Bachelor's degree · Physical sciences · CIP 40.08
Physics: earnings and debt by college
The College Scorecard lists 677 colleges that award bachelor's degrees in Physics, together awarding 7,122 of these degrees in the most recent year. At the median institution, graduates who received federal aid earn $54,355 one year after finishing and $83,582 five years after finishing (two separate graduating classes). The median institution's graduates leave with $20,375 in federal student loans.
Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
Compare Physics programs on one chart
Pick any two measures. Hover a dot to see the college; click it to open the college's page.
Each dot is one institution's program; branch campuses share their institution's figures and appear as one dot. Dashed lines mark the median for all colleges. Showing 52 of 665; programs missing either value are left out (the Scorecard withholds figures for small programs).
Colleges with a bachelor's in Physics
| University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara · Public | CA | 138 | $64,520 | $104,045 | $12,910 |
| University of California-Berkeley Berkeley · Public | CA | 112 | n/a | $115,578 | $15,000 |
| University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle · Public | WA | 102 | $45,902 | $89,793 | $16,205 |
| The University of Texas at Austin Austin · Public | TX | 93 | $64,009 | $80,094 | $20,199 |
| University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles · Public | CA | 86 | $58,575 | $97,335 | $13,861 |
| New York University New York · Private nonprofit | NY | 76 | n/a | $83,530 | $18,500 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge · Private nonprofit | MA | 70 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| University of California-San Diego La Jolla · Public | CA | 69 | $61,325 | $94,942 | $11,407 |
| University of California-Irvine Irvine · Public | CA | 67 | $38,899 | $96,693 | $10,916 |
| University of Chicago Chicago · Private nonprofit | IL | 67 | $46,218 | $101,865 | n/a |
| University of Maryland-College Park College Park · Public | MD | 67 | $58,347 | $104,655 | $19,981 |
| University of Colorado Boulder Boulder · Public | CO | 63 | $54,506 | $93,212 | $17,769 |
| Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park · Public | PA | 62 | $55,968 | $85,810 | $20,500 |
| Harvard University Cambridge · Private nonprofit | MA | 60 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor · Public | MI | 59 | $56,501 | $95,305 | $20,000 |
| Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta · Public | GA | 58 | n/a | n/a | $19,500 |
| University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia · Private nonprofit | PA | 58 | $89,591 | n/a | $19,500 |
| Columbia College Chicago Chicago · Private nonprofit | IL | 51 | $42,234 | $85,985 | $25,000 |
| University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis · Public | MN | 51 | $53,403 | $89,729 | $19,500 |
| Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg · Public | VA | 50 | $68,081 | $94,142 | $22,192 |
| Stony Brook University Stony Brook · Public | NY | 49 | n/a | $83,582 | n/a |
| University of Florida Gainesville · Public | FL | 49 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison · Public | WI | 49 | $53,377 | $78,654 | $20,250 |
| Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus · Public | OH | 48 | $50,108 | $96,219 | $23,454 |
| University of Arizona Tucson · Public | AZ | 48 | $76,968 | $95,279 | $19,500 |
| Cornell University Ithaca · Private nonprofit | NY | 45 | n/a | n/a | $12,750 |
| Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette · Public | IN | 45 | $44,202 | $58,059 | $20,186 |
| University of California-Davis Davis · Public | CA | 45 | $46,391 | $84,299 | $17,750 |
| University of Massachusetts-Amherst Amherst · Public | MA | 45 | n/a | $91,250 | $26,583 |
| Michigan State University East Lansing · Public | MI | 43 | $52,160 | $72,555 | $24,858 |
| University of California-Riverside Riverside · Public | CA | 43 | $34,470 | $77,927 | $17,697 |
| University of California-Santa Cruz Santa Cruz · Public | CA | 43 | $72,553 | $131,315 | n/a |
| University of Rochester Rochester · Private nonprofit | NY | 43 | n/a | $114,369 | $19,000 |
| Brown University Providence · Private nonprofit | RI | 40 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick · Public | NJ | 38 | $50,763 | $83,345 | $26,250 |
| University of Virginia-Main Campus Charlottesville · Public | VA | 38 | n/a | $56,251 | $14,000 |
| Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe · Public | AZ | 37 | $54,120 | $93,233 | $19,934 |
| Brigham Young University Provo · Private nonprofit | UT | 37 | $64,945 | n/a | n/a |
| Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy · Private nonprofit | NY | 37 | $58,485 | $80,896 | $26,266 |
| University of South Florida Tampa · Public | FL | 37 | $43,622 | $79,535 | $19,302 |
| University of Utah Salt Lake City · Public | UT | 36 | $39,612 | $71,736 | $21,712 |
| Texas A&M University-College Station College Station · Public | TX | 35 | $62,060 | $77,025 | $18,562 |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign · Public | IL | 35 | $64,107 | $96,766 | $19,730 |
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill · Public | NC | 35 | $66,284 | $118,126 | $14,567 |
| California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo · Public | CA | 34 | $42,890 | $92,743 | n/a |
| University of Central Florida Orlando · Public | FL | 34 | $45,111 | n/a | $30,073 |
| William & Mary Williamsburg · Public | VA | 34 | n/a | $108,960 | $17,500 |
| California State University-Long Beach Long Beach · Public | CA | 32 | $45,967 | $90,996 | $17,151 |
| Columbia University in the City of New York New York · Private nonprofit | NY | 32 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Stanford University Stanford · Private nonprofit | CA | 31 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Quick facts: Physics
- How many colleges offer a bachelor's degree in Physics?
- The College Scorecard lists 677 colleges that award bachelor's degrees in Physics.
- How much do Physics graduates earn?
- Across institutions, the median of graduates' median earnings is $54,355 one year after graduation (67 institutions reporting) and $83,582 five years after graduation (91 institutions reporting). These figures cover graduates who received federal aid and are working and not enrolled in school. Branch campuses share their institution's figures, so each institution counts once.
- Where do Physics graduates earn the most five years after graduation?
- By reported median earnings five years after graduation: University of Southern California ($131,487), University of California-Santa Cruz ($131,315), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ($118,126), University of California-Berkeley ($115,578), and University of Notre Dame ($115,337).
- How much student debt do Physics graduates have?
- The median institution's Physics graduates leave with $20,375 in federal student loans (74 institutions reporting). Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Which colleges award the most Physics degrees?
- By bachelor's degrees awarded in the most recent year: University of California-Santa Barbara (138), University of California-Berkeley (112), University of Washington-Seattle Campus (102), The University of Texas at Austin (93), and University of California-Los Angeles (86).
Related majors in physical sciences
How these numbers work
Figures cover bachelor's degree programs in Physics (CIP code 40.08), as reported in the College Scorecard. Earnings are medians for graduates who received federal aid, measured one and five years after they finished, among those working and not enrolled in school; the one-year and five-year figures describe different graduating classes. Debt is the median federal loan balance at graduation. The Scorecard withholds figures for programs with few graduates, so many smaller programs show n/a. Summary figures are medians across institutions: the Scorecard reports program earnings and debt for a whole institution, so branch campuses share one figure and count once. All figures are from the Scorecard's most recent field-of-study release. More on the data.