Physics at University of California - Santa Barbara

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

UCSB is located in Santa Barbara, California and approximately 26,179 students attend the school each year. Of the 7,001 students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree from University of California - Santa Barbara in 2021, 151 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.

UCSB Physics Degrees Available

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

UCSB Physics Rankings

The following rankings from College Factual show how the physics progam at UCSB compares to programs at other colleges and universities.

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 UCSB 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 Schools	9
	43
Most Focused Physics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	52
Best Value Physics Schools	98

In 2021, 37 students received their master’s degree in physics from UCSB. This makes it the #6 most popular school for physics master’s degree candidates in the country.

There were 11 students who received their doctoral degrees in physics, making the school the #59 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

Earnings of UCSB Physics Graduates

The median salary of physics students who receive their bachelor's degree at UCSB is $49,863. This is great news for graduates of the program, since this figure is 30% higher than the national average of $38,470 for all physics bachelor's degree recipients.

Physics Student Demographics at UCSB

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

UCSB Physics Bachelor’s Program

During the 2020-2021 academic year, 151 physics majors earned their bachelor's degree from UCSB. Of these graduates, 89% were men and 11% were women.

Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 3% 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 - Santa Barbara with a bachelor's in physics.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	18
Black or African American	1
Hispanic or Latino	22
White	46
International Students	47
Other Races/Ethnicities	17

UCSB Physics Master’s Program

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 37 students earned a master's degree in physics from UCSB. About 19% of these graduates were women and the other 81% were men.

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	2
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	3
White	18
International Students	13
Other Races/Ethnicities	1

UCSB also has a doctoral program available in physics. In 2021, 11 students graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Related Majors

• Materials Sciences
• 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 - Santa Barbara.

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 Nandaro under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.