The other thought I have is just something that has been rolling around in my brain. If one is going to go to grad school in a particular subject, I wonder if it may be better to go to undergrad somewhere *other* than the top school for that subject. I think there is something to be said for going to different schools for undergrad and grad school, just to have a more varied experience.
Do undergrad ONE place, and do grad work
elsewhere.Unless you have a VERY compelling reason, doing both at the same institution/department is generally not a good move career-wise. Particularly in Academia.
While I will also vouch for the value of undergrad research, the quality varies greatly. That is true at any institution, including those you've named.
It's dependent upon the student and the advisor to work out something which is truly meaningful. I've seen a lot of situations where undergrad research students got turned over to a post-doc that didn't want them in the first place, and left to putter aimlessly for a year, or worse-- be the lab lackey.
He needs to shop for a mentor
ahead of time if he plans to continue the research he started. There will need to be a lab/PI willing to take it on-- and to FUND it. He'll need to select someone who seems to enjoy side projects, and has a good record of generating diverse publications as a result.
Some mentors are a better fit for some people than others; that isn't a personal failing on either person's part.
Generally speaking, most students are best served to go with the absolute BEST
general education they can get for UNDERGRAD, because that provides the best foundation for specialized graduate work later.
DH and I both noted that in chemistry as grad students. Our good
general preparation meant that we had the foundation to take research projects in unexpected directions with more aplomb than students who had gone to a specialist institution as undergrads.
My
personal preference for undergrad education in the sciences is a school without a PhD program, because I tend to think that the undergrads get more hands-on experience and more attention from faculty. It teaches a student some things that peers at PhD-granting institutions instead never even know about-- because those things are handled by technicians, support staff, or grad students. But that's me; there's also the down side, which is that the money for state-of-the-art equipment is often absent, and there aren't the super-star researchers teaching at those schools.
A grad student, however, is going to be higher on the food chain than an undergrad... which means that it may be better to 'save' the institution with the super-stars for grad school when you'll have better one-on-one exposure to them.
Just my 0.02 there.
My DD is also interested in physics, and that is what I'd tell her.
