Physic & Mathematics College recommendation

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Dear forum members,

My oldest son would like to study from next year Physic & Mathematics, and we have been researching Universities in Europe, Japan, USA and also in other parts of the world, but due to a complete "monetization" and "globalisation" of science that is not really science any more, but run for papers and career, it is really hard to make decision what to chose from existing academic circles.

USA from my point of view is not an option definitely, as I don't even like idea of spending most delicate years of personal development in that social climate, but than if there is decent scientific lab and university that still keeps some level of objectivity and real science, we still have to be open minded what to chose ... rankings so far still show that USA is the best, but we know it is all part of the evaluation that protects the system, not the reality of it. Also we have been thinking about Japan, Scotland, Italy - Padova in particular, Germany is difficult due to a language barrier, but it is not impossible to learn, Switzerland seams to be the highest of ranking for those subjects, but than from my perspective it is not one option at all .. etc ... All to all it has been very confusing for us and hard to decide. Eastern Europe, we don't know, as from our experience coming from eastern european country, probably they all deal with the same problems, old school rigid academic approach + no money at all for any decent scientific lab ... in our country it is just pure waist of time, maybe Prague or Poland Universities have some better cases, but we don't know?

Recommendations, comments and suggestions from your side will be more than appreciate, as we are aware that in academic circles he might not really get an objective scientific approach, but than, if he is not starting within academic system he will not be able to have access to the research, labs and all that is needed for scientific development ... maybe some personal combination of independent researching labs and circles with regular university academic frame, or ... ?

I truly hope to here your comments ... thank you!
 
Re: Physic & Mathematics College recomendation

Here are some reflections on your post, of which one immediate thought was, "next year" is that in 2018? Because if it means the academic year beginning at the end of August, September of 2017, then I can see some practical obstacles in terms of getting all formalities completed on time.

From one of your first posts, I infer that your son speaks a southern Slavic language, which means that Slavic languages will not be far away, as the languages split from one another not too long ago. I tried to look it up, and here are some links about what similarities and obstacles to expect:
_https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/all-slavic-languages-mutual-intelligibility.90698/
_https://www.quora.com/Which-two-Slavic-languages-are-the-least-mutually-intelligible
_https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/degree-of-mutual-intelligibility-in-slavic-languages-as-compared-to-other-groups.3021875/
_http://www.academia.edu/4080349/Mutual_Intelligibility_of_Languages_in_the_Slavic_Family

There are several Universities from Slavic countries that are considered very good: _https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2017/mathematics including several in Russia. I looked at the university in Novosibirsk, which led me to think about housing, which is another consideration. In the town I live in, the housing situation for students, or anyone is expensive and less than easy to come by. The monthly rent for one room, not a flat, is often close to a discount ticket to North America or India.

Some institutions are stronger in applied mathematics and some in pure mathematics, which leads to the question, what kind of mathematics and physics really interests your son? Does he already now have an idea about what he would like to do with the knowledge, teach, work in private sector or do research, as for example Ark is doing (http://arkadiusz-jadczyk.eu/blog/), or be open to move into another field like engineering?

Sometimes there are possibilities to take semesters at other universities. As an example the daughter of a friend began at university in her home area and travelled abroad during her undergraduate studies for one year, went back to complete her B.Sc and decided to do her masters at the foreign university. At the level of PhD a lot depends on creativity and hard work and places are open all over the world, especially in the sciences.

One question is, if you and your son feel more or less the same about this new phase of life? You mention Italy and that would not be far away from where you live, which brings up the question if any distance really is okay?

Perhaps it will help your son and you to become more clear about the many possibilities if you keep a journal about your research.
 
Re: Physic & Mathematics College recomendation

solarmind said:
Poland Universities
Click to expand...

Poland step by step going to the divided and xenophobic country. Rather better thing is to exit, than arrive here. The universities have a bit better level of requirements to get the grade and we have some fields of study in english. But you can find it in the other countries too.

If I would be in your situation I would suggest to my son that he choose university who would be as near as possible to home and field of study would be teached in english language.

And, btw, what it mean study Maths and Physics? The best for him would be study to, as fast as possible, stand on his own feet to that, I think good way is learn some informatic's skills in order to do some practical things and more compelling issues from Maths and Physics field keep for free time after work.
 
Re: Physic & Mathematics College recomendation

thorbiorn said:
Sometimes there are possibilities to take semesters at other universities. As an example the daughter of a friend began at university in her home area and travelled abroad during her undergraduate studies for one year, went back to complete her B.Sc and decided to do her masters at the foreign university. At the level of PhD a lot depends on creativity and hard work and places are open all over the world, especially in the sciences.

One question is, if you and your son feel more or less the same about this new phase of life? You mention Italy and that would not be far away from where you live, which brings up the question if any distance really is okay?

Perhaps it will help your son and you to become more clear about the many possibilities if you keep a journal about your research.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your thoughts and suggestions, yes we are looking to start university at 2018, and this is kind of what we have thinking too ... as for now he is primarily interested to continue his future as a researcher and eventually in private sector with potential for research, or the best is like Ark independently, but it is not that easy, and I think for that he have ot have certain academic background and understanding ... Russia was one of the options too, Saint Petersburg, but on a way, in last 25 years we get disconnected from Russia even culturally and get more attached to EU, and for young adults from our country it is more difficult and we don't speak Russian ... but we thought starting at some EU university with international program and than once when he get more adjusted to the university way of learning and living, he can combine offered possibilities through student exchange programs and so ... in EU it function quite well, and now our country opening more active political relationships with Russia too, so as it goes probably there will be offers for scholarships and exchange for our residents ...

So far yesterday we did again a look at several options in EU and we sort of decided that tis one is probably the best to start, I don't know if you or someone else know about this one _https://ruc.dk/en/campus-roskilde-university

Roskilde university offers international english based classes, and he is fluent in english ... and yes you are right that distance form home is an issue too, and it is on a 2 day driving distance from home, and it seams to offer more interdisciplinary approach and most of all it is not at big city, what is also a benefit for better network with colleagues, and it is always better motivation to develop other non university student activities, like music, sports etc ...

Also it is a bit stressful as we have to decide pretty soon as preliminary applications for international students starting already from this September ...

thank you and will keep you posted :)
 
Re: Physic & Mathematics College recomendation

lux said:
solarmind said:
Poland Universities
Click to expand...

Poland step by step going to the divided and xenophobic country. Rather better thing is to exit, than arrive here. The universities have a bit better level of requirements to get the grade and we have some fields of study in english. But you can find it in the other countries too.

If I would be in your situation I would suggest to my son that he choose university who would be as near as possible to home and field of study would be teached in english language.

And, btw, what it mean study Maths and Physics? The best for him would be study to, as fast as possible, stand on his own feet to that, I think good way is learn some informatic's skills in order to do some practical things and more compelling issues from Maths and Physics field keep for free time after work.
Click to expand...

Thank you lux for your comment, we love Poland, Poznan in particular ... we have been there last year as I was teaching at animation festival and it is a nice university city, but that is what we thought that political situation and a kind of poverty, that is still present as in our country, for young man is only motivated to leave ... our other eastern university that we wanted to consider was Prgaue as that is city most close to our way of living ... but don't know, I am afraid that the state of university is not that much better than in Zagreb.
 
Re: Physic & Mathematics College recomendation

solarmind said:
lux said:
solarmind said:
Poland Universities
Click to expand...

Poland step by step going to the divided and xenophobic country. Rather better thing is to exit, than arrive here. The universities have a bit better level of requirements to get the grade and we have some fields of study in english. But you can find it in the other countries too.

If I would be in your situation I would suggest to my son that he choose university who would be as near as possible to home and field of study would be teached in english language.

And, btw, what it mean study Maths and Physics? The best for him would be study to, as fast as possible, stand on his own feet to that, I think good way is learn some informatic's skills in order to do some practical things and more compelling issues from Maths and Physics field keep for free time after work.
Click to expand...

Thank you lux for your comment, we love Poland, Poznan in particular ... we have been there last year as I was teaching at animation festival and it is a nice university city, but that is what we thought that political situation and a kind of poverty, that is still present as in our country, for young man is only motivated to leave ... our other eastern university that we wanted to consider was Prgaue as that is city most close to our way of living ... but don't know, I am afraid that the state of university is not that much better than in Zagreb.
Click to expand...

Okay, I understand.

Poznan University of Technology (study in english): _https://www4.put.poznan.pl/pl/studia-i-stopnia/bsc-program-automatic-control-and-robotics

Talent and hard work, and son, will can find work over the europe, succesfuly - at least with current trends in force.
 
solarmind said:
[...]

So far yesterday we did again a look at several options in EU and we sort of decided that tis one is probably the best to start, I don't know if you or someone else know about this one _https://ruc.dk/en/campus-roskilde-university

Roskilde university offers international english based classes, and he is fluent in english ... and yes you are right that distance form home is an issue too, and it is on a 2 day driving distance from home, and it seams to offer more interdisciplinary approach and most of all it is not at big city, what is also a benefit for better network with colleagues, and it is always better motivation to develop other non university student activities, like music, sports etc ...
[...]
Click to expand...
An acquaintance of mine studied mathematics and history at Roskilde University (RUC). I asked his opinion and submitted the following edited excerpts to give him the context:
"...we are looking to start university at 2018, and this is kind of what we have thinking too ... as for now he is primarily interested to continue his future as a researcher and eventually in private sector with potential for research,..." [...] So far yesterday we did again a look at several options in EU and we sort of decided that tis one is probably the best to start, I don't know if you or someone else know about this one _https://ruc.dk/en/campus-roskilde-university

Roskilde university offers international english based classes, and he is fluent in english ... and yes you are right that distance form home is an issue too, and it is on a 2 day driving distance from home, and it seams to offer more interdisciplinary approach and most of all it is not at big city, what is also a benefit for better network with colleagues, and it is always better motivation to develop other non university student activities, like music, sports etc ... "
Click to expand...

My acquaintance replied late last night. If we skip the beginning and the end and edit both his and the machine translation for clarity, I get:
Am glad you thought of me, but actually I have to admit, that I am not the right person to answer the question. The last few years they have changed a LOT out there, e.g. mathematics is not an independent study. So, I don't think I'm qualified to comment on what they have to offer, and not at all how the education is regarded around the world. Hope you find one that can!
Click to expand...

I tried to verify his claim that the status of math has changed and looked at what they write in their pages:
_https://ruc.dk/en/bachelor-programmes Lists the programmes that are available.
_https://ruc.dk/en/international-bachelor-natural-sciences-int Has focus on natural science.
_https://ruc.dk/en/masterprogrammes List the master programmes where one also finds mathematics and physics.

Well, they write that they offer masters majoring in either physics or mathematics, but I have written to the study admin _https://www.facebook.com/search/str/ruc/keywords_places/, because on the national guide to studies (_www.ug.dk), they mention masters in mathematics for some other Danish universities, but not RUC. For RUC they only mention mathematics up to bachelor level. (The links are here in case you make use of a machine translation:
For mathematics: _https://www.ug.dk/uddannelser/universitetsuddannelser/bacheloruddannelser/naturvidenskabeligebacheloruddannelser/matematikfysikkemiogdatalogi/matematik
For physics: _https://www.ug.dk/uddannelser/universitetsuddannelser/bacheloruddannelser/naturvidenskabeligebacheloruddannelser/matematikfysikkemiogdatalogi/fysik)

I found some more information here:
_https://ruc.dk/en/intro-being-bachelor-student-roskilde-university Has videos with students and teachers, but you have probably seen that.

_https://ruc.dk/en/study-start-bachelor The page is from last sommer, but gives one an idea of things to expect with regard to housing.
An idea of expenses are laid out on page 18 of the booklet for those students that are exchange students or guest students: _http://www.e-pages.dk/roskildeuniversitet/289/html5/
Here is the general page for exchange and guest students: _https://ruc.dk/en/intro-exchange-and-guest-students

Here is a page where some of the material science students and teachers are available as pdf. Some are in English _http://milne.ruc.dk/imfufatekster/

In the afternoon a friend suggested me to look up DTU, Danish Technical University. It is a university focusing on engineering, but it might give a useful perspective on what is available.
_http://www.dtu.dk/english/Education/Bachelor-BEng-and-BSc-
_http://www.dtu.dk/english/Education/Bachelor-BEng-and-BSc-/General-Engineering Has video. One student suggests finding a room was not a problem, this is generally NOT true, as DTU can't generally promise housing options for all MSc students, who probably have higher priority than bachelor students.
_http://ait-psc03cd04.win.dtu.dk/english/education/international-student-guide Has useful information, also in case one wishes to study in Roskilde, for instance regarding living expenses:
_http://www.dtu.dk/english/education/international-student-guide/for-admitted-students/living-expenses
_http://ait-psc03cd04.win.dtu.dk/english/education/international-student-guide/student-life Has a few videos.

The distance from DTU to Copenhagen Airport is 30 km, from RUC is it 42 km, so both are close to Copenhagen, but both locations are also not far from water.

This link lists the ranks of universities in different countries: _http://www.4icu.org/Europe/ it can be a help when looking up possible universities. In fact, I checked up other universities in Denmark, but they did not have physics and mathematics for an undergraduate degree available for international students.
 
Looking at the publications of _http://milne.ruc.dk/imfufatekster/ I have tried to trace some of the organisational changes at Roskilde University that my acquaintance told me about.
In the latest publication, nr 505, the name is "Department of Science and Environment"
In older papers, like in text 490 from 2013 it was "Department of Science, Systems and Models" which appears to be a translation of the title form the texts like 424, which in Danish is "Institut for studiet af matematik og fysik samt deres funktioner i undervisning, forskning og anvendelse" which could be translated as "Department of mathematics, physics and their role in education, research and application"

On the home page of the department of the present "Department of Science and Environment" _http://forskning.ruc.dk/site/en/organisations/imfufa(a52d230a-9d01-4518-8767-7de71953f580).html one can also read a few words about the faculty and what projects they have.

In the Danish pages of the above English version, more is written under "Overview" - [Oversigt] They mention that of the people who leave with a master degree, 1/3 do a PhD (often at other universities), 1/3 teach in secondary schools and 1/3 occupy other jobs in areas of communication/teaching, application, administration, management in private sector and so on.

On another page I saw that they have several PhD studies open at the Department of Science and Models (INM): _https://ruc.dk/en/node/186 This might give an idea of the present activity.

What you wrote in a previous post about the interdisciplinary and open approach at Roskilde University is true. It is different from an environment where one mostly has to learn a text book and repeat it at the exam. The project work in a group present its own challenges, because one has to work and create with other people. To find a problem to work on, the people in the group need to know something and often not from just one subject, they need to select between different possible problems proposed by different people and agree on working on one main problem, they need to find the steps for the solution of the problem, .... Having experience in this type of cooperation is very useful in a world that is constantly changing and where we often find ourselves working with others to achieve common goals.
 
If you want to try a US university, I think you will not get so much nonsense in any STEM program at the undergraduate level. Probably a land grant college would have a minimum of nonsense. I can recommend North Carolina State University without hesitation. Many international students there. The area is prosperous, relatively affordable and there is a lot of technology employment opportunity in the region.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land-grant_university

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Triangle_Park
 
Apologies for not disabling those links. I don't see how to edit them. :(
 
thorbiorn said:
solarmind said:
[...]

So far yesterday we did again a look at several options in EU and we sort of decided that tis one is probably the best to start, I don't know if you or someone else know about this one _https://ruc.dk/en/campus-roskilde-university

Roskilde university offers international english based classes, and he is fluent in english ... and yes you are right that distance form home is an issue too, and it is on a 2 day driving distance from home, and it seams to offer more interdisciplinary approach and most of all it is not at big city, what is also a benefit for better network with colleagues, and it is always better motivation to develop other non university student activities, like music, sports etc ...
[...]
Click to expand...
An acquaintance of mine studied mathematics and history at Roskilde University (RUC). I asked his opinion and submitted the following edited excerpts to give him the context:
"...we are looking to start university at 2018, and this is kind of what we have thinking too ... as for now he is primarily interested to continue his future as a researcher and eventually in private sector with potential for research,..." [...] So far yesterday we did again a look at several options in EU and we sort of decided that tis one is probably the best to start, I don't know if you or someone else know about this one _https://ruc.dk/en/campus-roskilde-university

Roskilde university offers international english based classes, and he is fluent in english ... and yes you are right that distance form home is an issue too, and it is on a 2 day driving distance from home, and it seams to offer more interdisciplinary approach and most of all it is not at big city, what is also a benefit for better network with colleagues, and it is always better motivation to develop other non university student activities, like music, sports etc ... "
Click to expand...

My acquaintance replied late last night. If we skip the beginning and the end and edit both his and the machine translation for clarity, I get:
Am glad you thought of me, but actually I have to admit, that I am not the right person to answer the question. The last few years they have changed a LOT out there, e.g. mathematics is not an independent study. So, I don't think I'm qualified to comment on what they have to offer, and not at all how the education is regarded around the world. Hope you find one that can!
Click to expand...

I tried to verify his claim that the status of math has changed and looked at what they write in their pages:
_https://ruc.dk/en/bachelor-programmes Lists the programmes that are available.
_https://ruc.dk/en/international-bachelor-natural-sciences-int Has focus on natural science.
_https://ruc.dk/en/masterprogrammes List the master programmes where one also finds mathematics and physics.

Well, they write that they offer masters majoring in either physics or mathematics, but I have written to the study admin _https://www.facebook.com/search/str/ruc/keywords_places/, because on the national guide to studies (_www.ug.dk), they mention masters in mathematics for some other Danish universities, but not RUC. For RUC they only mention mathematics up to bachelor level. (The links are here in case you make use of a machine translation:
For mathematics: _https://www.ug.dk/uddannelser/universitetsuddannelser/bacheloruddannelser/naturvidenskabeligebacheloruddannelser/matematikfysikkemiogdatalogi/matematik
For physics: _https://www.ug.dk/uddannelser/universitetsuddannelser/bacheloruddannelser/naturvidenskabeligebacheloruddannelser/matematikfysikkemiogdatalogi/fysik)

I found some more information here:
_https://ruc.dk/en/intro-being-bachelor-student-roskilde-university Has videos with students and teachers, but you have probably seen that.

_https://ruc.dk/en/study-start-bachelor The page is from last sommer, but gives one an idea of things to expect with regard to housing.
An idea of expenses are laid out on page 18 of the booklet for those students that are exchange students or guest students: _http://www.e-pages.dk/roskildeuniversitet/289/html5/
Here is the general page for exchange and guest students: _https://ruc.dk/en/intro-exchange-and-guest-students

Here is a page where some of the material science students and teachers are available as pdf. Some are in English _http://milne.ruc.dk/imfufatekster/

In the afternoon a friend suggested me to look up DTU, Danish Technical University. It is a university focusing on engineering, but it might give a useful perspective on what is available.
_http://www.dtu.dk/english/Education/Bachelor-BEng-and-BSc-
_http://www.dtu.dk/english/Education/Bachelor-BEng-and-BSc-/General-Engineering Has video. One student suggests finding a room was not a problem, this is generally NOT true, as DTU can't generally promise housing options for all MSc students, who probably have higher priority than bachelor students.
_http://ait-psc03cd04.win.dtu.dk/english/education/international-student-guide Has useful information, also in case one wishes to study in Roskilde, for instance regarding living expenses:
_http://www.dtu.dk/english/education/international-student-guide/for-admitted-students/living-expenses
_http://ait-psc03cd04.win.dtu.dk/english/education/international-student-guide/student-life Has a few videos.

The distance from DTU to Copenhagen Airport is 30 km, from RUC is it 42 km, so both are close to Copenhagen, but both locations are also not far from water.

This link lists the ranks of universities in different countries: _http://www.4icu.org/Europe/ it can be a help when looking up possible universities. In fact, I checked up other universities in Denmark, but they did not have physics and mathematics for an undergraduate degree available for international students.
Click to expand...

Dear Thorbiorn, thank you very much for all your notes, I'll go through it with my son ... and thank you for explaining the process of your research, very helpful BIG THANK YOU!

it is really not easy to help kids those days to decide ... what is totally wrong from my POV is the length ... kids still have to spend to long on singular university, ok maybe for natural science it is ok with exchanges on other universities, countries, etc, but for humanities and arts, where I am, only the fluctuation and constant exchange of perspectives is something what brings extra value to complete learning process, and most of all interdisciplinary approach and integral learning and living is a key to creative life to be able to serve and enjoy serving, not only to look for your comfort ...
 
Yupo said:
If you want to try a US university, I think you will not get so much nonsense in any STEM program at the undergraduate level. Probably a land grant college would have a minimum of nonsense. I can recommend North Carolina State University without hesitation. Many international students there. The area is prosperous, relatively affordable and there is a lot of technology employment opportunity in the region.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land-grant_university

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Triangle_Park
Click to expand...

Thank you very much Yupo, ... your comment puts back light on USA again .... uh difficult choice ... maybe 15 years ago I will not even think about any other option than to look for USA university, that offers best options for international students, but in this turbulent time, I am just scared to support him to move to USA ... but thank you, we will consider that too ... :cool2:
 
I have just gone through this process (finding a good school) for my youngest child. She is going off to college next month. Universities are indeed worrisome places these days. But even at high school level, there is some nonsense indoctrination going on. *sigh*
There are still a few bright lights out there, such as U of Chicago, where prospective students needing safe spaces are nicely asked to apply elsewhere.
 
Perhaps, a Canadian university might suit? It's not the US, and classes are conducted in English, although some universities are bilingual in French too.

Canadian magazine Maclean's publishes university rankings every year-- below is a link to their top Mathematics Universities.

_www.macleans.ca/education/unirankings/best-mathematics-universities-in-canada-2017-ranking/
 
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