If you pursue a doctor's degree in physics, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #16 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
There was only one school in Illinois to review for the 2025 Best Physics Doctor's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. If you would like to see more options to choose from, check out the Best Doctor's Degree Schools in the United States ranking..
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Physics Doctor's Degree Schools in Illinois list to help you make the college decision.
Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Physics in Illinois
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in physics.
Any student who is interested in a doctor's degree in physics has to check out University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a very large student population.
Doctorate graduates who receive their degree from the physics program earn about $103,403 in their early career salary.
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).
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