If you plan on getting your bachelor's degree in physics, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #62 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual looked at 30 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Physics Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,570 bachelor's degrees in physics to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Physics School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The physics bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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 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 bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor'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 bachelor'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 bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized physics related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for physics students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Physics Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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University of California - San Diego is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in physics. UCSD is a very large public university located in the city of La Jolla.
Soon after graduation, physics bachelor's recipients generally earn about $48,951 in their early careers.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in physics needs to take a look at University of California - Berkeley. UC Berkeley is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley.
After graduation, physics bachelor's recipients usually earn an average of $50,219 at the beginning of their careers.
University of California - Irvine is a good option for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in physics. UC Irvine is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Irvine.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the physics program make about $43,144 in the first couple years of their career.
University of California - Santa Barbara is a wonderful choice for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in physics. Located in the medium-sized suburb of Santa Barbara, UCSB is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the physics major at University of California - Santa Barbara get $4,137 more than the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Physics bachelor's degree recipients from University of California - Los Angeles get an earnings boost of approximately $11,035 above the typical earnings of physics majors.
Whitworth is a small private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Spokane.
Bachelor's recipients from the physics degree program at Whitworth University make $15,856 more than the standard graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
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).
The physics bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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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