Physics Is a Degree in Physics Worthless Compared to Electrical Engineering in Industry?

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The discussion centers on the value of a physics degree compared to electrical engineering (EE) in terms of employability and salary. Many contributors argue that while EE graduates tend to have higher starting salaries, physics graduates are also employable and can earn competitive wages, especially in diverse fields. The perception that physics is "worthless" or only suitable for teaching is challenged, with emphasis on the versatility of physics skills in various industries. Additionally, the importance of developing marketable skills alongside a physics degree is highlighted as crucial for job prospects. Ultimately, a physics degree is not considered a dead end, and graduates can find fulfilling careers that support a family.
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After reading some posts here is seems that the general consensus is that if one is interested in physics and math then one should be an electrical engineer unless one wants to teach and make around $30k/yr which is Wal-Mart cashier pay where I live(New Mexico). Is this really the case? Is getting a degree in physics essentially mental masturbation or is one able to gain employment with the degree and attain a salary greater than that of a janitor? Also I don't really understand the low salary quote often posted around $30-40k/yr when the wsj posts incomes that are comparable to EE degrees.

Electrical Engineering
starting median:$60,900.00
mid-career median: $103,000.00

Physics
starting median: $50,300.00
mid-career median: $97,300.00

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Degrees_that_Pay_you_Back-sort.html

Bottom Line: Is Physics near worthless compared to EE post graduation if one wants to work in industry?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
If you are in it for the money...
 
Well I think that is what I'm not understanding. I can't feed my family on hopes and dreams. I don't really like this argument "well not if your in it for the money." We work to get money to pay bills, eat, enjoy life. Are you saying that one should get a degree in physics for the love of physics and just deal with being on welfare?
 
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Archi said:
Well I think that is what I'm not understanding. I can't feed my family on hopes and dreams. I don't really like this argument "well not if your in it for the money." We work to get money to pay bills, eat, enjoy life. Are you saying that one should get a degree in physics for the love of physics and just deal with being on welfare?

The salaries you quoted are nowhere near welfare-level.

It's unusual for someone to go into science for the money. If you don't have a passion for it, you'll likely hate it (it really is a *lot* of work) and end up switching to something else, anyway.
 
So where did you get the 30-40k number which is in direct conflict with the WSJ numbers? The WSJ numbers seem in line with what I have seen. People seem to have this erroneous idea that physics is useless, maybe because most people don't even know what physics is.
 
I come from experience. My parents supported three children living on $35k/year living in a decent neighborhood and going to an actual good school (No welfare, ever). So, living off of $50,300/year is good. You just have to know how to budget. $97k/year? That is a lot of money to live off yearly. I honestly would not know what to do with most of it.
 
Some subjects by themselves can be useless - depending on what you think is and is not useful/useless. You want other skills to be able to get a job. Physics major can study other things than just Physics. Needed is to know how to operate equipment, know how to handle devices and machines, but at least Physics can help you think about how to study and find solutions for problems or objectives.

Study and get training for more than just one major field; there are useful and related courses to make a person marketable.
 
These salary surveys are almost all worthless.
The starting salry ones are compiled by the university depts to encourage students, they are a lot more diligent in tracking down students who started as graduate trainees at $MEGA-CORP on high salaries than they are at including those who are taking a year off or unemployed.

The mid career figures are compiled from industry bodies, so the E-Eng one includes lots of certified engineers now working as middle managers while the physics one will include lots of postdocs and junior professors who are members of the AAAS but will miss those working as traders on wall st at 10x these figures.
 
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So you throw up some random number you cooked up from nothing and then ask why that number is right and the WSJ numbers are wrong? Is that what's going on here?
 
  • #10
Archi said:
After reading some posts here is seems that the general consensus is that if one is interested in physics and math then one should be an electrical engineer unless one wants to teach and make around $30k/yr which is Wal-Mart cashier pay where I live(New Mexico). Is this really the case?

Nope - that's complete nonsense. And I don't know where you're getting that 'general consensus' from - I spend a lot of time in these parts of the forums and I definitely wouldn't say that. The "physics and maths is only useful for high school teaching" is an opinion normally only held by people that don't know anything about physics or mathematics. I wouldn't expect anyone else to be so naive.

Archi said:
Is getting a degree in physics essentially mental masturbation
Nope.

Archi said:
or is one able to gain employment with the degree and attain a salary greater than that of a janitor?

Yep.

Archi said:
Bottom Line: Is Physics near worthless compared to EE post graduation if one wants to work in industry?

Nope. Actually, a physics graduate qualifies for most of the same jobs electrical engineering graduates do as well. They have a similar skill set. You're confusing working *in* physics with jobs that a physics degree enables you to do. A physics degree is one of the most versatile around - if you want to work in any of the major engineering disciplines, you can find a way to do that as physics graduate. If you want to make a lot of money, you can find a way to do that. It just depends how you prioritise everything. To be honest, these posts are quite tiring. I say in all of my responses to questions like this that for work in industry, a university degree is about the *skills* that you learn. Physics, maths and engineering all require similar technical skills. If you go and work for some company, there's a good chance they want to train you (and will need to train you) from the ground-up in the work that they do. Sure, you might find some mech-eng job that requires knowledge of finite element analysis, something that a physics graduate might not have - but it's something that is easily learned for one that is familiar with how maths and programming work. So, you graduate in physics and find that the only jobs out there need finite element knowledge. Go get a book on it, and read it. Voilà, you can now apply to those jobs.

As for actually working in physics post-degree, it isn't so easy. Academic research is tough route - it's hard to get into and the pay isn't great but like twofish-quant always says, you won't starve. There are national labs in most countries, and lots of industrial jobs that carry out physics related research, however. The difficult thing post-degree for any student is finding the job that you *want* to do. If you end up enjoying something extremely specific and won't settle for anything else, then you'll find it extremely difficult to get a job. If you can market yourself, and want a job that challenges your mind and you can work on interesting problems, then you shouldn't find it too bad.
 
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  • #11
Its sad when people look/say to me "well what are you going to do with a physics degree." I wish people had the slightest idea of what someone with a physics degree is capable of(in my opinion). I think someone with a physics B.S. would be skilled to handle just about technical task, or at least be trained fairly quickly in it. Some of the problems we solve in this major are incredibly difficult, and if someone can make it through it I know for a fact this person has discipline, persistence, abstract/creative thinking. Almost half of the freshman physics class has switched out of the major since I started because it was too much to handle.

Also, if you look at the statistics from 2009 physics graduates that someone posted not long ago, almost none of them didn't have a job. Its not a dead end, and its a great foundation for anything in my opinion.
 
  • #12
Archi said:
Is getting a degree in physics essentially mental masturbation or is one able to gain employment with the degree and attain a salary greater than that of a janitor? <snip>

Bottom Line: Is Physics near worthless compared to EE post graduation if one wants to work in industry?

I spent about 7 years in industry doing physics with my physics degree, getting paid good money. YMMV.
 
  • #13
Archi - you're possibly confusing typical post-doctoral positions with the median salary for someone beginning work with a physics degree. Post docs tend to start in the $30-40k range, but they aren't the only jobs available to someone with a physics background.

Physics graduates work in a broad range of fields. As a result the distribution of their starting salaries tends to be broader than that of graduates of a professional field like electrical engineering.
 
  • #14
Physics degrees are in high demand and very useful to do stuff like build airplanes, cars, tons of uses for physics, unlike sociology, english, psycology, history...the list goes on.
 
  • #15
Phyisab**** said:
So you throw up some random number you cooked up from nothing and then ask why that number is right and the WSJ numbers are wrong? Is that what's going on here?

Kind of. Going through several posts in the academic advisement forum one will often see the number $30k a year given when asked what a physics PhD will make usually in reference to a postdoc.

The reason I'm asking this question is mostly, because I love physics, but everyone is telling me that you will make less money, have a harder time finding a job and an even harder time finding a permanent job. That if you want to go into industry than an EE will get the job over a physics major except for an extremely small number of jobs. What I would like to hear is: "With Physics you'll make enough to support a family, more than a wal-mart cashier."

With respect to the wsj numbers, that doesn't make sense to me. The pay is nearly the same, so I don't get the "be an engineer if your only in it for the money" remarks. Also, I don't know how many times I have to say it, I LOVE PHYSICS AND MATH. That being said I also love my son, and being able to feed my son. Apparently that makes me money hungry?
 
  • #16
fasterthanjoao said:
Nope - that's complete nonsense. And I don't know where you're getting that 'general consensus' from - I spend a lot of time in these parts of the forums and I definitely wouldn't say that. The "physics and maths is only useful for high school teaching" is an opinion normally only held by people that don't know anything about physics or mathematics. I wouldn't expect anyone else to be so naive.

I didn't just decide it for you, I have been reading these topics as I try to decide between EE and Physics and the underlying opinion from those topics I have read seem to point to EE being more employable.

"...A physics degree can be a tougher sell than, say, a professional degree in engineering, but that doesn't mean there aren't opportunities. It pays to develop some marketable skills along the way such as programming, network administration, technical group facilitation, electronics, mathematical modeling, teaching, etc, that can transfer directly into the workplace. If you explore some threads around here or poke around on the AIP website, you'll find lots of possible avenues for exploration. "

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=462288

"...I really wish I had done that EE degree, because there are so many jobs that require it. Almost no employers ask for an EPhys degree by name, because it's so rare. And if you're applying for employment at a large corporation, a resume with "BSc EPhys" might not even make it past an automated filter. "

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=215668

"...After getting my BS in physics and being unemployed for a few months, I finally got 2 job offers from aerospace/defense companies, one of which is EE/ME-related. However, it took me about 5 months to get these offers. BUT, I did get plenty of interviews for software engineering/analyst/programmer positions, because I had listed I used C++ on my undergrad physics research projects. I could've gotten those jobs if I had a stronger C++ background.

So my point is that while its much harder for physics majors to get jobs in say EE or ME than engineering majors, its not impossible. It's all about how much programming, experimental/lab skills, powerpoint presentation skills, and other skills you have that matters. I've written an article about this.
"

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=416249&highlight=physics+EE

Again I'm not just pulling stuff out of the ether. I love physics, I just want to make sure I'll be able to work outside of an academic setting, i.e. I don't feel like being a postdoc for 5-10 years.
 
  • #17
Archi said:
After reading some posts here is seems that the general consensus is that if one is interested in physics and math then one should be an electrical engineer unless one wants to teach and make around $30k/yr which is Wal-Mart cashier pay where I live(New Mexico). Is this really the case? Is getting a degree in physics essentially mental masturbation or is one able to gain employment with the degree and attain a salary greater than that of a janitor? Also I don't really understand the low salary quote often posted around $30-40k/yr when the wsj posts incomes that are comparable to EE degrees.

Electrical Engineering
starting median:$60,900.00
mid-career median: $103,000.00

Physics
starting median: $50,300.00
mid-career median: $97,300.00

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Degrees_that_Pay_you_Back-sort.html

Bottom Line: Is Physics near worthless compared to EE post graduation if one wants to work in industry?

Any applied science training should give you decent opportunities out there in the workforce and physics is no exception.
 
  • #18
Im 13 and love physics even we don't do in school, but I really want to get my PhD, sit around and think while getting sponsored by someone. Can that work? Because for me i just want to answer the thoughest questions and come up with theories. Is there a job like that?

Someone please help.

Masih,13
 
  • #19
Archi said:
The reason I'm asking this question is mostly, because I love physics, but everyone is telling me that you will make less money, have a harder time finding a job and an even harder time finding a permanent job.

That's true, but you have to look at what the trade-off is. If you make $10K less a year, but you end up enjoying life, that seems to me to be a good trade off.

I almost certainly make less money with a physics Ph.D. than I would if I got a finance masters, but I make more money that I know what to do with, it's worth the trade off.

The problem with a physics degree is that you need to be a bit entrepreneurial. You have to figure out for yourself what you can do with the degree, but for me that's part of the fun.

What I would like to hear is: "With Physics you'll make enough to support a family, more than a wal-mart cashier."

Have them contact me. Starting salary for a physics Ph.D. quant on Wall Street is $120K, and it goes up from there.

Also, I don't know how many times I have to say it, I LOVE PHYSICS AND MATH. That being said I also love my son, and being able to feed my son. Apparently that makes me money hungry?

Unless things fall apart (which they could), you aren't going to starve with a physics degree.

Also, you need to confront an even deeper problem. American society is rapidly dividing itself into winners and losers, and everyone is terrified of being a "loser", and one problem that people are going to have to confront is that as long as people don't basically change society, then you are probably going to end up in the loser category no matter what degree you get.

If that's the case, then get the degree that makes you feel good.
 
  • #20
The Pure Sciences are just like the Humanities: primarily preparation for academic careers. You may still find jobs outside academia with those general degrees, but you should expect to be at a disadvantage when competing against an engineer who is better trained for industry work.
 
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  • #21
Fast77 said:
Im 13 and love physics even we don't do in school, but I really want to get my PhD, sit around and think while getting sponsored by someone. Can that work? Because for me i just want to answer the thoughest questions and come up with theories. Is there a job like that?

Sure. It's more or less what I do at work.
 
  • #22
Archi said:
I didn't just decide it for you, I have been reading these topics as I try to decide between EE and Physics and the underlying opinion from those topics I have read seem to point to EE being more employable.

Something to remember is that you can only do one job, so as long as you get the job that you want, then the notion more "more or less employable" doesn't really matter.

One other thing that complicates things is that you aren't tied to your degree. I got a physics degree but I also took some EE classes, and taught myself a lot of programming. One thing about software development is that people don't care if you got programming skills in a formal degree or if learned them off cereal boxes.

A lot depends on what you want out of life. If you want to make as much money for as little work as possible, frankly I wouldn't consider doing engineering at all. If your interest is not profit maximization but rather merely poverty avoidance, then your options are much wider.

I love physics, I just want to make sure I'll be able to work outside of an academic setting, i.e. I don't feel like being a postdoc for 5-10 years.

One thing that graduate physics does get you is no extra debt. That's a pretty big thing.

Also there are two different questions. If you get a physics degree, you will have to work a bit harder and your job will pay slightly less. However, unless the economy collapses (which is possible) you won't be anywhere near poverty level. If the economy collapses, then you will be living in poverty but so will everyone else, and at least you can think about the universe while trying to survive.
 
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  • #23
Mathnomalous said:
The Pure Sciences are just like the Humanities: primarily preparation for academic careers.
Bovine excretory material
They are training for anything from Wall St to weather forecasting

You may still find jobs outside academia with those general degrees, but you should expect to be at a disadvantage when competing against an engineer who is better trained for industry work.
Except for a few areas where engineering is restricted to eng grads you will do better - and in those that do you will probably end up as the boss of the engineers
 
  • #24
Thanks for the replies! I feel better about majoring in physics now. Like I said, I love it and being able to do something I love and make enough to support my family is enough for me. :)
 
  • #25
NobodySpecial said:
Bovine excretory material
They are training for anything from Wall St to weather forecasting

In that case, same applies to most other majors. Pick whatever major you find interesting, and go from there. We agree, no?

NobodySpecial said:
Except for a few areas where engineering is restricted to eng grads you will do better - and in those that do you will probably end up as the boss of the engineers

Why hire engineers then?

Another thing, it is widely accepted you need more soldiers than generals; majoring in Physics because one day you might end up as the engineers' boss might not be a good idea. I think we both agree Physics is not a worthless major; we probably also agree it is good preparation for a wide variety of careers; and we likely agree that Physics majors are slightly less competitive than other majors that better prepare people for specific careers.
 
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  • #26
Mathnomalous said:
Why hire engineers then?
Because there aren't enough physicists to go around ;-)

we likely agree that Physics majors are slightly less competitive than other majors that better prepare people for specific careers.
Good companies hire for smarts rather than specific skills.
I could hire an ITT-Tech graduate with a java certificate, or I could hire a smarter physics or maths Phd who will be able to cope with whatever we are using in 10years time.
 
  • #27
Conclusion: whatever degree where one learns undergraduate math is good enough for most industry jobs.
 
  • #28
I don't know where this idea that the physicist becomes the engineers' boss is coming from. From what I've seen a physics graduate will get paid less to do the same job as the engineer, assuming the physics graduate even gets recruited for the engineering role.

What's interesting is that I've noticed that a large UK based energy company http://www.centrica.com/index.asp?pageid=957" the degrees that each successful applicant to their summer internship programme studied, and it pretty much confirms what I've observed empirically: that technical roles are almost exclusively comprised of engineering students/graduates, and that physics and maths students are only recruited for management, finance and IT positions. What's even more interesting is that, apart from the specific technical positions, is that engineering students were to be found in every area of the business. I don't think this example is too atypical at all.
 
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  • #29
Shaun_W said:
Ithe degrees that each successful applicant to their summer internship programme studied, and it pretty much confirms what I've observed empirically: that technical roles are almost exclusively comprised of engineering students/graduates,
So the internships recruit engineering students who fit directly into a slot as another interchangeble cog

physics and maths students are only recruited for management, finance and IT positions.
Fine by me ;-)

Of course in a UK company nobody with any technical knowledge would be allowed into management - even if they happened to be in the same house at school as the current board.

Funny how German engineering companies are run by scientists and engineers while UK and US companies are run by accountants - and why I drive a German car.
 
  • #30
NobodySpecial said:
So the internships recruit engineering students who fit directly into a slot as another interchangeble cog

Almost everyone is a faceless cog in the corporate machine. Except that engineers are in short supply so can command a slightly higher salary - particularly when they have accumulated years and years of experience, as this is where the real engineering skills shortage is.

But if the engineering student doesn't want to do anything technical they can easily be another faceless manager in the bureaucracy if they please. ;)

Of course in a UK company nobody with any technical knowledge would be allowed into management - even if they happened to be in the same house at school as the current board.

I very much disagree with that. I think that's merely a phrase that disgruntled engineering students and graduates use when they realize that just because they can solve technical problems does not mean they are entitled to be on the board. But there are plenty of engineering and technical people in UK boardrooms. Of course, the skills required to make a successful CEO or high up manager are different to that that a technical expert requires, but they are not mutually exclusive and it is actually quite likely to find an engineer amongst the boardroom. I don't think that engineers are under-represented considering that the finance, the marketing and the management are all also important to the company.

Funny how German engineering companies are run by scientists and engineers while UK and US companies are run by accountants - and why I drive a German car.

I bet you can name more American and British than German companies, though.
 
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  • #31
What exactly would these jobs "in industry" be? What other jobs would be available to a Physics degree holder? Are they jobs which one can get into with a BSc/B.S only?
 
  • #32
I've recently been perusing job boards and have not seen a lot of jobs outright asking for physics degrees. However, from personal experience and talking to recent grads many industries use physics grads in various capacities. Insurance companies train physics and math grads as actuaries and analysts and others have already mentioned the financial world.

There are also many jobs in computational biology and other areas in numerical analysis across fields that can use physics grads. It is a versatile degree to be sure! I had an internship in computational biology a few years ago. It was not specifically advertised for physics students but I thought that it could benefit me and it turns out that computational biology is an emerging field that has a very strong need for physicists and mathematicians. Not all jobs in the field are academic either, there are firms that are in the private sector that require someone to do numerical analysis. That's why computational chemistry is a big deal right now.

Lastly, I have a son, husband, dog and house and have to pay the bills and live in California. There is no way in hell that my family could survive in this state and in this economy on $30-50K a year. There is no honor in poverty and there is no reason why physics grads should suffer the indignity of not having their basic needs met because they choose to study a difficult topic. If you step outside of the box and realize that you don't have to take an oath of poverty and can live a fulfilling life problem solving, you will do well.
Just don't paint yourself into a corner in terms of your future.

Thy Apathy, my husband works for an insurance firm and they recently hired physics and math grads with BS and PhDs. The head of the actuary dept has a PhD in physics and there are a few grads with only BS in physics that work as analysts.
 
  • #33
Physics degrees comprise about 0.6% of all the degrees awarded. You're not going to find many jobs advertising specifically for physics degrees unless the only person that can do the job has a physics degree.
 
  • #34
Since the OP mentions they live in New Mexico, they MUST know that some of the biggest physicist employers in the country reside in NM:

Los Alamos National Laboratory: www.lanl.gov
Sandia National Laboratory: www.sandia.gov
 
  • #35
Mathnomalous said:
Conclusion: whatever degree where one learns undergraduate math is good enough for most industry jobs.

It was my (somewhat limited, 2003-2008 or so) experience that those with a physics background were at a large disadvantage for most jobs not traditionally associated with physics, but that networking could eliminate most of the problem.

I felt that employers began with credentials they were familiar with. Often people with physics degrees could do the work, but not being a PE struck them from the list. More often employers simply began with engineers because that’s what they knew and understood. The problem for someone with a physics degree in many areas of industry isn’t that they can’t do the work, and it’s not even that the employer thinks they can’t; it’s that they don’t get on the first list and lose the numbers game.

The solution is to make sure you play the game enough times to still win.
 
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  • #36
Archi said:
Electrical Engineering
starting median:$60,900.00
mid-career median: $103,000.00

Physics
starting median: $50,300.00
mid-career median: $97,300.00

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Degrees_that_Pay_you_Back-sort.html

Bottom Line: Is Physics near worthless compared to EE post graduation if one wants to work in industry?


Things someone should ask themselves about the above “statistics”.

What does the distribution look like? How does the median compare to the mean? Someone posted a graph of starting salaries of lawyers not too long ago and it was very instructive.

Are those two distributions made up of many other distributions of which you may only be a part of one? What’s the median, mean and variance of the distribution you’re actually going to be in, and what type of distribution is it?

Who cares what the median is, anyways? Are you the median? Does the median tell you anything without at least knowing the variance, too (and how much would that help)? What range do you fall on the curve? How do personal choices (geography, family life, etc.) impact where you’ll end up being?

Are there selection issues that skew the distribution? Could one distribution have its median shifted left or right due to how its boundaries are defined, rather than how good the compensation is? You know, maybe one of them is defined by a professional organization with barriers to entry and the other isn’t?

The fact that anyone would let those numbers above have any impact on their career choice is crazy.
 
  • #37
Locrian said:
The fact that anyone would let those numbers above have any impact on their career choice is crazy.

Especially when the mid-career medians are within 6% of each other. According to some posts in this thread, you'd think that $97K and $103K is the difference between a hobo with a bindle and a millionaire with 2 summer homes on the French riviera. These numbers mean nothing.
 
  • #38
Go to monster.com and type in Bachelor of Science and see what comes up. I'm sure most of them are 70K + per year.
 
  • #39
symbolipoint said:
Some subjects by themselves can be useless - depending on what you think is and is not useful/useless. You want other skills to be able to get a job. Physics major can study other things than just Physics. Needed is to know how to operate equipment, know how to handle devices and machines, but at least Physics can help you think about how to study and find solutions for problems or objectives.

Study and get training for more than just one major field; there are useful and related courses to make a person marketable.

hey what can you do other than teaching please reply as soon as possible please and thanks
 
  • #40


READ IF YOU REALLY WANNA KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO BE A PHYSICIST!
With a physics degree you can do a lot. I am being serious. The technology advancements of the present day are constantly increasing and the need for a well "trained" person who can think outside the box and do complicated mathematics and also understand the properties of how something may work, the need is increasing. A physics degree should be done because it is something that you enjoy, after all you will be doing it for the rest of your life. The advancement of your career depends all on how much you put into it. To be simply honest with you if your just beginning your college career then within about 5 to 10 years, the time it will take you to get a B.S. to PhD, the industry need for physicists will be very abundant. My prediction is it will be the "degree to have". I must admit that actually doing physics research can be tedious at times. You must really like excel and creating graphs such as histograms and then on top of all that recording every little detail down (and I mean every little detail) in a engineer paper book, because this is simply how being a physicist works. The reason for this is in order for a physicist to report on anything then he/she must perform experiments and create data tables and histogram graphs (usually) to compare and analyze a data set. For example by just looking at a data chart with a bunch of numbers and a histogram a physicist can tell exactly what a satellite in orbit is doing, its path, and if there are any anomalies with it. And as for keeping that log, what if your doing this (the satellite as an example) for a company who is paying you hundreds of thousands of dollars and you, for some reason, drive off a cliff. They will hire a new physicist to replace you, of course, but they will have to start all the research over which puts them back millions of dollars. You will get paid good but you will have to run experiments, collect data, put it all together, and do it all over again and again, and then you will have to write litterally just about every little detail down in your little book, because if something happens to you, the next physicist needs to be able to show up and tell the temperature and the exact spot down to 1 mm (millimeter) +- .05 mm, and needs to be able to know pretty much exactly what you are smelling at that moment (this is a stretch to an extent, but I want you to understand the process will be very rewarding but tedious). But with a degree in physics, if its something that sparks your interest, then it will be very beneficial. It will be rewarding (both mentally and physically), and it will give you a constant challenge that will keep your interests on the edge. As for being worth it, It definitely was and is for me! A career in Physics can lead you down several paths, but I hope this gave you a better understanding of what being a physicist is actually about. And to me I am glad I am not an Engineer, because you want to talk about work! An engineer must take every little detail into account, while a Physicist might decide to take something out or ignore something such as air friction ;), this is all hypothetical of course. To be honest, and this may piss off some engineers, but they are simply a "baby physicist" who in there own right learn a few different things (which in there own right, is difficult) than a physicist. An example is 200 start out in school as a physicist and 199 become engineers instead. A physicist can work as an engineer but an engineer cannot work as a physicist. I hope all this helped and make your choice wisely, but by having a B.S. in Physics background, that will lay out the ground for you to become anything if you decide to change degrees, also a B.S. is really as far as you need to go for most fields, but just like with anything the more you put in (I.E. going for a PhD) the more you'll get out, so YES IT IS WORTH A PhD, it is a difference form being middle class to living well and sometimes very well. NOTE: If you get a B.S. in Physics then you can BS anyone at Physics ;)
 
  • #41
nlsherrill said:
Its sad when people look/say to me "well what are you going to do with a physics degree." I wish people had the slightest idea of what someone with a physics degree is capable of(in my opinion). I think someone with a physics B.S. would be skilled to handle just about technical task, or at least be trained fairly quickly in it. Some of the problems we solve in this major are incredibly difficult, and if someone can make it through it I know for a fact this person has discipline, persistence, abstract/creative thinking. Almost half of the freshman physics class has switched out of the major since I started because it was too much to handle.

Also, if you look at the statistics from 2009 physics graduates that someone posted not long ago, almost none of them didn't have a job. Its not a dead end, and its a great foundation for anything in my opinion.

thank God for this answer i really respect you man
 
  • #42
Archi, I would DEFINITELY go with EE. My physics degree (with decent GPA and election into honor society) meant very little to potential employers. Unless you are particularly brilliant and can get a top position with cutting edge research, forget physics. It's a dead area as far as employment (especially when compared to engineering). Of course, school physics departments and all others with a vested interest in churning out worthless physics degrees will of course disagree.
 
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  • #43
Geronimo72 said:
Archi, I would DEFINITELY go with EE. My physics degree (with decent GPA and election into honor society) meant very little to potential employers. Unless you are particularly brilliant and can get a top position with cutting edge research, forget physics. It's a dead area as far as employment (especially when compared to engineering). Of course, school physics departments and all others with a vested interest in churning out worthless physics degrees will of course disagree.

You are also churning out worthless stuff here, because none of what you said has been backed by any statistical evidence.

This forum has plenty of threads that have links to various statistics, rather than just anecdotal evidence.

Zz.
 
  • #44


Tim D. said:
To be honest, and this may piss off some engineers, but they are simply a "baby physicist" who in there own right learn a few different things (which in there own right, is difficult) than a physicist. An example is 200 start out in school as a physicist and 199 become engineers instead. A physicist can work as an engineer but an engineer cannot work as a physicist. I hope all this helped and make your choice wisely, but by having a B.S. in Physics background, that will lay out the ground for you to become anything if you decide to change degrees, also a B.S. is really as far as you need to go for most fields, but just like with anything the more you put in (I.E. going for a PhD) the more you'll get out, so YES IT IS WORTH A PhD, it is a difference form being middle class to living well and sometimes very well. NOTE: If you get a B.S. in Physics then you can BS anyone at Physics ;)


Looks like a resurrected thread, but I couldn't help but respond to this insult. It is quite simply not the whole story and doesn't give engineers the credit they deserve.

The way I see it, it is very difficult to go anywhere with a Physics B.S. unless you have other skills. For example, a friend graduated and went to work as a systems admin at an engineering company but only because he had significant computer skills gained through working in a research group - work that had very little to do with physics.
Now, a physicist cannot work as an engineer with a B.S. degree ALONE unless they are very lucky or have significant experience already, they simply lack the coursework and design work that employers are used to seeing. Can they learn it? Of course. That means if a physicist wants to be an engineer, they should really pursue a graduate degree in the field. That is exactly what goes on in my lab. I know of at least 2 physics graduates who are now doing an EE degree, but they had to take some "catch-up" classes first.
Now for my experience: I took a lot of extra physics courses in undergrad, and did far better than most of the physicists in even upper level classes. I chose engineering, but that didn't mean I couldn't be a "physicist". In fact, my graduate work can only be described as physics (we publish in AIP journals).

The vast majority of engineers won't do anything of the sort, and that is the fault of both the students and academia. Engineering coursework is so dumbed down to churn out graduates, and the result is we get engineers who really have no idea what they are doing, and even some who dislike or "don't get" their physics classes. This is DANGEROUS.

My conclusion, and possibly the conclusion to every question about academics, is you get what you put into it. If you think the type of degree you get (physicist or engineer) makes you better than the other guy, get over yourself.
 
  • #45


PatrickEE said:
Looks like a resurrected thread, but I couldn't help but respond to this insult. It is quite simply not the whole story and doesn't give engineers the credit they deserve.

The way I see it, it is very difficult to go anywhere with a Physics B.S. unless you have other skills. For example, a friend graduated and went to work as a systems admin at an engineering company but only because he had significant computer skills gained through working in a research group - work that had very little to do with physics.
Now, a physicist cannot work as an engineer with a B.S. degree ALONE unless they are very lucky or have significant experience already, they simply lack the coursework and design work that employers are used to seeing. Can they learn it? Of course. That means if a physicist wants to be an engineer, they should really pursue a graduate degree in the field. That is exactly what goes on in my lab. I know of at least 2 physics graduates who are now doing an EE degree, but they had to take some "catch-up" classes first.
Now for my experience: I took a lot of extra physics courses in undergrad, and did far better than most of the physicists in even upper level classes. I chose engineering, but that didn't mean I couldn't be a "physicist". In fact, my graduate work can only be described as physics (we publish in AIP journals).

The vast majority of engineers won't do anything of the sort, and that is the fault of both the students and academia. Engineering coursework is so dumbed down to churn out graduates, and the result is we get engineers who really have no idea what they are doing, and even some who dislike or "don't get" their physics classes. This is DANGEROUS.

My conclusion, and possibly the conclusion to every question about academics, is you get what you put into it. If you think the type of degree you get (physicist or engineer) makes you better than the other guy, get over yourself.

the important thing is that you like it , thanks man
 
  • #46
what i really want to know is that , a pure physics bachelor degree can be the way to become an engineer?? of course with extra courses??
 
  • #47
ZapperZ said:
You are also churning out worthless stuff here, because none of what you said has been backed by any statistical evidence.

This forum has plenty of threads that have links to various statistics, rather than just anecdotal evidence.

Zz.

And who is the source of these "various statistics?" When I was a physics major, I read all the pie-in-sky junk in various publications that promoted physics education and was all fired ready to take on the world. Hell, to hear them tell it, I thought I'd have all kind of scheduling problems handling all the interviews. The reality turned out shockingly grim. The woods are full of people with physics degrees who never could find work even remotely related to even engineering. Those salaries mentioned are for the lucky few who actually found and got the good jobs and are still working. The reality for anyone degreed individual is likely to be very different.
 
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  • #48
elabed haidar said:
what i really want to know is that , a pure physics bachelor degree can be the way to become an engineer?? of course with extra courses??

It is tough to do if you're already out of school.
You could:
1. Get a M.S. in engineering. This will probably take the full 2 years given the requirement of catch-up courses (signals/systems, controls, etc) and some engineering design work.
2. If you're still in undergrad, get involved with some projects either with professors or students. Learn design software and project skills.
3. Take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam.
 
  • #49
PatrickEE said:
It is tough to do if you're already out of school.
You could:
1. Get a M.S. in engineering. This will probably take the full 2 years given the requirement of catch-up courses (signals/systems, controls, etc) and some engineering design work.
2. If you're still in undergrad, get involved with some projects either with professors or students. Learn design software and project skills.
3. Take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam.

i have two questions :
1) what is the meaning of MS?
2) Cant i become a professional engineer with my pure physics bachelor>?thank you very much
 
  • #50
Depending on the state you are in (if you are in the U.S.), you may or may not even be permitted to take the F.E. exam without an engineering degree from an ABET accredited program.
 
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