How to search for the best Theoretical Physics Schools

[jamalkoiyess]

Hello PF,
I was wondering how could someone search for a graduate school while being a theoretical physicist (expl : String theorist). I mean someone working in an applied area can search for schools with the best labs or latest technologies but not the Theoretical Physicist.
Thanks.

 

[Student100]

Hello PF,
I was wondering how could someone search for a graduate school while being a theoretical physicist (expl : String theorist). I mean someone working in an applied area can search for schools with the best labs or latest technologies but not the Theoretical Physicist.
Thanks.

Name recognition of your adviser in the field will probably be one of the defining attributes that separates schools for you.

 

[jamalkoiyess]

Name recognition of your adviser in the field will probably be one of the defining attributes that separates schools for you.

Do you know of any list of recognised advisers and the universities where they work? Thank you.

 

[MinasKar]

Do you know of any list of recognised advisers and the universities where they work? Thank you.

There is no such list. You should browse through universities' websites and find out which of those have active researchers in your preferred field of study. There are numerous list of Universities that you could use. In order to determine the "recoginised advisers" you could take into account their publications.

 

[robphy]

You could shop around here: https://www.gradschoolshopper.com/gradschool/
and cross-check activity using: https://arxiv.org/archive/hep-th (for example)

 

[Choppy]

I might recommend reading up on some of the specific problems or topics that you're interested in. Sure, you may not understand everything in the papers, but if a certain subset of professors or schools keeps coming up in your searches, or are highly referenced, I would put those places on your short list.

 

[radium]

What kind of theory are you interested in? High energy theory? Condensed matter theory? You are being too broad. Even within these subfields there are further divisions i.e. particle phenomenology/quantum field theories/gravity, quantum matter/soft matter etc.

The strongest places that do what people think of when they hear "theoretical physics" are for the most part the top schools in that they have the most distinguished faculty.