Yeah, so I think this clears up why. I don't think that "serious undergraduates or graduate students" statement was aimed at physics folks, but at more like CS (and possibly EE) folks. Who would also normally learn (say) programming paradigms, algorithms, data structures, low-level programming like C, etc. in their first 1-2 years, which are topics I'm guessing you wouldn't be covering as physicists. For students in CS (or to some extent EE or more nearby fields) to go in this direction in their first 1-2 years, they'd need to have a very unusual amount of interest in numerical techniques to defer other basic topics to later years (or just overload on technical courses and defer humanities to later).
I said possibly EE, not necessarily. Depends what you mean by "taught" and on what the program itself focuses on. In EE/CS programs you'd be taking half CS courses at least in the beginning, for example. And those EE courses' focuses are often on DSP and digital control rather than (say) simulating analog circuits. If by "taught" you mean "can be taken at that level", then sure, these are such undergrad courses in the US too, and they don't have particularly long prereq chains either, so a 2nd year student could take them if they actually wanted to. But it's not customary, and if by "taught" you mean required as part of the curriculum, it may not be depending on the school. The reasons are varied; again, lack of interest from CS-leaning folks on both sides is one such reason, as is the fact that the world has gone digital and they tend to focus more on linear algebra/DSP/etc. rather than ODEs and PDEs. In general few undergraduate students who aren't forced to take numerical methods in undergrad will do so.
And I'm not saying this is a good or a bad thing or trying to justify it, just explaining how it is and what some of their rationales are.
> In EE/CS programs you'd be taking half CS courses at least in the beginning, for example.
Not sure if you'll see my reply, but in the US this is generally not true for EE. If you're CompE, perhaps. In my EE undergrad, you were required to take only one CS course. It was otherwise heavier on math and circuits/electronics. By the end of the 2nd year, you'd have had two circuits courses, and have taken ODEs, and 3 semesters of calculus. Even the junior year is focused on electronics, E&M and motors - although you can start taking other electives (digital signal processing, etc).
But numerical methods was not required for us. It was a senior level elective.
