2024 Best Colleges for Physical Sciences

SUMMARY

A degree in Physical Sciences is not only a valuable choice, but ordinarily a mandatory first step for pupils aspiring to begin a career as a geologist, a cyclotron specialist, or a physicist. In fact, nationally, physical sciences is a ​unique major being the 325th most popular area of study. Last academic year alone, there were 293 physical sciences diplomas received. In-state tuition for physical sciences at private universities is, on average, 5.2 times more spendy than their public rivals.

With just 84 schools offering this degree there could be a more finite list of the institutions you can choose from. If you're looking to surround yourself with other physical sciences students, consider colleges in New York which have more students admitted to physical sciences than any other state. More generally, the top region to major in physical sciences is in the Mid East region with CUNY Graduate School and University Center, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Villanova University best representing the region. Interestingly, our pick of the top conference to major in physical sciences is the Pacific-12 Conference with Arizona State University-Tempe, University of Southern California, and Washington State University representing the conference. That being said, our choice for the best university for physical sciences is Emory University. You may also want to check out our list of the best colleges.

The best school is not necessarily the best school for you. There are a bunch of facets to consider when choosing ​university. Stuff like campus amenities, transportation services, and food would sway your feelings of where to go to college. At Authority, we've evaluated the pros and cons for you. If, as an example, you are interested in which physical sciences school is home to the best college campus, the answer is Arizona State University-Tempe. If you are very interested in which college has the best campus, we have an entire page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through government databases, student reviews, professor reviews, and more so we can compare each major in an unbiased and informative way. Here you can find our comprehensive list for the colleges with the best student life&nbspand from that list, our pick for the university with the best student life for physical sciences is Wesleyan University. Are you curious why? Continue scrolling to discover more about our top selections. Many of our picks might surprise you.

If cost is a significant deciding factor in your decision on where to go to college, you might consider avoiding Wesleyan University. Wesleyan University&nbspis our most expensive school for physical sciences, at least regarding out of state attendance. We do have an entire list of the most expensive&nbspuniversities that could put the expense of Wesleyan University&nbspinto perspective. You could also want to know that physical sciences is the 289th most expensive major in the US, with an average associated cost of $25,300. On a broader scale, the most costly state for physical sciences in the nation is Connecticut demonstrated by a cost of $56,704 at Wesleyan University. To zoom out even further, the most expensive region for physical sciences is unfortunately unavailable due to missing data.

Our cheapest region for physical sciences is the Plains region which is represented by Kansas State University with a cost of $25,251 and Chadron State College with a cost of $5,110. On the bright side, the most affordable university for physical sciences is Chadron State College. Authority.org's entire list of the most affordable universities can be found here.

In-state attendees can expect to pay in the neighborhood of $10,300 for a degree in physical sciences. That cost increases substantially to a median of $22,700 for an out-of-state public-school student. Our pick for the school constituting the best value for physical sciences: Emory University. Through this link you can find our comprehensive list on the schools we believe to be the best value&nbspoverall. Do know, this idea is predicated on the assumption that you are an out-of-state student. A discussion of value changes when in-state tuition costs are considered, but we do not know in which states any one student has residency.

Earnings for physical sciences students can vary, but within two years leaving college graduates will typically make in the neighborhood of $58,800. There can be a lot of variation in earnings potential; highest paid earners can bring in up to $104,100. Even right out of school, the lowest end positions within the physical sciences field earn $33,000, which is an alright wage. The highest earning grads from physical sciences attended Villanova University&nbspand if you want to find the schools with all of the highest earning graduates, Authority has that too.

The prevailing diversity of physical sciences ranks quite high, being in the 79th percentile of all majors. The university with the most composite diversity for physical sciences is Emory University&nbspand here you can find our general list for the colleges which have the most diversity. The financial diversity of Physical Sciences only ranks in the 54th percentile compared to all other majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, in the 67th percentile. White collegians make up the largest share at 55% of scholars studying physical sciences. Additionally, 56% of undergrads pursuing a physical sciences major are men.

The median rating of physical sciences professors is 3.5 stars, a score which is 12% below the average for every major; this is a subpar ranking. If you are searching for the most popular physical sciences professor nationally, consider looking up Ishtyaq Qadri at University of Maryland Eastern Shore. It may be shocking, but the highest rated professors for physical sciences according to students are at Columbia College Chicago. As we consider information other than just rankings we find that the university with comprehensively the best professors for physical sciences is Emory University. One can find more detail on our evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, along with some of the top instructors in the country.

Finally, the most difficult school to get into for physical sciences is United States Naval Academy. While we do not necessarily see the value in it, we have an extensive page for the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, here at Authority we do hope you believe that approaching college from context mainly informed by superlatives can create issues. We at Authority encourage you to read our more nuanced pages on different schools and explore a few of our insightful background pages on essential things to look out for as you continue your university search.