Astronomy / Astrophysics Graduate Program Ranking etc.

Thanks shouravv for your reply. I also like UCSC very much specially for its beautiful campus. But just for clarification, I know that UCSC astro has very high reputation but I got into the UCSC physics department. How does it affect me? There are three professors that are doing research close to my interest, Joel Primack, Stefano Profumo, and Anthony Aguirre.
On the other hand, I pretty much don't know any people at UCSD. I just looked up Kim Griest who seem to work on dark matter.
By the way how is UCLA for astroparticle physics? I am still waiting for them.

I am less familiar with the physics programs in general or Astroparticle physics research in specific. In many case Astroparticle physics or High Energy Astrophysics or Cosmology faculty members are spread across Physics and Astro departments, and sometimes they hold joint appointments. I guess you should do extensive ADS search for each faculty member at those institutions (Physics and Astro departments) before you visit, and then decide based on your experience of meeting them once you are there. Be sure to ask the departments specifically if you may work with a faculty member in the Astro department (if any) who is doing Astroparticle etc. work even if you are officially in the Physics program.

I will like to add more-

u Washington : 718
u chicago : 788 (with full financial aid)
U Arizona : 683
u mass : 600 ( suggested as minimum score)
virginia: 630 (recommended)

If anybody could tell avg. pgre score for these schools it would be really helpful :
yale , columbia, osu , michigan, ucsc ?

This is based on the new NRC survey, sorted by S-rank (data based). The R-rank is reputation based.
https://www-dept-edit.princeton.edu/ast ... nkings.pdf

The Spreadsheet containing all the data-points is available here -
http://www.nap.edu/rdp/

Hi there, maybe it was discussed before, but still... any advices if i'm interested in high energy astrophysics? I know about caltech (but honestly what chance do I have, since my grades are not quite perfect, I sort of preferred to be active and do research...) and penn state (gonna check that hopefully soon since I'm going there to do research a bit)
UC Santa Cruz seemed nice, but since i'm not us citizen, the fees and all that stuff are way to high

So any advice?

Just so we are clear, when you say fees are you referring to admissions/tuition fees? If so, you should realize that it is rare if ever the case that anyone pays tuition to go to graduate school in physics. You are given the opportunity to be an RA or TA and in return your tuition is paid/waived and you receive a stipend. In other words, go to the best school you can get into because at all schools you will be looking at free tuition and indentured servant living wages.

Most UC schools seem to eyesocket-*** international students regarding financial aid. E.g. they will fund everyone they admit, but they admit only an extremely small portion of externally unfunded internationals. For example, of Santa Cruz's physics students, only 7% are international, when the mean of all schools in NRC survey is 40%ish. Riverside has 51% and Irvine has 35%, the rest are in 20%'s or below.

I was concerned about this 'cause I've checked UCB page and there was a huge list of scholarships offered but I really don't have a clue which one to apply for. Plus all UC web pages seemed quite chaotic to me :/

But still, any suggestions for high energy astro? My current choices are stanford, caltech, ucsc, penn state (guest i need a backup one :/)

You're just talking about particle astro, right? What about for computational astro in star/galaxy formation?

Suggestion: when looking at faculty listings, find the bachelor's degree date, subtract 22, and then subtract the result from 2011. If it is above retirement age (65-67), be very concerned.

Which basically means for this year anyone who got their bachelors in 1968 or before. Realistically speaking, you should avoid anyone who got their degree 1971-72 or before because you don't need an advisor retiring before you finish.