Lower ranked schools in California

[Imperate]

Hi,

Does anyone know any other 'lower' schools in California, that have half decent research in HEP-theory(string theory, QG etc mainly) in California, given that I've already applied to UCSD, UCLA, USC.

What are UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Davis like, how are they regarded by Americans? is there anywhere else like USC that is private in CA?

[stardust]

I don't know how good UC Davis is but its the university which runs Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
That means some faculty may have dual affiliations or if you wanted to do thesis research at LLNL it may
be easier. But, I think LLNL has relationships with other schools too in terms of doing research there. So,
it may be worth exploring that linkage for your speciality interest.

[stardust]

I forgot to mention UC Santa Barbara is highly reputed for theory, but I don't know if its your speciality.
They have some kind of Kavli Insititute. I thought another popular school was UC Santa Cruz but that could
be for its locale, close to the beach. But, none are private.

[Helio]

I am at SC and I have to warn you about applying as HEP theory... The department is on a path to lower the numbers of students... last year they rejected people simply on the ground of wanted to do HEP Theory... I would be very careful or at least very convincing... If you need any more info drop me a PM

Else I mean there is UCSD

and LLNL is run mostly by Berkley and partly by Davis. LLNL is also a weapons research lab (read thou will need security clearance) and he is british, not even permanent residences are allowed for their REUs there

The only other private ones I know of are Stanford and Caltech that have HEP theory, but so much for low ranked

I forgot to mention UC Santa Barbara is highly reputed for theory, but I don't know if its your speciality.
They have some kind of Kavli Insititute. I thought another popular school was UC Santa Cruz but that could
be for its locale, close to the beach. But, none are private.

David Gross is in their HEP Theory group I would consider that a hard to get in and UCSB is not low ranked at all

[Imperate]

I forgot to mention UC Santa Barbara is highly reputed for theory, but I don't know if its your speciality.
They have some kind of Kavli Insititute. I thought another popular school was UC Santa Cruz but that could
be for its locale, close to the beach. But, none are private.

Yeah Santa Barbara is exactly my research interest, but it's not exactly low ranked and it would be yet another UC on my list (which is something I'm trying to avoid having too many of). I have already applied to UCSD and UCLA.

I am at SC and I have to warn you about applying as HEP theory... The department is on a path to lower the numbers of students... last year they rejected people simply on the ground of wanted to do HEP Theory... I would be very careful or at least very convincing... If you need any more info drop me a PM

Oh man, that's not good news for me at all, I was really thinking 'oh well if I dont get in anywhere else at least I have a shot at USC'
They have a couple of theorists from the UK there too so I was thinking theyd at least be able to understand my undergrad record better, oh well....too late I've already submitted now.

hmm I've already applied to Stanford as my longshot, if I feel like throwing away some more money I might apply to Caltech too, it's surprising cheap the Caltech app, and wholly online, which is nice....seems like there is nowhere else private then..

So what about UC Davis, is this place respectable or? Also I keep getting emails from UC Riverside who must have me from the GRE search service, are they any good?

[abeboparebop]

I am at SC and I have to warn you about applying as HEP theory...

Santa Cruz or University of Southern California?

[Juston]

At Irvine we have one string theorist and someone working in simplicial QG. The rest of the HEP theory group, as far as I know, does research related in LHC Phenomenology, extensions of the standard model (including SUSY, I think), and astroparticle physics.

Irvine is a nice place to live, but I do warn you, it may get boring to be here after a while. It is also the safest city in America, by the way (though if you plan to drive here, the cops pass out tickets like flyers).

UC Riverside is planning to expand their department, but they only have a few HEP theorists, and I don't think any of them are doing work in string theory. John Baez in the math department does work in Loop Quantum Gravity, but I had been advised to stay away from LQG.

Davis is well known in cosmology, and I hear Santa Cruz has a decent physics department, but I don't know much about the HEP theory departments of either.

If you're interested some other good string theory schools that are lower ranked, I have a few suggestions outside of CA. There is Texas A&M, which has at least three people working in String/Supergravity stuff (they also have Richard Arnowitt, who developed the ADM formulation of GR), NYU, which has a good numebr of people working in QG and ST, and Brown University.

[Helio]

I am at SC and I have to warn you about applying as HEP theory...

Santa Cruz or University of Southern California?

SC = Southern California

UCSC = Santa Cruz

[Juston]

Hmm. In that case, you can't apply to USC in HEP at all. They don't have any faculty in experimental HEP.

[Helio]

actually... there is a faculty member in the EE department http://www.usc.edu/dept/engineering/ele ... celerator/

You can still apply from what I have seen there were a lot of people interest in HEP theory in the grad math methods course, so i dunno how they make the selection. But when i talked to faculty members they said they did not accept any hep theory people

[rohit]

howz U of So Cal compared to the other calif univs for Astro? and in general ?

[Helio]

howz U of So Cal compared to the other calif univs for Astro? and in general ?

Depends on what you want to do? There are only three real astronomers. 1x cosmology 1x theoretical solar physics 1x observational solar physics

Hmm. In that case, you can't apply to USC in HEP at all. They don't have any faculty in experimental HEP.

Well I talked to one of the faculty and he was like they might take few HEP theory this year... whatever few is

[Juston]

Well I talked to one of the faculty and he was like they might take few HEP theory this year... whatever few is

That's good news. My budget for applications ran out after 8 schools, and I was a bit down over the possibility that I had 'wasted' my application fee.

[admissionprof]

I know the California schools well. UC Riverside is good in particle phenomenology, but doesn't have much in string theory/QG. UCSC is extremely good in all of those areas--the nearness to SLAC over the past couple of decades, as well as Lick Observatory, has made their department strong--they have string theory, particle phenomenology, cosmology. Also a nice place to live. UC Irvine has one string theorist and good particle phenomenology. UCSB is, as you say, not lower rated. UCSD has decent phenomenology and astro, but I'm not sure about string theory. Other than USC, Caltech and Stanford, I don't know of any other strong private schools.