Which College to Choose for Math or Physics Major?

[mruncleramos]

Hello,

I am currently a high school student and I have been accepted into both UC Berkeley and the University of Chicago. I plan to major in math or physics, but I have no idea which college I want to go to. From what you know of their undergraduate mathematics or physics programs, which would you recommend. (Disregard all other factors i.e. location cost etc.)
I plan on e-mailing both departments at both schools as well.

Thank you

I appreciate your input very much.

 

[ZapperZ]

Honestly, you cannot go wrong with both, especially for an undergraduate education. Both schools are well-respected, and both schools have strong ties to a US National labs - UC-Berkeley with LBNL and Chicago with ANL. So even if you pick one by tossing a coin, you can't go wrong.

Congratulations. It is quite an accomplishment to get accepted to both schools.

Zz.

 

[Student_at_CUNY]

Cali got the better weather and let's not forget the honies. Studying is good and all but I did not goto college not to get my share. =)

 

[DizzyGillespie]

Chicago sounds like such an awesome place. Chicago was probably the only school that I was truly dissapointed about getting denied from

 

[BryanP]

I'm a second year undergraduate student doing Applied Mathematics in UC Berkeley and I'm very content with what the program offers.

The physics program is good as well (I will actually be minoring in Physics) and all the research is done up the hill in Lawrence Berkeley Labs (which is cool because it's nearby).

Apart from academics, transportation around the Bay area is very simple using the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), and the weather is "ok." It's definitely not as bad as the weather in Chicago, but it's not great either in my opinion (being a native from Southern California).

However, the atmosphere is great, the people are great, and the professors are so far pretty good (in my situation) when it comes to communicating with the students in situations such as lecture and office hours.

Thus, this is my vouch for the school. Congrats in getting accepted. I'm pretty sure you'll be happy in whichever choice you make.

 

[chisholm]

Hi,

I just finished up my graduate work in physics at Chicago, but can vouch for the undergraduate program in that it is very good (and heard the same about the math department). But as was mentioned before, you probably can't go wrong at either place. It might come down to the little things -- do you like the area (U of C is in an urban area) and the weather (if you like snow, they get lots of it there).