Physical Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

If you plan to study physical sciences, take a look at what Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has to offer and decide if the program is a good match for you. Get started with the following essential facts.

RPI is located in Troy, New York and has a total student population of 7,501.

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

RPI Physical Sciences Degrees Available

• Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Sciences
• Master’s Degree in Physical Sciences

RPI Physical Sciences Rankings

The physical sciences major at RPI is not ranked on College Factual’s Best Colleges and Universities for Physical Sciences. 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.

There were 10 students who received their doctoral degrees in physical sciences, making the school the #145 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

Physical Sciences Student Demographics at RPI

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the physical sciences majors at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

RPI Physical Sciences Bachelor’s Program

For the most recent academic year available, 67% of physical sciences bachelor's degrees went to men and 33% went to women.

About 56% of those who receive a bachelor's degree in physical sciences at RPI are white. This is above average for this degree on the nationwide level.

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a bachelor's in physical sciences.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	4
Black or African American	2
Hispanic or Latino	6
White	37
International Students	14
Other Races/Ethnicities	3

RPI Physical Sciences Master’s Program

For the most recent academic year available, 67% of physical sciences master's degrees went to men and 33% went to women.

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a master's in physical sciences.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	1
Black or African American	1
Hispanic or Latino	0
White	4
International Students	3
Other Races/Ethnicities	0

Concentrations Within Physical Sciences

If you plan to be a physical sciences major, you may want to focus your studies on one of the following concentrations. The completion numbers here include all graduates who receive any type of degree in this field from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Some of these focus areas may not be available for your degree level.

Concentration	Annual Degrees Awarded
Physics	64
Chemistry	28
Geological & Earth Sciences	6
Astronomy & Astrophysics	1

Related Majors

• Natural Resources & Conservation
• Architecture & Related Services
• Engineering Technologies
• Biological & Biomedical Sciences
• Mathematics & Statistics

Careers That Physical Sciences Grads May Go Into

A degree in physical sciences 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 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Occupation	Jobs in NY	Average Salary in NY
High School Teachers	74,830	$85,300
Architectural and Engineering Managers	7,330	$161,670
Professors	6,440	$112,000
Environmental Scientists and Specialists	4,400	$79,340
Chemists	3,360	$85,590

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 UpstateNYer under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.