You'll be studying one of the lesser sought-after majors if you pursue a degree in atomic/molecular physics. It is ranked #1349 out of 1506 major degree programs in terms of popularity. While this may limit the number of schools that offer the degree program, there are still top-quality ones to be found.
There was only one school in the United States to review for the 2025 Best Atomic/Molecular Physics Schools ranking.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Atomic/Molecular Physics Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
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.
Best Schools for Atomic/Molecular Physics in the United States
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the atomic/molecular physics degree levels they offer.
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).
Credit for the banner image above goes to A. T. Service.