proton said:
yeah but don't smaller schools like harvey mudd and cal poly slo also provide good opportunities for undergrad research?
Yep, I guess I should have been more specific. Big research universities have more funding to support undergraduates (you really don't want to be working pro bono... at the very least that money could go to physics books), while smaller schools provide more attention for students who want to do undergrad research. At the risk of making gross generalizations, the bottleneck occurs in different places.
Many big name research schools have summer programs for their own students to get them involved in the research going on there--and by and large, most of the interesting current research is going on in those places. You will get to learn how the top researchers (profs as well as grad students) in a field approach problems. It helps to have these people as mentors if that's the career path you're going for. Letters of recommendation from 'big name' professors also tend to carry a little more weight. Also, as an advanced undergraduate you can benefit from many of the graduate-level courses which may not be available at smaller schools. The compromise: usually you'll have to take more initiative to contact professors (this is more of a "life skill," really). For students who are really on the research path, your coursework will eventually take a back seat to research, anyway--don't expect to have a life-changing educational experience (though this may still happen!).
Smaller schools: this wasn't my background so take what I say with a grain of salt. First of all, there are many small-school graduates who go on to get into competitive graduate schools. (Though there is some drop off in theoretical physics, where graduate level coursework helps a lot.) They tend to get very good instruction in their undergraduate courses as well as a lot of attention from faculty, but there are fewer "hot topic" research opportunities immediately available to them. This may be fine--since you're not looking to base your career on your undergraduate research, rather be able to stand out as a capable researcher. Also, you can always apply for the many summer internships at DoE labs.
Either way, I think it's really important to make the most of wherever you end up going.
A few other notes on your comments:
1. Don't take college rankings as gospel. Once you get your acceptances, you need to go visit each school and try to get a feel for it. You're not looking necessarily for a "top ranked" school, but rather a school that fits you well and that provides and environment that you can excel in. (Especially your comment on "ucla having horrible professors," this is really, really a gross generalization--UCLA is a big school with lots of professors. If you're a physics student, you'll be taking classes from a small subset of those professors. That subset contains the profs you're interested in, not some generalization of the whole school... do you think Princeton Review's survey of undergrads who go to only one school can really compare the learning experiences at two schools?)
2. I'm a little surprised you didn't mention Stanford on your list of CA physics schools. They don't have a reputation of being a "scienece" school because their name doesn't end in "institute of technology" and they're pretty good all around, but they have a DoE lab that specializes in particle/laser/synchrotron/astro-cosmo physics that makes them one of the physics hubs of the country.
3. By the way, once you step into college, all this stuff about SAT scores and everything gets thrown out the window and you get a fresh slate to work with. :)
Best of luck with everything,
F
