Physics at Harvard University

What traits are you looking for in a physics school? To help you decide if Harvard University is right for you, we've gathered the following information about the school's physics program.

Harvard is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and approximately 30,391 students attend the school each year. In 2021, 37 physics majors received their bachelor's degree from Harvard.

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

Harvard Physics Degrees Available

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

Harvard Physics Rankings

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

Note: While rankings may be a good starting point when you're researching a school, they don't necessarily highlight all of a school's strengths. Don't forget to check out the other details that are available for a school to see if it has what you're looking for in a program.

Bachelor’s Degree Overall Quality & Other Notable Rankings

The physics major at Harvard 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 Master’s Degree Schools	13
Most Popular Physics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	37

In 2021, 27 students received their master’s degree in physics from Harvard. This makes it the #13 most popular school for physics master’s degree candidates in the country.

There were 43 students who received their doctoral degrees in physics, making the school the #1 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

Physics Student Demographics at Harvard

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

Harvard Physics Bachelor’s Program

During the 2020-2021 academic year, 37 students graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics from Harvard. About 68% were men and 32% were women. The typical physics bachelor's degree program is made up of only 24% women. So female students are more repesented at Harvard since its program graduates 8% more women than average.

Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 15% more racial-ethnic minorities in its physics bachelor's program than the national average.*

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	7
Black or African American	1
Hispanic or Latino	4
White	15
International Students	5
Other Races/Ethnicities	5

Harvard Physics Master’s Program

Of the 27 students who earned a master's degree in Physics from Harvard in 2020-2021, 70% were men and 30% were women.

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	1
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	1
White	7
International Students	15
Other Races/Ethnicities	3

Harvard also has a doctoral program available in physics. In 2021, 43 students graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Related Majors

• Astronomy & Astrophysics
• 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 MA, the home state for Harvard University.

Occupation	Jobs in MA	Average Salary in MA
High School Teachers	26,420	$80,020
Natural Sciences Managers	4,040	$183,490
Physics Postsecondary Professors	550	$116,470
Physicists	360	$150,170

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 Elisa.rolle under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.