I'm a senior physics major in the U.S., and naturally, as the next step in my career, have applied to a variety of physics PhD programs starting this upcoming fall. At one particular university I applied to, I have encountered an unexpected situation. Specifically, I applied to the Physics program, but my application was also shown to the Chemical Physics program at the same university, and they have contacted me and expressed that they would accept me if I were to apply to their program. I have not been rejected by the physics program, but at this point I don't feel like it is likely.

I would say my interests in physics lie firmly within condensed matter, with nanotechnology/nanophysics as the focus, so picking chemical physics wouldn't really prevent me from studying what I want to.

I am not sure how to weigh this opportunity vs. my other option(s) for a PhD program (at least one more, likely 1 or 2 on top of that, all in regular physics), so I was looking to hear /r/AskPhysics' thoughts on this matter.

Additionally chemical physics as a field is something I haven't really thought about or looked into much, so if anyone has a better/more thorough explanation of it and what's being studied in it right now than Wikipedia does, that would be great.

Tl:dr Chemical Physics vs. regular Physics