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Program ranking · CIP 40.08 bachelor's · College Scorecard · Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals

Best Colleges for Physics

Using U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data retrieved March-July 2026, these colleges rank highest on median earnings for Physics (CIP 40.08) bachelor's completers. Rankings use earnings only - not prestige, selectivity, or editorial judgment - and require at least 25 completers so tiny suppressed cohorts do not dominate the list.

$131,025
Highest physics earnings
47
Colleges ranked
$51,590
#47 cutoff

The list in one line

Every college on this list reports at least $51,590 median earnings for Physics bachelor's (CIP 40.08) completers. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads at $131,025.

According to the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard.

$131,025
#1 - Massachusetts Institute of
$51,590
#47 - the cutoff to make this list
25+
completers required per school
781
US schools offering this CIP

Earnings are field-of-study medians for federally aided completers who were working and not enrolled; see methodology for horizon and lag details.

Top 15 physics programs by median completer earnings

Physics bachelor's (CIP 40.08) · higher is higher early-career pay

median earnings

What this shows Physics medians often reflect research-university and graduate pipelines - compare debt and completer counts before treating pay as program quality.

Source U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard Field of Study As of Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals

The full top 47

# School Name StateMedian EarningsMedian DebtCompleters
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology MA $131,025 $18,500 67
2 Cornell University NY $118,649 $15,961 53
3 University of Notre Dame IN $110,029 $21,500 33
4 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill NC $103,477 $17,150 48
5 California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo CA $96,805 $23,886 51
6 University of California-Irvine CA $96,215 $13,590 89
7 University of California-Berkeley CA $96,043 $15,000 99
8 University of California-San Diego CA $95,018 $18,000 53
9 Ohio State University-Main Campus OH $94,543 $21,500 65
10 Texas A&M University-College Station TX $92,826 $19,500 49
11 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University VA $92,746 $26,224 51
12 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor MI $92,293 $21,148 63
13 University of Maryland-College Park MD $90,900 $19,500 71
14 Southern Arkansas University Main Campus AR $89,685 $22,250 31
15 University of Arizona AZ $88,207 $20,500 43
16 California State Polytechnic University-Pomona CA $87,856 $23,000 42
17 University of California-Los Angeles CA $85,708 $21,000 79
18 Bethel University MN $85,657 - 25
19 University of California-Santa Barbara CA $85,219 $15,965 161
20 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus GA $82,431 $21,500 67
21 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute NY $81,840 $20,270 50
22 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus PA $81,763 $23,299 50
23 Arizona State University Campus Immersion AZ $81,696 $21,500 49
24 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign IL $81,077 $19,500 47
25 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities MN $80,025 $23,930 37
26 University of California-Davis CA $78,569 $14,354 58
27 William & Mary VA $77,863 $21,000 38
28 University of Wisconsin-Madison WI $77,380 $20,500 46
29 University of Utah UT $77,158 - 39
30 University of Washington-Seattle Campus WA $75,867 $15,415 151
31 University of Colorado Boulder CO $75,764 $19,306 81
32 Rochester Institute of Technology NY $75,281 $27,000 38
33 University of Oregon OR $75,160 - 25
34 The University of Texas at Austin TX $74,738 $19,500 96
35 University of California-Riverside CA $74,410 $19,000 42
36 Brigham Young University UT $73,747 - 46
37 Rowan University NJ $72,734 $27,000 37
38 University of Massachusetts-Amherst MA $72,596 $26,202 48
39 The University of Texas at Arlington TX $71,830 $22,964 32
40 California State University-Long Beach CA $70,462 $18,654 41
41 New York University NY $69,334 $22,750 58
42 University of South Florida FL $68,967 $17,599 34
43 University of Florida FL $68,682 $13,750 34
44 Rutgers University-New Brunswick NJ $67,544 $23,971 45
45 Purdue University-Main Campus IN $67,505 $21,224 53
46 Stony Brook University NY $65,013 $21,341 63
47 North Carolina State University at Raleigh NC $51,590 $22,710 34

About This Ranking

Schools are ranked by College Scorecard field-of-study median earnings for Physics (CIP 40.08) bachelor's completers. Only operating schools with at least 25 completers and a published median are included. Ties break toward larger completer cohorts. For the full program profile - including every reporting school and national distribution - see Physics (bachelor's). Methodology lives on our methodology page.

Caveats and limitations

"Best" here means highest reported median earnings for the stated CIP scope - not teaching quality, licensure pass rates, clinical placement strength, or fit for any one student. This list covers Physics (CIP 40.08) bachelor's programs - astronomy/astrophysics (CIP 40.02) stays locked until enough published cohorts exist, and engineering physics paths sit in CIP 14.

Figures cover federally aided completers only, use Treasury-linked earnings, and describe a lagged cohort. Regional pay scales and graduate-school paths both move the median without proving a causal school effect.

This ranking is for informational purposes only and does not constitute academic or career advice. Earnings do not predict any individual graduate's outcome.

Every figure on PlainCollege is rendered directly from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard data, no number is typed in by an editor. Rankings are computed directly from College Scorecard field-of-study data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page. Review the public data changelog. Data current as of Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals.