Uni for Physics/Astronomy- Durham/Bristol/Warwick/Edinburgh/St Andrew's/Other?

cough *manchester* cough

Generally the best regarded unis for Physics are:

Oxford
Cambridge (only does Natural Sciences where you can specialise in Physics after 1st year or so)
Durham
Warwick
Imperial College, London (similarly UCL)
Bath

I would also imagine Bristol and Nottingham are ranked quite highly.

Thanks, especially to hoofbeat.

Just a quick comment - Oxford only allows you to do options in atronomy/astrophysics and doesn't allow you to do it as an entire subject. So if you're really set on astrophysics or astronomy or any applied branch of Physics for that matter then you might find a lot of the other stuff pointless - I know I did so I changed course at the end of 1st year. The same will apply to Cambridge. To the list I'd add Leicester - they've got the space centre there and are very good with space engineering/astrophysics etc.

I have the grades to get in and they all seem, more or less, nice enough.

Could you tell me which is/are the "best" and pehaps why? (I'll be taking the 4/5-yr course, MSci or similar)

I want good teachers who enjoy (and are good at) teaching. I also like small groups (tutorials/problemsolving) and nice buildings/area is a big plus.

Oh, and I'm a 21yr (will be 22/23 when starting course) female from Sweden and would appreciate some similar people (international/"mature" /female).

Thanks,
Florence/Dancer83

Durham has the best Physics and Astronomy department in the country, and if you like nice buildings then you'll love the ogden centre (the new physics building).

I would have to sugges the MSci in Physics at durham, but then I am biased .

Generally the best regarded unis for Physics are:

Oxford
Cambridge (only does Natural Sciences where you can specialise in Physics after 1st year or so)
Durham
Warwick
Imperial College, London (similarly UCL)
Bath

No no no Hoofbeat....please correct your statement to "The universities that I feel are the best for physics are..."...it's all well and good making general statements but they are meaningless-it's your opinion, not a fact. For example I would have included from your list only : Cambridge, ICL, Durham and perhaps Bath...again my opinion.

Well actually, they aren't necessarily the ones that I rank highly due to personal opinion and certain places - I'm not a huge fan of Cams NatSci course as I dont think you specialise early enough and therefore I wouldn't really list it, however I included it due to its world wide reputation, alumni and general ranking in league tables. The list I gave contains the Uni's which are usually highly ranked for Physics by taking into account several different league tables and NOT the best in my opinion.

No, no hoofbeat...you're doing it again, making claims which are unsubstastiated. You can't just randomly combine all the tables in your mind, making a sort of supertable ranking the best unis for physics and try to pass this off as something other than mainly opinion based...

Example:
Bath is at 17 on the Times table for Physics and astro
Bath is 35 on the Guardian table for Physics
UCL is 22 on the Times table for Physics and astro (although improves much more on the guardian's...however when has anyone ever relied on the guardian )

So you see the list you gave is more a list of univs with a good general reputation rather than neccessarily with a good physics rep. The unis mentioned are not neccessarily the best in physics, the list is basically your opinion...have the decency to admit it!

No, no hoofbeat...you're doing it again, making claims which are unsubstastiated. You can't just randomly combine all the tables in your mind, making a sort of supertable ranking the best unis for physics and try to pass this off as something other than mainly opinion based...

Example:
Bath is at 17 on the Times table for Physics and astro
Bath is 35 on the Guardian table for Physics
UCL is 22 on the Times table for Physics and astro (although improves much more on the guardian's...however when has anyone ever relied on the guardian )

So you see the list you gave is more a list of univs with a good general reputation rather than neccessarily with a good physics rep. The unis mentioned are not neccessarily the best in physics, the list is basically your opinion...have the decency to admit it!

no one is asking her to jusitfy it, the universities that she has mentioned are well regarded amongst most lecturers and the fact the the a-level grades of candidates going to these places are more than enough justification for her claims.

The thread starter was obviously interested in which uni's are good for physics and Hoofbeat has provided some that she can look into. The thread is open for other suggestions and through discussion which is regarded the best and the merits of certain universities will be revealed. If you disagree with her, in stead of criticising the way she expressed her ideas I would state which ones you think are the best as then the thread starter will have a better idea of the diversity of ideas rather than an arguement on her hands.

One would also hope that the thread starter would look into this themselves and this is only a brief guide of where to start looking, a daunting task for a foreign student.

Yes, BossLady may have a small point, as to if you read it exactly, word by word, but on the other hand most people don't. I thought it was quite clear what Hoofbeat was trying to say. No one would expect someone to give a definite list of the uni's with best reputation as it's not actually a stable/real quantity/measure (my opinion).

Again, thank you Hoofbeat for the guide (I really apreciate the "details" about the "focus" of the different courses. Also thanks to AntiMagicMan (I've almost settled for Durham ). (And don't worry, I have "investigated" further, it's just easier when you know where to start)

Thanks to everyone else making this point a little intresting
Florence

no one is asking her to jusitfy it, the universities that she has mentioned are well regarded amongst most lecturers and the fact the the a-level grades of candidates going to these places are more than enough justification for her claims.

The thread starter was obviously interested in which uni's are good for physics and Hoofbeat has provided some that she can look into. The thread is open for other suggestions and through discussion which is regarded the best and the merits of certain universities will be revealed. If you disagree with her, in stead of criticising the way she expressed her ideas I would state which ones you think are the best as then the thread starter will have a better idea of the diversity of ideas rather than an arguement on her hands.

One would also hope that the thread starter would look into this themselves and this is only a brief guide of where to start looking, a daunting task for a foreign student.