Physics GRE Discussion Forums

I love to travel, and one way to get out of the US and experience other cultures would be to do grad school in another country... but I haven't really been able to find some solid recommendations other than some obvious schools like Cambridge and Oxford. I am, more specifically, looking for a PhD program that's strong in cosmology and/or high energy theory. Does anyone have any recommendations for schools, sites to point me toward, or opinions in general concerning a physics PhD from outside the US?

Hiccupz,

For Cosmology, and arguably HEP, the best place in the UK is DAMTP at Cambridge, but they are very stubborn about taking their students from Part III of the mathematical tripos. And at Oxford, if you're interested in Twistor theory then have a look at the mathematics department, otherwise the physics department.

Apart from Cambridge and Oxford, the Physics department at Imperial is very good for HEP, if not the best in the UK; the maths department at King's College, London is also good for HEP. And also have look at the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology and the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham university.

For mathematical general relativity, besides Cambridge, the maths departments of Southampton and Queen Mary, London are good.

Hope this helps

It definitely depends on what you want to do. First of all, I assume you will be applying with a bachelor degree, so, no university in Europe will accept you to their Ph.D. program (you might find very rare exceptions.) Therefore, you will have to apply to a masters program.

I am currently a student of the masters program in theoretical physics at the University of Amsterdam, which is administered by the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the university. Let me tell, you, this is a great place to do theoretical physics. The gem of the institute is definitely the string theory group, which is one of the best in the world (arguably better than any in Europe, up to par to any top string theory group in the US.) If you are interested in doing string theory, Amsterdam is definitely one of the best places. The institute also has a very good group in theoretical condensed matter theory. Apart from the excellent quality in research, the program also offers good financial aid. You should definitely check the website of the institute and the masters (Education link on the left) :

http://www.science.uva.nl/research/itf/

Hope this helps!