Physical Sciences at University of California - San Diego

Every physical sciences school has its own distinct culture and strengths. We've pulled together some statistics and other details to help you see how the physical sciences program at University of California - San Diego stacks up to those at other schools.

UCSD is located in La Jolla, California and has a total student population of 39,576. Of the 9,086 students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree from University of California - San Diego in 2021, 410 of them were physical sciences majors.

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.

UCSD Physical Sciences Degrees Available

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

UCSD Physical Sciences Rankings

The following rankings from College Factual show how the physical sciences progam at UCSD compares to programs at other colleges and universities.

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 physical sciences major at UCSD 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.

Ranking Type	Rank
	118
Best Value Physical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	164

In 2021, 95 students received their master’s degree in physical sciences from UCSD. This makes it the #6 most popular school for physical sciences master’s degree candidates in the country.

There were 93 students who received their doctoral degrees in physical sciences, making the school the #6 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

Physical Sciences Student Demographics at UCSD

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the physical sciences majors at University of California - San Diego.

UCSD Physical Sciences Bachelor’s Program

Of the 410 physical sciences students who graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2020-2021 from UCSD, about 53% were men and 47% were women. The typical physical sciences bachelor's degree program is made up of only 43% women. So female students are more repesented at UCSD since its program graduates 4% more women than average.

Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 29% more racial-ethnic minorities in its physical sciences bachelor's program than the national average.*

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from University of California - San Diego with a bachelor's in physical sciences.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	147
Black or African American	6
Hispanic or Latino	83
White	95
International Students	62
Other Races/Ethnicities	17

UCSD Physical Sciences Master’s Program

For the most recent academic year available, 41% of physical sciences master's degrees went to men and 59% went to women.

Of the students who received a physical sciences master's degree from UCSD, 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 University of California - San Diego with a master's in physical sciences.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	15
Black or African American	1
Hispanic or Latino	6
White	49
International Students	18
Other Races/Ethnicities	6

UCSD also has a doctoral program available in physical sciences. In 2021, 93 students graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

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 University of California - San Diego. Some of these focus areas may not be available for your degree level.

Concentration	Annual Degrees Awarded
Chemistry	412
Physics	82
Geological & Earth Sciences	75
Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology	18
Other Physical Science	11

Related Majors

• Architecture & Related Services
• Natural Resources & Conservation
• Mathematics & Statistics
• Computer & Information Sciences
• Biological & Biomedical Sciences

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 CA, the home state for University of California - San Diego.

Occupation	Jobs in CA	Average Salary in CA
High School Teachers	112,960	$80,510
Architectural and Engineering Managers	31,580	$175,010
Environmental Scientists and Specialists	12,750	$91,890
Chemists	10,430	$88,570
Natural Sciences Managers	7,870	$168,790

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 Znode at English Wikipedia under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.