Physics at University of Illinois at Chicago

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

UIC is located in Chicago, Illinois and approximately 33,518 students attend the school each year. Of the 5,247 students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree from University of Illinois at Chicago in 2021, 8 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.

UIC Physics Degrees Available

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

UIC Physics Rankings

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

Note: Rankings don't always give a complete picture of a school's strengths and weaknesses, so it's a good idea to extend your research and also look at other factors when trying to decide if the school is right for you.

Bachelor’s Degree Overall Quality & Other Notable Rankings

The physics major at UIC 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
	89
Best Physics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	114

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

There were 13 students who received their doctoral degrees in physics, making the school the #46 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

Physics Student Demographics at UIC

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

UIC Physics Bachelor’s Program

Of the 8 students who graduated with a bachelor’s in physics from UIC in 2021, 50% were men and 50% were women. The typical physics bachelor's degree program is made up of only 24% women. So female students are more repesented at UIC since its program graduates 26% more women than average.

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 Illinois at Chicago with a bachelor's in physics.

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

UIC Physics Master’s Program

Of the 5 students who earned a master's degree in Physics from UIC in 2020-2021, 80% were men and 20% were women.

In the physics master's program at this school, racial-ethnic minorities make up 60% of degree recipients. That is 31% better than the national average.*

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

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

UIC also has a doctoral program available in physics. In 2021, 13 students graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Related Majors

• 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 IL, the home state for University of Illinois at Chicago.

Occupation	Jobs in IL	Average Salary in IL
High School Teachers	43,720	$72,370
Natural Sciences Managers	1,950	$118,480
Physicists	810	$114,320
Physics Postsecondary Professors	640	$92,130

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 Hied5 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.