astro/cosmo safety schools?

[jones]

I'm applying to a lot of top and mid-schools for astro and cosmo, I was wondering about safety schools. Would Penn state be a mid-school or safety? Also, I was thinking about Tufts as a safety school, and wondering if it was worth it - does anybody have an idea as to how good their department is?

[noojens]

UW-Milwaukee's a good astro/cosmo safety, with a good gravity group in an otherwise lower ranked department: http://www4.uwm.edu/letsci/physics/research/

Dunno about Penn State or Tufts

[nathan12343]

The UCSC Physics department?

[InquilineKea]

Bump. I'm interested. All I know is that Penn State definitely ain't going to be a safety this time around (now that NRC has ranked it among the best schools)

[rahuldatta]

Well last year I had applied to PennState Physics....and was instead accepted by the PennState astro dept....though I did not end up there finally.......I am an int'l student....at least USNEWS ranks PennState at no. 9 in Cosmo......