2025 Best Physics Bachelor's Degree Schools in New York
a bachelor's degree in
physics is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #62 out of 363 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
College Factual looked at 13 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Physics Bachelor's Degree Schools in New York ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 654 bachelor's degrees in physics during the 2022-2023 academic year.
What's on this page: * Our Methodology
Choosing a Great Physics School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of physics for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
- Major Focus - How much a school focuses on physics students vs. other majors.
- Major Demand - The number of physics students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
- Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
- Student Debt - How much debt physics students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
- 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 bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Physics Schools
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Physics Bachelor's Degree Schools in New York list, to help you choose the best school for you.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Physics in New York
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in physics.
10 Top New York Schools for a Bachelor's in Physics
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is a wonderful decision for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in physics. Located in the small city of Troy, RPI is a private not-for-profit school with a moderately-sized student population.
Physics bachelor's degree recipients from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute earn a boost of around $14,027 over the typical earnings of physics graduates.
More information about a bachelor’s in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
It is difficult to beat Cornell University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in physics. Located in the city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the physics program at Cornell University get $4,612 above the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
More information about a bachelor’s in physics from Cornell University
Columbia University in the City of New York is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in physics. Columbia is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York.More information about a bachelor’s in physics from Columbia University in the City of New York
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in physics needs to check out University of Rochester. University of Rochester is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of Rochester.More information about a bachelor’s in physics from University of Rochester
Located in the suburb of Rochester, RIT is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the physics program at Rochester Institute of Technology earn $2,053 above the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
More information about a bachelor’s in physics from Rochester Institute of Technology