Physical Sciences at Vanderbilt University

What traits are you looking for in a physical sciences school? To help you decide if Vanderbilt University is right for you, we've gathered the following information about the school's physical sciences program.

Vanderbilt is located in Nashville, Tennessee and has a total student population of 13,537. In 2021, 43 physical sciences majors received their bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt.

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.

Vanderbilt Physical Sciences Degrees Available

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

Vanderbilt Physical Sciences Rankings

The following rankings from College Factual show how the physical sciences progam at Vanderbilt 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 Vanderbilt 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
Most Popular Physical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	207

In 2021, 3 students received their master’s degree in physical sciences from Vanderbilt. This makes it the #282 most popular school for physical sciences master’s degree candidates in the country.

There were 32 students who received their doctoral degrees in physical sciences, making the school the #67 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

Physical Sciences Student Demographics at Vanderbilt

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

Vanderbilt Physical Sciences Bachelor’s Program

Of the 43 physical sciences students who graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2020-2021 from Vanderbilt, 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 Vanderbilt since its program graduates 3% more women than average.

Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 12% 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 Vanderbilt University with a bachelor's in physical sciences.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	7
Black or African American	5
Hispanic or Latino	2
White	17
International Students	3
Other Races/Ethnicities	9

Vanderbilt Physical Sciences Master’s Program

Of the 3 physical sciences students who graduated with a master's degree in 2020-2021 from Vanderbilt, about 33% were men and 67% were women.

Of the students who received a physical sciences master's degree from Vanderbilt, 67% were white. This is above average for this degree on the natiowide level. In the physical sciences master's program at this school, racial-ethnic minorities make up 33% of degree recipients. That is 2% better than the national average.*

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

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

Vanderbilt also has a doctoral program available in physical sciences. In 2021, 32 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 Vanderbilt University. Some of these focus areas may not be available for your degree level.

Concentration	Annual Degrees Awarded
Chemistry	32
Geological & Earth Sciences	20
Physics	19
Materials Sciences	5
Astronomy & Astrophysics	2

Related Majors

• Architecture & Related Services
• Computer & Information Sciences
• Mathematics & Statistics
• Engineering
• 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 TN, the home state for Vanderbilt University.

Occupation	Jobs in TN	Average Salary in TN
High School Teachers	20,190	$53,620
Architectural and Engineering Managers	3,300	$129,320
Professors	2,040	$53,390
Environmental Scientists and Specialists	1,410	$72,470
Chemists	1,140	$75,430

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 Dansan4444 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.