Physics is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #70 most popular master's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 4 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Physics Master's Degree Schools in North Carolina ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 92 master's degrees in physics to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Physics School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of physics for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality physics program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to physics students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other physics students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for physics to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized physics related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for physics students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Physics Master's Degree Schools in North Carolina ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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It's difficult to beat Duke University if you want to pursue a master's degree in physics. Located in the large city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a master’s in physics from Duke University
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in physics has to look into Appalachian State University. Located in the town of Boone, Appalachian State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Soon after graduating, physics master's recipients usually make an average of $79,066 in the first five years of their career.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
by our College Data Analytics Team
Your choice of physics for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality physics program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
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