Thinking of studying Astrophysics in Canada - A few questions ^^

[TidusBlade]

Well I'm in high school right now, grade 11 to be exact and I've started looking around for any interesting universities. I might change but I'm thinking of doing Astrophysics or major in Physics then move onto Astrophysics. I also know that I want to study in Canada so enough background, I just had a few questions that I was hoping I could get some opinions on, I'd really appreciate it!

1) Not really looking for the "best" university but what's a fun Canadian university to study Astro/Physics in? I gathered by reading around that you get to do much more research at a smaller uni and that the environment is generally better, just don't want to spend 4+ years studying in a place and regret it once I see how it is elsewhere. I don't really care about prestige and stuff, just want to study Physics properly in a fun environment.

2) I was thinking of majoring in Astrophysics but it seems that majoring in Physics then doing Astrophysics as a grad student seems to be a better choice and I have no idea why, what's the difference?

Forgot my third question ^^' Guess this is more than enough though, really appreciate any answers since I'm sort of confused, Thanks :)

 

[twofish-quant]

The reason that physics->astrophysics works better is that if you do physics then senior year you decide that you don't want to do astrophysics you have more options.

 

[LithiumHelios]

I'd agree that Physics -> Astrophysics does sometimes provide more options, however for a typical UK undergrad the main differences between the Astro and Physics courses are that the Astro people take modules such as Stellar Physics, Cosmology, Galaxies etc instead of the solid state modules (i.e. Lasers, Semiconducter Devices). All core modules are done by all (including Quantum, Electromagnetism, Math methods etc).

I think that its probably worth taking Astro modules if you're interested in them.