Program Information

Bachelors Degrees Offered

Details of the Physics, Physics/Astronomy, Applied Physics, and Physics Teaching majors.

Careers for Physics Majors

See Careers for Physics Majors for the many careers a physics major can lead to.

Culminating Experience

A special feature of these degrees is the requirement of a culminating experience:  a senior thesis for the B.S. Physics and B.S. Physics-Astronomy, a capstone project or senior thesis for the B. S. Applied Physics degree, and of course student teaching internship for the B. S. Physics Teaching degree.  The department Undergraduate Research Coordinator and the Capstone Coordinator (see advising) are prepared to help you find faculty mentors who can supervise a research project that fits your interests and needs. The opportunity to actually do physics in your research project, in addition to learning about physics in the classroom, will greatly enhance your understanding of physics and your excitement about your discipline.  See thesis and capstone information, and research opportunities.   You can also research in other departments or during an internship to fulfill these requirements.

 Major flowcharts for semester planning

The major flowcharts show prerequisites in charts that help you customize your progress toward your degree. 

Strongly Recommended Courses

Because physicists can choose among so many different careers, we can’t require all the classes that you might need to take.  Based on experiences of what alumni wished they had taken, we suggest you consider the following classes, regardless of which physics major you choose.

Experimental and applied physicists: Stats 201 Statistics for Engineers and Scientists

Theoretical physicists: Consider Math 332, Introduction to Complex Analysis or Phys 601, 602 Mathematical physics

Computational physicists: Learn programming skills and numerical methods beyond what you are taught in our computational physics courses, in computer courses or on your own.  Consider CS 142 Intro. to Programming, Math 410 Numerical  Methods,  and Mech Eng 373 Introduction to Scientific Computing and Computer-Aided Engineering.

Astronomers: Instead of only the required two courses from Phys 360, 442, 452, 471, consider taking all four.  Gain statistics and computer programming skills beyond what you get in this major by taking courses such as Statistics 201, (Statistics for engineers and scientists) and choosing among Physics 430 (Computational physics 3), Computer Science 142 (Intro to programming), or Mechanical Engineering 373 (Intro to scientific computing).

Minors Offered

• Astronomy
• Physics
• Physics Teaching