Maryland is located in the campus at College Park. College Park is generally nothing like what you saw in The Wire (that kind of stuff is primarily just the bad areas of Baltimore). It's a fairly affluent, white suburb on the outskirts of Washington...
USC will have undergraduate courses in classical mech, E&M, quantum, and probably some type of astrophysics. In college, there is something called auditing. This means that you pay the university a reduced fee for a class and they let you sit in on the lectures, but you don't generally have to...
Rankings really don't matter at all for undergrad institutions. Go visit physics departments at different colleges before you pick a school, and get a feel for how much you like the professors and where you feel most comfortable.
If you can financially do it, you might want to consider staying in your university town for another year and volunteering part time in a research group in the Astronomy or Physics department. Then try to get a part time retail job to help pay the bills. This way, you'll still get to do physics...
I don't remember seeing any UI students in my classes or in any of the labs, but I think that some professors might be willing to take you on to do research.
I got my BS in Physics from Washington State University -- which is just a hop, skip, and a jump from UI -- within the last couple of years, so I will try to offer a little insight.
No matter what future you're planning for yourself in physics, be it grad school or industry, there are three...
If you live in a college town, then I would suggest getting in touch with math/physics/chem faculty members at the local university and ask them if you could do any unpaid part-time research in their labs during the school year or summer break. It sounds like you're still a sophomore, so if you...