Physics at Virginia Commonwealth University

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

VCU is located in Richmond, Virginia and has a total student population of 29,070. In 2021, 20 physics majors received their bachelor's degree from VCU.

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

VCU Physics Degrees Available

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

VCU Physics Rankings

The following rankings from College Factual show how the physics progam at VCU 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 VCU 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 Graduate Certificate Schools	3
Most Focused Physics Schools	535

In 2021, 2 students received their master’s degree in physics from VCU. This makes it the #168 most popular school for physics master’s degree candidates in the country.

There were 0 student who received their doctoral degrees in physics, making the school the #180 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

How Much Do Physics Graduates from VCU Make?

The median salary of physics students who receive their bachelor's degree at VCU is $45,482. This is great news for graduates of the program, since this figure is 18% higher than the national average of $38,470 for all physics bachelor's degree recipients.

Physics Student Demographics at VCU

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

VCU Physics Bachelor’s Program

Of the 20 physics students who graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2020-2021 from VCU, about 60% were men and 40% were women. The typical physics bachelor's degree program is made up of only 24% women. So female students are more repesented at VCU since its program graduates 16% more women than average.

About 60% of those who receive a bachelor's degree in physics at VCU are white. This is above average for this degree on the nationwide level. Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 11% 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 Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor's in physics.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	4
Black or African American	2
Hispanic or Latino	0
White	12
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	2

VCU Physics Master’s Program

Of the 2 students who graduated with a master’s in physics from VCU in 2021, 50% were men and 50% were women.

Of the students who received a physics master's degree from VCU, 100% were white. This is above average for this degree on the natiowide level.

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

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

VCU also has a doctoral program available in physics. In 2021, 0 student graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Related Majors

• 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 VA, the home state for Virginia Commonwealth University.

Occupation	Jobs in VA	Average Salary in VA
High School Teachers	26,830	$68,770
Natural Sciences Managers	1,270	$133,360
Physicists	750	$108,440
Physics Postsecondary Professors	410	$83,910

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 user:mentes under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.