Physics at University of California - San Diego

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

UCSD is located in La Jolla, California and approximately 39,576 students attend the school each year. In the 2020-2021 academic year, 56 students received a bachelor's degree in physics from UCSD.

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

UCSD Physics Degrees Available

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

UCSD Physics Rankings

The following rankings from College Factual show how the physics 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 physics major at UCSD 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
Best Physics Doctor’s Degree Schools	32
Most Focused Physics Doctor’s Degree Schools	47
Best Physics Master’s Degree Schools	96

In 2021, 5 students received their master’s degree in physics from UCSD. This makes it the #111 most popular school for physics master’s degree candidates in the country.

There were 21 students who received their doctoral degrees in physics, making the school the #17 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

How Much Do Physics Graduates from UCSD Make?

The median salary of physics students who receive their bachelor's degree at UCSD is $41,524. This is great news for graduates of the program, since this figure is 8% higher than the national average of $38,470 for all physics bachelor's degree recipients.

Physics Student Demographics at UCSD

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

UCSD Physics Bachelor’s Program

Of the 56 students who earned a bachelor's degree in Physics from UCSD in 2020-2021, 86% were men and 14% were women.

Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 21% 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 University of California - San Diego with a bachelor's in physics.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	8
Black or African American	2
Hispanic or Latino	17
White	15
International Students	13
Other Races/Ethnicities	1

UCSD Physics Master’s Program

During the 2020-2021 academic year, 5 students graduated with a master's degree in physics from UCSD. About 80% were men and 20% were women.

In the physics master's program at this school, racial-ethnic minorities make up 40% of degree recipients. That is 11% better 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 master's in physics.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	1
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	0
White	0
International Students	2
Other Races/Ethnicities	2

UCSD also has a doctoral program available in physics. In 2021, 21 students graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Related Majors

• Other Physical Science
• Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology
• 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 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
Natural Sciences Managers	7,870	$168,790
Physicists	3,200	$115,970
Physics Postsecondary Professors	1,190	$138,250

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.