The best physics research universities are those with rich histories of influence, proven through the work produced by the program’s faculty and alumni. Beyond demonstrating scholarly impact in the field, the best physics degree programs maximize your opportunities to interact with outstanding physics faculty.
A bachelor’s degree in physics is an excellent starting point for a career in engineering, alternative energy, space exploration, and a host of other exciting and rapidly innovating fields. As a physics major, you’ll study subjects such as calculus, mechanics, and thermodynamics. Your degree will incorporate a variety of branches within math and physics, including astrophysics, biophysics, and quantum physics. The best schools for physics are those which are regionally accredited, which offer a full array of physics concentrations, and which give you the chance to work with the best and most influential professors and classmates.
Earning a bachelor’s degree in physics can open numerous professional doors, particularly in the field of engineering. A physics degree can help prepare you for work as an engineering technician, data scientist, or geologist. It’s also a great starting point if you plan to eventually pursue a license to be a professional engineer (PE), or if you intend to continue into an advanced degree program and become a research scientist, physicist, or astronomer. The best schools for physics will put you in a position to become an innovator and a leader in this exciting and challenging field.
Today, top influencers in physics are breaking new ground in Mathematical Physics, Quantum Field Theory, Theoretical Physics, and much more.
Back to TopPhysics is a great major because it can serve as the starting point for a number of well-paying careers. For instance, physicists and astronomers earned a median of $122,220 per year in 2019; geoscientists earned a median salary of $92,040; and industrial engineers saw a median of $88,020 in the same year. A bachelor’s degree in physics gives you the chance to choose between these and a wide range of other pathways where salaries and the rate of job growth are much higher than the average for all professions.
Back to TopOnce you’ve declared your major in physics, you will likely be required to complete a set of core courses in a number of STEM-related subject areas. While your concentration will give you a chance to choose from a wide range of highly-specialized physics electives, there are several common courses that most physics majors will be required to take, including:
Earning a degree in physics can qualify you for a number of well-paying jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of jobs for physicists and astronomers is expected to grow at a rate of 5% by 2029, which is faster than the average for all occupations. For industrial engineers, that rate is even higher, at 10%. Depending on your concentration, a degree in physics could help you make the jump into one of these high-growth sectors. The following are among the most popular jobs for physics majors:
In pursuing a bachelor’s degree, you will need to choose between three kinds of schools: research universities, liberal arts colleges, and online colleges.
Research universities are colleges and universities whose faculty are active in research and publishing. These schools offer a wide array of doctoral programs, especially in the sciences. They tend to be big, with tens of thousands of students.
Do you prefer a larger university setting, such as largest public university in your state? Research universities are typically big, offering degrees in many different disciplines. Is a big high-powered research environment the thing for you. If not, you should think about a liberal arts college. In deciding on an undergraduate institution, ask yourself what sort of environment will best help you to be happy and excel.
Often referred to as “teaching colleges” liberal arts colleges put a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree.
Online colleges are typically the same colleges and universities you could attend in-person, but for certain degree programs the college or unviersity has made the degree programs available to be completed online. For over 5 million students, online degree programs allow students to earn their degrees in the most flexible format available. Online degrees are as respected as the on-campus degress you could earn from the same schools. There’s usually no disctinction between the two degrees, and your degree and transcript will not say that the degree was earned online. Online degree programs are offered by a vast majority of colleges and universities, and the number of offering continues to grow. Whehter you are searching for an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate, there’s a good chance you can earn your degree online from a respectable online college.
If you interested in an online bachelor’s degree, check out what the best online colleges offer, or search our online degrees for the exact program that interests you. In either case, you will find well respected colleges and universities that offer online degrees.
Back to TopIf you think a liberal arts college may be a better fit for you, see our ranking of the best liberal arts colleges for a bachelor’s in physics.
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we call “Influence”.
The influence of a college or university is based on the schools’ top academic influencers related to the discipline in this ranking. We track the influence of faculty and alumni affialiate with these school counting not only the publicaitons and citations of the school’s affiliated people, but we also consider the overall web presense of the faculty and alumni. The greater the citations, authority of web links, web searches, and pageviews, the greater the individuals’ influence. Those combined make up the departments’ influence in the field of study. We believe tracking the academic influence of the people affiliated with a school is the best indicator of academic excellence.
If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching, and whether their graduates themselves are advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence. Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and misuesed performance metrics. Influence, as measured by our InfluenceRanking engine, provides a ranking that is more insulated from manipulation, and more reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
5%
Graduation
98%
Student body
25K
Median SAT/ACT
1515/34
Harvard University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
96%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1540/35
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
6%
Graduation
98%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1515/34
Princeton University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
5%
Graduation
95%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1505/33
Stanford University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
92%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1545/35
California Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
17%
Graduation
92%
Student body
43K
Median SAT/ACT
1430/33
University of California, Berkeley’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$62K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
96%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1535/34
University of Chicago’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$64K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
96%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1505/34
Columbia University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
11%
Graduation
95%
Student body
26K
Median SAT/ACT
1480/33
Cornell University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
7%
Graduation
96%
Student body
16K
Median SAT/ACT
1515/34
Yale University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$62K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
96%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1505/34
University of Pennsylvania’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
11%
Graduation
94%
Student body
26K
Median SAT/ACT
1510/34
Johns Hopkins University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Acceptance
26%
Graduation
93%
Student body
45K
Median SAT/ACT
1435/32
University of Michigan’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
14%
Graduation
91%
Student body
45K
Median SAT/ACT
1415/32
University of California, Los Angeles’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$53K
Acceptance
11%
Graduation
94%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1520/34
Rice University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
8%
Graduation
96%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1525/34
Duke University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
32%
Graduation
88%
Student body
44K
Median SAT/ACT
1355/30
University of Texas at Austin’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$62K
Acceptance
8%
Graduation
95%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1505/34
Brown University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
21%
Graduation
91%
Student body
31K
Median SAT/ACT
1405/31
Georgia Tech’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$62K
Acceptance
16%
Graduation
92%
Student body
40K
Median SAT/ACT
1445/32
University of Southern California’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$61K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
95%
Student body
19K
Median SAT/ACT
1495/34
Northwestern University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
82%
Student body
44K
Median SAT/ACT
1345/30
University of Washington’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
21%
Graduation
88%
Student body
49K
Median SAT/ACT
1440/32
New York University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
17%
Graduation
93%
Student body
17K
Median SAT/ACT
1510/34
Carnegie Mellon University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
12%
Graduation
93%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1510/34
Vanderbilt University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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