Great physics college with good financial aid?

[Fizex]

Alright, I live in GA and I'm studying to apply to Caltech as a transfer. This is a great reach but with hard work who knows? I'm a freshman at some lower tier college and I think I can get a 4.0. I'm also applying to GATech for a safety. I need some colleges to apply in between these extremes but I need financial aid for these candidates. I don't want to exceed 10-15k in loans per semester. Help?

As a side note, is there a difference if I go to GT which is ranked #30 than say, Berkely, which is #5? (according to USNews, but they enumerated it weird. GT should be #12 and Berkely #2 if MIT, Caltech, etc all share #1)

 

[JCVD]

If all colleges except for Sucky State University of Sucking were tied for number 1 with a perfect score and Sucky State was the only college to receive a zero score, would you call Sucky State the second best college in the country?

 

[JCVD]

No offense to anyone who actually attends Sucky State. I was just using it as an example.

 

[Fizex]

I guess you have a point but if college A and B are both tied for 2nd, would you say A is 2nd in the country (when speaking) which would mean B is 3rd? No, both are 2nd so you have to say they are both 2nd ranked. Which would mean that a 3rd slot of ranking is open (because A and B are 2nd, not A 2nd and B 3rd) so that if C is ranked lower than A and B then it is ranked 3rd. So yes, sucky college is 2nd best compared to a set of colleges that got first. Something must fill slots of ranking so it is weird. When you see a race and two people are tied for 1st, you see someone who got 2nd, not a gap between 1st and 3rd.

but this is all irrelevant, trivial, and unimportant; can we please abandon this topic and help me out here? I was thinking JHU, but they might not have a lot of funds available to transfers.

 

[JCVD]

If A and B are tied for first and C has the next best score, then A and B are tied for first and C is third since there are two better than C (look at sports standings/rankings, this is common). There is no reason 2nd place has to be filled.

Pertaining more to the issue you for some reason find more important, why do you think Georgia Tech is a low extreme? If you need financial aid and want to go to a respected school for physics/engineering, I think GT is a pretty attractive option. Also, I don't think getting into top universities as a transfer student is particularly easy.

Full disclosure: I'm in math and not physics and I really just wanted to clear up the rationale behind how rankings deal with ties.