Best Physics Graduate Schools in Canada

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the evaluation of various Canadian universities for graduate studies in Physics, specifically highlighting the University of British Columbia (UBC), University of Manitoba, McGill University, University of Alberta, University of Victoria, and University of Western Ontario. Participants emphasize the importance of selecting a university based on specific research interests, such as astrophysics, condensed matter physics, and medical physics. UBC is noted for its strong programs in nuclear physics and its affiliation with TRIUMF, while the University of Waterloo is recognized for its emerging Quantum Computing laboratory. Rankings from sources like Maclean's and Times Higher Education are suggested for further insights.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of graduate program structures in Physics.
  • Familiarity with Canadian universities and their specific strengths in Physics.
  • Knowledge of research areas such as astrophysics, condensed matter physics, and medical physics.
  • Awareness of university ranking systems and their implications for program selection.
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the graduate programs at UBC and their specific offerings in nuclear physics and astrophysics.
  • Explore the University of Waterloo's Quantum Computing laboratory and its implications for future research.
  • Investigate the rankings of Canadian universities in Physics through Maclean's and Times Higher Education.
  • Review faculty publications and research interests at the University of Alberta and University of Western Ontario.
USEFUL FOR

Prospective graduate students in Physics, academic advisors, and anyone seeking to understand the landscape of Physics graduate programs in Canada.

Crumbles
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Does anyone know where UBC [University of British Columbia] and the University of Manitoba stand in terms of Physics for graduate studies? :confused:

I have heard a fair bit about McGill but any info about good graduate schools around Canada would be much appreciated. :smile:

I am actually graduating in Physics [BSc] this year and I would like to do my MSc/PhD in Canada.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
u of victoria (victoria), http://www.phys.uAlberta.ca (edmonton), u of bc (vancouver), simon fraser u (vancouver/burnaby) & carleton u (ottawa) maybe a couple others operate TRIUMF, Canada's national physics lab on campus @ ubc. those schools are also involved in other projects at slac (stanford) & cern (uvic is anyway). anyone of those would probably be a really good choice. (i'm not in physics but i was think about doing that at one point)
 
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I thought toronto was the best. It's the only Canadian school I really see on tv programs that involve physics.
 
FulhamFan3 said:
I thought toronto was the best. It's the only Canadian school I really see on tv programs that involve physics.

That's true.

I'd strongly recommend looking for a school that has a strong background in the physics you want to study. Not all schools have every Physics Graduate Program.
 
The UBC site can sometimes make finding information difficult. If you haven't saw the link below, I'd recommend visiting it and viewing the programs that interest you.

http://students.ubc.ca/welcome/programs.cfm

Here is a physics site on a graduate program of some sort:

http://www.physics.ubc.ca/graduate/

Mcleans magazine usually publishes a yearly issue on school rankings in Canada. You might want to check their website and see if it has anything on physics. I'm unsure of the url, but google would know.
 
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Thanks a lot for the information guys. Could somebody possibly explain the GPA grading system to me? :rolleyes:

Here we have a different grading system:
First Class - 70-100%
2:1 Honours - 60-70%
2:2 Honours - 50-60%
Pass - 40-50%

Also, if you have any experience about student life in different parts of Canada, I'd love to hear about it. :smile:
 
There's a bit on GPA here (you've got to scroll down though). Btw Crumbles, which university are you at? :smile:
 
Thanks for the Wiki Link.

I'm at Birmingham Uni. From your location, I'm guessing you might be too, unless of course you are from Birmingham and go to uni in London! :smile:
 
Crumbles said:
Does anyone know where UBC [University of British Columbia] and the University of Manitoba stand in terms of Physics for graduate studies? :confused:

I have heard a fair bit about McGill but any info about good graduate schools around Canada would be much appreciated. :smile:

I am actually graduating in Physics [BSc] this year and I would like to do my MSc/PhD in Canada.
I would say it depends entirely on what area you want to go into. U of Alberta for example (where I went) has a very strong program and prominent faculty in geophysics (geared mostly towards the oil industry), meteorology and space physics. They currently have a very good medical physics program (mostly radiation therapy) going on. When I was there, Werner Israel was on the faculty so cosmology was also a big thing at the time. Other areas like solid state or QM/QFT weren't as strong. Biophysics was starting to catch on. It's been a number of years, so things may have changed since then.

UBC has a very good astronomy/astrophysics program as well as nuclear physics (due to the proximity of TRIUMF). U of Western Ontario has a strong program going on in neutrino research (they have the SNO detector project nearby).

All the department websites should have information on their programs and faculty fairly accessible so you can find out about who is there and gauge the strengths of each of the programs you're interested in. Check out the faculty, find a few people you're interested in and get a list of their papers and publications. Look up a few of the more recent papers and see what kind of research the're up to.

and despite what others may have said, not all roads lead to Toronto.

i'd better go put on some heat shields now :smile:
 
  • #10
oh yeah, those ones i listed were mainly for experimental nuclear/particle physics. uvic has some people doing things like astrophysics (werner israel), medical physics & oceanography also but I'm not sure how it does with those. i know uvic is one of the best anywhere for experimental nuclear/particle physics though.
 
  • #11
Choosing a school really depends on what field you want to study in.
 
  • #12
Crumbles said:
Thanks for the Wiki Link.

I'm at Birmingham Uni. From your location, I'm guessing you might be too, unless of course you are from Birmingham and go to uni in London! :smile:

Oh cool, yeah I'm at Birmingham as well!
 
  • #13
The University of Victoria has a good Physics Graduate program, as does UBC. UBC has the advantage of having TRIUMF on campus, but UVic also has use of the facility. UVic is also affiliated with CERN in Switzerland, which is a big plus I would think.
 
  • #14
imabug said:
U of Western Ontario has a strong program going on in neutrino research (they have the SNO detector project nearby).

Just though I'd make a comment on this here...

The University of Western Ontario has no affiliation with SNO. SNO (Sudbury Neutrino Observatory) is, evidently, in Sudbury and has strong connections to Laurentian University (in Sudbury, ON) and Queen's University (in Kingston, ON).

Now, being a student at Western (which is in London, ON) I would like to take a minute to plug my own University (hosting Canadian Undergraduate Physics Conference next October... yay!). Personally, I'm in astrophysics, so I know more about our strengths in that field, but I know a bit about our physics too. In particular, we're strong in condensed matter physics (several particle accelerators...) and in medical physics (Robarts Research Insitute... premier medical imaging reseach among other things).

So Western's a good school to be looking at too!
 
  • #15
Rob Hal said:
Just though I'd make a comment on this here...

The University of Western Ontario has no affiliation with SNO. SNO (Sudbury Neutrino Observatory) is, evidently, in Sudbury and has strong connections to Laurentian University (in Sudbury, ON) and Queen's University (in Kingston, ON).

one of my friends had gone to do some graduate work on SNO, and I thought it was UWO. I guess it must have been Queens that she went to. Thanks for correcting me.
 
  • #16
Rob Hal said:
Now, being a student at Western (which is in London, ON) I would like to take a minute to plug my own University (hosting Canadian Undergraduate Physics Conference next October... yay!). Personally, I'm in astrophysics, so I know more about our strengths in that field, but I know a bit about our physics too. In particular, we're strong in condensed matter physics (several particle accelerators...) and in medical physics (Robarts Research Insitute... premier medical imaging reseach among other things).

So Western's a good school to be looking at too!

Hey hows the astrophysics there??

i was there in acs last year... now I am at york in math+econ this year... but now i wana be in physics and astronomy and I am just curious how the program is.

thanks... GO STANGS GO!
 
  • #17
I can't beieve that nobody mentioned University of Waterloo. With its new Quantum Computiong laboritory, it definitely has the best and latest physics program available in Canada. No doubt about it when it comes to classical type physics like fluid dynamis and thermodynamics research. The atrophysics program is excellent as well and the Particle Physics Program is top of the line. There are other schools who have better programs in certain smaller areas, but overall, undoubtably the best in Canada.

Regards,

Nenad
 
  • #18
Waterloo isn't really a physics-oriented university...
 
  • #19
The Globe and Mail is a pretty reliable source, so here's there information on universities all throughout Canada. Although you may want to check other sources, such as Macleans guide to universities, I hope this helps for now. :smile:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/generated/realtime/specialReportCard.html/
 
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  • #20
I go to UBC and am in the physics/astro department. There are a lot of very bright faculty here. The main focus in physics is probably condensed matter theory, mainly superconductivity with some quantum information thrown in as well. Of course there are researchers in almost every field though. The astro department is quite remarkable with some very good researchers. We also have one of the main scientists working on the WMAP project so there's a strong cosmology influence as well.

Of the faculty I know, 2 went to U. Chicago, 3 went to Princeton, 1 at Caltech, 1 at MIT, and 1 to Cambridge. Those are just the ones I know about :)
 
  • #21
silverpig said:
I go to UBC and am in the physics/astro department. There are a lot of very bright faculty here. The main focus in physics is probably condensed matter theory, mainly superconductivity with some quantum information thrown in as well. Of course there are researchers in almost every field though. The astro department is quite remarkable with some very good researchers. We also have one of the main scientists working on the WMAP project so there's a strong cosmology influence as well.

Of the faculty I know, 2 went to U. Chicago, 3 went to Princeton, 1 at Caltech, 1 at MIT, and 1 to Cambridge. Those are just the ones I know about :)

Do you know how much emphasis UBC lays on GRE subject test scores in regards to admissions?

I really want to get into UBC but I took my Physics GRE on Saturday and I don't think I did so well. However, I have got very good references and I also have a publication in Condensed Matter Physics.

Have you heard of any students with low GRE scores but who are good otherwise who got into UBC?
 
  • #22
Mcmasters a very good school in physics especially in Astrophysics, BioPhysics(med school right on campus), Engineering Phys, Classical(analmech) Physics. Decent in QM too.

Yeah Waterloo just started up QC but i heard universities in Alberta have better programmes(UA, UCal). Not sure about the schools in Qc or NS.
Heard UBCs AP programme was excellent ot not sure about the rest
 
  • #23
Best Universities in Canada

Ultimately I leave it to you to make the final decision but my research seems to indicate that these are the best universities (at least, for science) in Canada:

> University of Waterloo
> McGill University
> Concordia University
> University of Toronto
> University of Guelph

I once spoke with an astrophyiscs/astronomy professor who told me that for graduate studies you should definitely go to one of the 'big' universities. By 'big' I am referring to universities with the best reputations.

Hope this helps.
 
  • #24
I am having the same problem determining where to go.
I recently finished my applications and my main candidates are:

Waterloo-Guelph Institute of Physics
McMaster University
Queens University

Waterloo has ties with IQC and PI, and I know they actively look for undergrad physics with things such as the SIN test to high schools. I am looking into AMO, and have already received my acceptance from Waterloo, but if I get accepted to all three (which I anticipate) I will have a hard time deciding, I have been trying to find out which is most reputable but there seems to be little to no information on prestige of schools in Canada.
 
  • #25
I have recently found what appears to be a good ranking site (here is a quote from myself from another thread):
[\quote]
According to:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.u...p?typeCode=146
For Natural Sciences the TOP Canadian Universities are (with their world standing)

University of Toronto (16th)
McGill University (26th)
University of British Columbia (30th)
University of Waterloo (47th)

So those are the top Canadian universities in the Natural Sciences, and the only ones to place in the top 50 worldwide, which is pretty good. [\quote]
 
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  • #26


Astro said:
> Concordia University

Concordia (in Montreal) has a terrible physics department. There's an exodus from physics here for good reason. I was led to this post looking for another university.
 
  • #27
Crumbles said:
Do you know how much emphasis UBC lays on GRE subject test scores in regards to admissions?

I really want to get into UBC but I took my Physics GRE on Saturday and I don't think I did so well. However, I have got very good references and I also have a publication in Condensed Matter Physics.

Have you heard of any students with low GRE scores but who are good otherwise who got into UBC?

It seems that you asked this four years ago, so I do not think that my answer will be particularly useful for you anymore, but anyway it may be useful for someone else who read this forum.
Well, I got accepted to UBC (and Toronto and Mcgill as well) with just 680 in PGRE, and 780 in the quantitative part of the general test. I am an international student student from Mexico, and had no particularly strong references, nor publications. I was top of my class though (But in my class we were only 10 people).
 
  • #28
Miguel Paramo said:
It seems that you asked this four years ago, so I do not think that my answer will be particularly useful for you anymore, but anyway it may be useful for someone else who read this forum.
Well, I got accepted to UBC (and Toronto and Mcgill as well) with just 680 in PGRE, and 780 in the quantitative part of the general test. I am an international student student from Mexico, and had no particularly strong references, nor publications. I was top of my class though (But in my class we were only 10 people).

Is it true that Canadian universities are that much easier to get into than International schools? Does that mean they aren't as good or is it just a Canadian thing? Did you have lots of research even if not publications?
 
  • #29
What do you know about University of Alberta??
isn't it a good school? Currently I'm in Arizona State university (Physics) and I'm Planing to move to University of Alberta ( for a chemical and material Eng).
What do you know about the University of Alberta??
Thanks
 
  • #30
No one even mentioned Waterloo?
 

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