What Physics Graduates Earn
How much do Physics bachelor's graduates earn?
One year out, the median bachelor's graduate in Physics earns $54,120; five years out, $85,413. The figures pool 2,118 graduates counted at the first horizon, and the median debt carried out of school is $19,500.
What Physics actually returns, in federal numbers: median earnings at three horizons for 2,837 counted graduates, and the median debt those graduates carried out.
Updated November 5, 2026
Median earnings at 1, 4, and 5 years (College Scorecard)
The three rows below are the whole earnings story Scorecard can tell about Physics: $54,120, then $78,569, then $85,413. Each median is graduate-weighted, built from 74 programs at year one and 102 at year five, and the unweighted program median sits alongside so a reader can see how much the weighting itself is doing.
| Horizon | Median earnings (graduate-weighted) | Median program (unweighted) | Graduates counted | Share earning above the high-school threshold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year after graduation | $54,120 | $54,230 | 2,118 | 31.0% |
| 4 years after graduation | $78,569 | $78,216 | 2,878 | n/p |
| 5 years after graduation | $85,413 | $84,353 | 2,837 | 37.7% |
The trajectory is the story here: $54,120 at year one, $78,569 at year four, $85,413 at year five. That is 58% growth across the window Scorecard measures, worth $31,293 a year by the fifth year. Fields with flat early curves repay debt slowly; this one's curve works in the borrower’s favor.
The Pell split adds a second lens on the $54,120 year-one median: graduates who received Pell Grants earn a median of $47,393, and graduates who did not earn $50,512, a gap of $3,119. Read it as a map of where each group studied and the networks they carried in, not as the degree paying two different wages for the same work.
Inside its own CIP family, Physics ranks 1 of 4 published bachelor's fields by five-year earnings; the family median at that horizon is $66,076. Its closest sibling is Chemistry at $72,034, below this field's $85,413. Family comparisons strip out the broad field effect and leave the specific program choice exposed.
Ranked across all 182 published fields, Physics stands number 42 by five-year earnings and number 66 by first-year earnings, and number 40 from the lowest median debt. Those three ranks together are the field's fingerprint: high earn rank with a low debt rank is the combination students are actually shopping for, and this field's spread between them is 2 places.
The debt side of the same degree
What does the median Physics graduate owe? $19,500, the graduate-weighted median over 79 programs with published debt figures. The ratio that matters is debt to first-year earnings: 36%, or 4.3 months of gross pay at the $54,120 median. At the 2026-27 undergraduate loan rate of 6.52%, the standard decade of repayment is $222 a month with $7,094 of interest on top. Model a different balance in the student loan payoff calculator before you borrow it, and sanity-check the degree in the college major ROI calculator.
Where graduates of this field earn the most
One field, many markets: the five-year median for Physics is $85,413 nationally, yet the strongest programs below run far ahead of it. The ranking keeps a 30-graduate floor under every entry, and University of California-Berkeley heads the list at $115,578.
| Institution | Median earnings, 5 years | Median earnings, 1 year | Median debt | Graduates counted (5yr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of California-Berkeley | $115,578 | n/p | $13,911 | 46 |
| University of California-Santa Barbara | $104,045 | $64,520 | $12,804 | 46 |
| University of California-Los Angeles | $97,335 | $58,575 | $13,856 | 42 |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | $96,766 | $64,107 | $18,767 | 36 |
| University of California-Irvine | $96,693 | $38,899 | $10,605 | 30 |
A median is a middle graduate, not a promise: half of University of California-Berkeley's counted graduates earn less than $115,578. Weigh any program here against its own price using the net price estimator and the degree cost calculator.
Two more facts about the shape of this field: the five highest-paying programs in the table account for only 7.0% of the 2,837 graduates counted at five years, so the top of the table is a thin slice and not the field's center; and the leading program's five-year median of $115,578 sits 35% above the national field median of $85,413. Its median debt, $13,911, runs below the field median of $19,500, which is the trade a student at the top of this table is actually being offered.
Frequently asked questions
What is the starting salary for Physics graduates?
Scorecard's first measured horizon is one year after graduation, and the graduate-weighted median there is $54,120 across 74 programs. By year five the median reaches $85,413.
What do Physics graduates owe when they finish?
A median of $19,500 in federal loans at graduation. At the 2026-27 undergraduate rate of 6.52%, the standard 10-year payment is $222 a month.
Why does this page show two different medians for Physics?
One median weights every program by its graduates counted, so it describes the middle graduate; the other is the middle program, unweighted. For this field they are $54,120 and $54,230 at year one, and printing both keeps the method honest.
How does Physics compare with other degrees?
Its five-year median of $85,413 sits above the all-fields median of $65,763. The ranked table for all published fields is on the degree earnings hub in this section.