Physics at Cornell University

If you plan to study physics, take a look at what Cornell University has to offer and decide if the program is a good match for you. Get started with the following essential facts.

Cornell is located in Ithaca, New York and approximately 23,620 students attend the school each year. Of the 4,287 students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 2021, 53 of them were physics majors.

Want to know more about the career opportunities in this field? Check out the Careers in Physics section at the bottom of this page.

Cornell Physics Degrees Available

• Bachelor’s Degree in Physics
• Master’s Degree in Physics
• Doctorate Degree in Physics

Cornell Physics Rankings

Each year, College Factual ranks physics programs across the country. The following shows how Cornell performed in these rankings.

Note: Although rankings can help you see some information about a school, it's not a good idea to depend on them alone. Be sure to check out other things about the school before making your decision to attend.

Bachelor’s Degree Overall Quality & Other Notable Rankings

The physics major at Cornell is not ranked on College Factual’s Best Colleges and Universities for Physics. This could be for a number of reasons, such as not having enough data on the major or school to make an accurate assessment of its quality.

Ranking Type	Rank
Most Popular Physics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	24
	59

In 2021, 23 students received their master’s degree in physics from Cornell. This makes it the #18 most popular school for physics master’s degree candidates in the country.

There were 20 students who received their doctoral degrees in physics, making the school the #20 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

How Much Do Physics Graduates from Cornell Make?

The median salary of physics students who receive their bachelor's degree at Cornell is $38,630. This is great news for graduates of the program, since this figure is 0% higher than the national average of $38,470 for all physics bachelor's degree recipients.

Physics Student Demographics at Cornell

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the physics majors at Cornell University.

Cornell Physics Bachelor’s Program

Of the 53 students who earned a bachelor's degree in Physics from Cornell in 2020-2021, 74% were men and 26% were women. The typical physics bachelor's degree program is made up of only 24% women. So female students are more repesented at Cornell since its program graduates 2% more women than average.

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor's in physics.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	9
Black or African American	1
Hispanic or Latino	2
White	17
International Students	19
Other Races/Ethnicities	5

Cornell Physics Master’s Program

During the 2020-2021 academic year, 23 students graduated with a master's degree in physics from Cornell. About 91% were men and 9% were women.

Of the students who received a physics master's degree from Cornell, 52% were white. This is typical for this degree on the natiowide level.

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Cornell University with a master's in physics.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	1
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	0
White	12
International Students	9
Other Races/Ethnicities	1

Cornell also has a doctoral program available in physics. In 2021, 20 students graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Related Majors

• Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology
• Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Geological & Earth Sciences
• Chemistry

Careers That Physics Grads May Go Into

A degree in physics can lead to the following careers. Since job numbers and average salaries can vary by geographic location, we have only included the numbers for NY, the home state for Cornell University.

Occupation	Jobs in NY	Average Salary in NY
High School Teachers	74,830	$85,300
Physics Postsecondary Professors	1,430	$117,370
Natural Sciences Managers	1,360	$148,460
Physicists	950	$138,920

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• Image Credit: By Notyourbroom under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.