Could anyone offer some advice on my college choice for Physics/Astro?

[AZeee1781]

Hi everyone! So I am a current high school senior (international) who has just finished college applications and received results. I plan to major in Astrophysics or Physics (if the school does not offer an Astrophysics major) and eventually enter an Astrophysics PhD program, so I am looking for a place that can support my plan for the following 4 years!

Of my current offers, I lean strongly towards Harvey Mudd College for the strong STEM focus, close-knit style, and Cali location, with a potential drawback being the small scale of astrophysics there (only 2 or 3 professors in the physics department do related work) might limit my access to large research projects and various subfields (though the other Claremont Colleges might partly compensate for that). My other offers include UCSB CCS (Physics) and Oxford (though I mainly target PhD programs in the US so Oxford does not sound so appealing to me for its substantially different system, despite its prestige).

Also, I have received a few waitlists, including Cornell, Columbia, and UCLA.

So does Harvey Mudd sound like an appropriate choice for my case? Also, should I aim for acceptance from the schools that waitlisted me (that is, should I choose them over my current options)? As I am international, I wish to seek advice from someone familiar with the US Physics/Astro educational system, especially someone who has experience with one of these institutions.

Thank you all for replying!

 

[Choppy]

While I can't offer any specific advice on those schools, I wouldn't worry too much about involvement in a "large" research project at your stage of the game. A lot can change between starting an undergraduate education and entering graduate school. It's important that you have some opportunity to get involved in research so that you can try it out. And it's important that you have an interest in that opportunity (and that you're not just doing it because you thing you should).
Another factor to consider is how well you're likely to do at a given institution. You could go to the most prestigious school in the world, but if you're not happy there and you're not successful in your studies then the name of the school won't matter.

 

[berkeman]

Welcome to PF.

I'm no help on your questions (you will get plenty of good responses here from other users), but this caught my eye when looking through the HMC website (in the News section):

https://www.hmc.edu/about/2026/04/0...-control-communications-for-nasas-artemis-ii/

Harvey Mudd College physics alumnus and veteran astronaut Stan Love ’87 is the lead capsule communicator (CapCom) for the historic 10-day NASA Artemis II mission around the Moon.

 

[AZeee1781]

While I can't offer any specific advice on those schools, I wouldn't worry too much about involvement in a "large" research project at your stage of the game. A lot can change between starting an undergraduate education and entering graduate school. It's important that you have some opportunity to get involved in research so that you can try it out. And it's important that you have an interest in that opportunity (and that you're not just doing it because you thing you should).
Another factor to consider is how well you're likely to do at a given institution. You could go to the most prestigious school in the world, but if you're not happy there and you're not successful in your studies then the name of the school won't matter.

Thank you so much for your advice! So do you feel like there are some sorts of research opportunities that are more helpful than others? E.g., leading my own research under close mentorship vs. being part of a big research group led by top researchers?

 

[AZeee1781]

Welcome to PF.

I'm no help on your questions (you will get plenty of good responses here from other users), but this caught my eye when looking through the HMC website (in the News section):

https://www.hmc.edu/about/2026/04/0...-control-communications-for-nasas-artemis-ii/

Thank you! Seems like an awesome career outcome for an HMC Physics graduate :)

 

[Choppy]

So do you feel like there are some sorts of research opportunities that are more helpful than others? E.g., leading my own research under close mentorship vs. being part of a big research group led by top researchers?

Ideally you want what you're going to get the most out of, but it's important to recognize that's a multi-objective optimization with many different dimensions. These would include:
- the hard skills that you'll develop (coding, hardware, data manipulation, etc.)
- soft skills (project management, team work, organization, etc.)
- broadening your scientific and academic network
- quantitative productivity metrics (i.e. papers, conference abstracts, presentations, reports, etc.)
- field-specific insight (Sometimes you learn that a field you thought you might enjoy really isn't for you. Or sometimes its even better than you thought!)
- quality letters of reference
- etc.

In my experience there are advantages and disadvantages with a lot of opportunities like this. For many undergrads, research opportunities can often come down to "taking what you can get." And some people will beat themselves up if they don't get that prestigious REU in their field of interest. But in the end, sometimes working on a smaller project in a more informal context can have advantages too, such as more one-on-one time with the principal investigator.