Bachelor of Arts in Astrophysical Sciences

The Department of Astrophysical Sciences offers an outstanding program for Astrophysics majors, with the flexibility to accommodate students with a broad range of interests. Many of our majors continue in graduate school in Astrophysics at top programs around the country and the world. For students with career goals in other areas such as science education, science policy, space exploration, as well as law, medicine, finance, and teaching, we offer a flexible choice of courses and research projects. The department covers all major fields in Astrophysicsfrom planets, to black holes, stars, galaxies, quasars, dark matter, dark energy, and the evolution of the Universe from the Big Bang to today. The relatively small size of the department provides an informal, flexible, and friendly setting for students. Our Undergraduate Program consists of two main components: Required upper-level courses in Astrophysics, Physics, and other science or math courses (a minimum of eight upper-level courses in total), and Independent Research work (two Junior Papers and one Senior Thesis). The curricular learning goals for our Majors are to provide our students with cutting-edge educational and research experience in the broad field of Astrophysics, and equip them with skills such as quantitative reasoning, problem solving, data analysis, statistical analysis, observational methods, theoretical modeling, computational methods and algorithms, and the training to carry out independent research in various fields of Astrophysics. This is of course in addition to learning the broad field of Astrophysics itself, from planets, to stars, galaxies, and the Universe as a whole. Our Astrophysics Program has been ranked one of the top in the country.

Transcript - An official transcript must be sent by a school counselor or school official.
Two (2) Teacher Recommendations - Please ask two of your teachers who have taught you in higher-level courses (e.g. AP, IB Higher/Standard Level, A-levels, etc.) in different academic areas of study to complete and send the teacher recommendation forms.
SAT or ACT- If you choose to submit testing, applicants should take the SAT or the ACT by the October test date for single-choice early action and the December date for regular decision.
TOEFL, IELTS or PTE Academic scores - If English is not your native language and you are attending a school where English is not the language of instruction.