Physics Major Question

[vonlost]

<p>This post by interesteddad is from two years ago:

UCSB undergrad produced 26 future Physics PhDs over the ten year period out of a total of 39,182 undergrad degrees awarded. 0.667 future Physics PhDs per 1000 undergrad degrees. 268th on per capita list out of 678 schools that produced at least one future Physics PhD in ten years.</p>

<p>In raw totals, the 26 PhDs ties them for 58th on the list with LSU and Iowa State, just behind Swarthmore and Rutgers with 27 over the ten year period, just ahead of Williams, Oberlin, and Indiana U with 25 future Physics PhDs each.</p>

<p>Those stats would perhaps suggest that undergrad Physics is either not notably popular or not a particular program of emphasis at UCSB…at least in terms of motivating students to pursue academic/research careers. </p>

<p>At least on a per capita basis in the UC system, Berkeley, San Diego, Irvine, LA, Santa Cruz, Davis, and Riverside are all ahead of Santa Barbara in Physics PhD production over the 10 year period.</p>

<p>BTW, I would never suggest that per capita rankings provide any kind of absolute measure. But, in looking at these lists for year or two, a strong undergrad program is going to show up in the top 100 per capita list, particularly in a field like Physics where a doctoral degree is a reasonably common career path.

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<p>The link to the thread is <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/235936-physics-programs.html?highlight=ipeds+physics#post2925522[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/235936-physics-programs.html?highlight=ipeds+physics#post2925522&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;