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Ranking of Physics Graduate Schools

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The rankings below have been generated using the priorities you set. You can change your priorities or get rankings for a different field.

About the rankings »

The box plots in the "Rank" column show the uncertainty in each program's ranking. Learn more.
Hover over table headers to see more details.
Data sources and weights for each item are listed at the bottom of the page.
Better values are shown in green. Worse values are shown in red.
Learn more about the ranking algorithm.

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Your Ranking of Physics PhD Programs

Programs 1–30

Rank	Program	Regres Quality	Survey Quality	Student Outcomes	Jobs at Grad	Diversity	Minority Students	Minority Faculty
1-2	Harvard University Physics	1-2	1-3	6-63	83%	45-102	3%	2%
1-6	Harvard University DEAS-Applied Physics	2-10	1-7	6-74	83%	47-102	11%	0%
2-8	Princeton University Physics	5-15	1-6	1-22	90%	114-145	0%	0%
2-7	University of California-Berkeley Physics	1-5	2-11	20-99	80%	139-152	13%	1%
3-17	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Physics	11-27	5-27	9-73	77%	65-111	12%	8%
4-21	California Institute of Technology Physics	2-9	3-20	22-113	73%	90-133	6%	0%
4-21	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Physics	2-8	4-24	39-114	80%	121-146	5%	2%
5-22	University of Chicago Physics	8-19	6-32	2-44	84%	95-133	1%	4%
4-24	Columbia University in the City of New York Physics	10-27	5-33	39-131	85%	16-56	9%	3%
4-24	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Physics	2-10	8-50	30-112	83%	110-140	4%	6%
5-24	Auburn University Main Campus Physics	46-116	91-142	27-123	89%	12-42	12%	38%
5-25	Boston University Physics	11-39	8-39	58-137	81%	2-11	10%	3%
4-32	Florida International University Physics	122-156	24-90	1-112	NA	2-15	67%	0%
6-29	University of California-Santa Barbara Physics	4-14	3-18	10-77	72%	150-157	3%	0%
7-28	Stony Brook University Physics and Astronomy	12-30	10-44	4-60	78%	55-107	9%	4%
Rank	Program	Regres Quality	Survey Quality	Student Outcomes	Jobs at Grad	Diversity	Minority Students	Minority Faculty
7-29	University of Pennsylvania Physics and Astronomy	25-49	6-31	10-82	84%	36-87	6%	3%
7-29	Cornell University Physics	6-16	7-35	16-94	79%	103-139	4%	2%
7-32	Johns Hopkins University Physics	24-45	10-47	10-82	89%	50-104	12%	0%
8-34	Michigan State University Physics	14-35	9-47	5-70	82%	72-117	6%	2%
9-38	Yale University Physics	12-29	7-39	34-125	81%	64-117	3%	5%
11-37	Stanford University Physics	7-20	7-35	40-123	79%	77-121	6%	0%
12-38	University of Maryland-College Park Physics	4-15	17-54	13-82	75%	126-146	5%	4%
12-42	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Physics	12-31	13-56	29-106	66%	27-74	6%	7%
12-46	California Institute of Technology Applied Physics	9-34	6-31	6-68	73%	85-130	4%	0%
14-44	University of California-San Diego Physics	14-31	14-56	16-101	74%	147-156	5%	7%
13-48	University of Rochester Physics	10-30	14-64	63-139	78%	53-103	11%	0%
12-54	University of Hawaii at Manoa Physics	31-82	2-24	40-125	46%	98-136	14%	7%
16-51	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Physics	45-87	33-91	15-103	64%	22-59	5%	24%
17-52	Carnegie Mellon University Physics	20-40	10-49	16-97	81%	48-110	0%	0%
16-54	SUNY at Albany Physics	47-112	45-112	89-152	81%	5-29	27%	9%

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Item Descriptions

Rank: A range indicating how this program ranked in 500 simulated rankings based on your priorities. Programs are sorted by their median rank. Learn more.
NRC regression-based quality measure (Regres Quality): The NRC's measurements of overall program quality are based on 20 key variables (19 in the humanities) such as GRE scores, student support and faculty publications. To calculate the regression-based quality measure, the relative importance, or weight, of a variable was set by the extent that it correlated with programs viewed most favorably by evaluators in each field. Learn more. Your weight = 3. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
NRC survey-based quality measure (Survey Quality): The NRC's measurements of overall program quality are based on 20 key variables (19 in the humanities) such as GRE scores, student support and faculty publications. To calculate the survey-based quality measure, evaluators in each field identified the variables that they considered to be the most important indicators of program quality. Learn more. Your weight = 5. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
Student support and outcomes (Student Outcomes): This variable is a composite of other measures of student support and outcomes, including 6-year or 8-year graduation rates (for non-humanities programs and humanities programs, respectively), time to degree, job placement within academia, percentage of first-year students with full financial support, and whether a program collects data about the employment outcomes of its graduates. The relative importance of these variables was determined by the direct assessments of some 50 faculty in each field. Your weight = 2. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
Placement Rate (Jobs at Grad): This variable shows the percentage of students with definite plans at graduation (either a job or a postdoctoral position), based on data from the student questionnaire. Your weight = 2. Larger values are better. (Source: SED, 2000–2004)
Diversity in the academic environment (Diversity): This variable shows a composite measure of diversity generated by the National Research Council. It includes data on percent of faculty and students from underrepresented minorities, percent of female faculty and students, and percent of international faculty and students. The relative importance of these variables was determined by the direct assessments of some 50 faculty in each field. Your weight = 1. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
Percentage of minority students (Minority Students): This measure shows the percentage of non-Asian minority doctoral students based on data from the program questionnaire. Programs reported the race or ethnicity of graduate students enrolled in fall 2005. This variable is calculated as the number of students listed as non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanics, or American Indians or Alaska Natives, divided by the total number of students whose whose race or ethnicity was specified. Students whose race or ethnicity was unspecified were excluded from the calculation. Your weight = 2. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
Percentage of minority faculty (Minority Faculty): This variable reports the percentage of faculty members who are non-Asian minorities based on data from a 2006 program questionnaire. The value was calculated as the number of faculty listed as non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanics, or American Indians or Alaska Natives, divided by the total number of faculty with specified race or ethnicity. Faculty members with unspecified race or ethnicity were excluded from the calculation. The calculation did not consider faculty allocations. Your weight = 2. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)

Data Sources

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System: IPEDS is an annual, comprehensive set of surveys of all colleges and universities in the United States. The surveys are conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. Learn more
National Research Council: The National Research Council conducts periodic assessments of doctoral programs in the United States. Our data comes from the most recent assessment in 2010. Learn more
Survey of Earned Doctorates: The NSF/NIH/NEH/USED/USDA/NASA Survey of Earned Doctorates is an annual survey of all new recipients of doctorates from US universities at graduation. The average of the response rates for the 2000–2004 surveys was 92%. Learn more
Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering: The Survey is an annual assessment of the number and characteristics of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in science, engineering, and health-related fields It is conducted by the National Science Foundation. Learn more

* Value is missing. The value shown is based on the average for other programs in the same field. Learn more.

The graduate school rankings on PhDs.org have been made possible by grants from The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and The Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
The National Postdoctoral Association and The Center for Science and the Media have served as the project's fiscal sponsors.