The choices we make while in college set the trajectory for our life’s journey. What we will do and the type of person we will become are impacted by the decisions that we make as undergraduates.

Physics Majors at Cornell have tremendous flexibility in designing a program to meet their future educational and career plans.  Majors have two primary choices: to concentrate within physics or to concentrate in second area in which they desire to develop competence.

Concentration Inside Physics

The Department of Physics at Cornell University houses outstanding faculty and students, and world-class research facilities.

Because the concepts and methods of physics impact nearly all areas of human endeavor, the Department offers a broad range of physics courses for the entire Cornell community. 

A Physics degree helps prepare you to do almost anything. An incredible range of careers benefit from the quantitative and analytical skills – the problem solving skills of physics, and from an understanding of the fundamentals behind science and technology that a physics degree provides.

Physics degree programs also give you much more flexibility than, e.g., engineering programs, to tailor your coursework and prepare you for your dream job.

There are hundreds of possible college majors and minors. So why should you study physics?

Physics is interesting.

Physics helps us to understand how the world around us works, from can openers, light bulbs and cell phones to muscles, lungs and brains; from paints, piccolos and pirouettes to cameras, cars and cathedrals; from earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes to quarks, DNA and black holes. From the prosaic . . . to the profound . . . to the poetic. . .