Astrophysics Programs

[bpat]

Hi

I am going to be looking around for grad schools this summer and I wanted to know what people thought about Astrophysics graduate schools. I have seen the rankings system, and I have a very different question.

I know I want to do astronomy, but I don't know what type. I would like to go to a big school, one with theoretical and observational profesors in both astrophysics and cosmology. So, by my ranking system, Harvard would be my top choice, as it has the most astronomers employed of any college I know.

Thanks for any help you can offer

[rjharris]

Hi,

If you're looking for people who do both astro and cosmology with theory and observation (don't want much do you... jk) MIT is good also. It is, admittedly, much much smaller than Harvard (what school isnt), but all that stuff is going on at MIT. And next year they might have more funding for astro theory people. However, they have a bunch of new experimental hires, so it might be work investigating them for that possibility.

Anyone know about UC Santa Cruz? I didn't apply, but thats mostly because i didn't know about it. Hope that helps.

[artschoolapplicant]

Actually bpat, hawaii has the most astronomers employed (by an order of magnitude or two).

[rjharris]

Um, artsschoolapplicant, I dont think thats true.

Harvard and the Smithsonian are effectively one institution. There are about 500-1000 ph.d. astronomers working under their auspices. So, unless there are 5000-100000 astronomers working at hawaii...

[artschoolapplicant]

Hmm
I was just going by what gradschoolshopper says.