Undergraduate Program

The Wesleyan Astronomy Department provides outstanding opportunities for undergraduates who wish to major in this fascinating subject, either in preparation for graduate school, or as an end in itself. We are number one in graduating more astronomy students than any other primarily undergraduate college in the country, according to the Research Corporation's, "Academic Excellence: The Sourcebook". Our unique program blends course work with research opportunity and provides students access to professional quality telescopes, instrumentation and computers. Our students go on to graduate programs, including the best in the country, or to a variety of rewarding careers in and out of science. Our principal strength is an active research faculty who will work one-on-one with undergraduates employing state-of-the-art instrumentation and computers to investigate areas of current astronomical interest. Many of our students are co-authors on research papers based on work performed during their undergraduate careers. In addition, we offer a comprehensive set of course work that will prepare students for a variety of directions in life, including graduate study.

Course work required for an Astronomy Major typically includes:

Introductory Astronomy (AST 155) - (taken during first year)
Fundamentals of Observational and Stellar Astronomy (AST 211) - (taken as a sophmore)

Then four upper level course over the junior and senior years:
Galactic Astronomy (AST 221)
Modern Observational Techniques (AST 222)
Stellar Structure and Evolution (AST 231)
Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology (AST 232)

In addition, students must take (or place out of) two years of Physics, including Physics 113 and 116 (or equivalent) and Physics 213, 214 and 215 (or equivalent). A minimum of four additional upper level physics or mathematics courses is also required, and those planning to go on to graduate school are encouraged to double major in Physics.

Research is important at Wesleyan and we have many opportunities for students to get involved with our active groups. Most astronomy majors spend some time observing with our 0.6 m telescope and CCD camera, which is used to study extremely young stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster and other regions. Many get a chance to travel to Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, to use the National Observatory facilities for studies of dwarf galaxies or globular clusters. Wesleyan is part-operator of the WIYN 0.9m telescope at Kitt Peak. Others work on data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope or other space-based observatories. Data are reduced and analyzed on our extensive network of computer workstations available to majors. For the more theoretically inclined, we also offer research in galactic dynamics which employs a Beowulf class supercomputer operated jointly at Wesleyan by the Astronomy, Chemistry and Physics departments. One of the advantages of Wesleyan for undergraduates is that we have a Master's Program which gives our majors a chance to work with graduate students as well as faculty as part of an active research group.

The culmination of research at Wesleyan for most undergraduate majors is the senior thesis. Here are some examples of recent thesis titles, which provide a glimpse of the sort of research that students can get involved with here. Since our faculty has recently expanded, additional opportunities are now available.

Often, students will present the results of their research at meetings of the American Astronomical Society and/or in professional journals, such as The Astronomical Journal or The Astrophysical Journal. Here are a few examples of papers recently published by Wesleyan undergraduate student authors in collaboration with their research advisors. The student's name is in boldface.

Where do our astronomy majors go when they graduate? Some choose to go on to graduate programs in Astronomy where they obtain a Ph.D. in preparation for a career in astronomy research and/or teaching. As an example of where they go and what they work on, here is that information for some recent students: