Best Colleges for Physical Sciences: Ranked by Graduate Salary, Not Prestige
We rank by what graduates actually earn — not by reputation surveys.
Top Schools for Physical Sciences — Ranked by Graduate Salary
These schools produce the highest-earning Physical Sciences graduates, based on federal earnings data. We rank by salary outcomes, not prestige.
| # | School | Physical Sciences Salary | Acceptance Rate | Degrees/Year | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caltech Pasadena, CA |
$85,560 | 3.1% | 38 | Reach |
| 2 | MIT Cambridge, MA |
$85,560 | 4.7% | 81 | Reach |
| 3 | Stanford University Stanford, CA |
$81,840 | 3.9% | 70 | Reach |
| 4 | Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA |
$76,560 | 11.4% | 80 | Reach |
| 5 | UC Berkeley Berkeley, CA |
$75,168 | 11.7% | 305 | Reach |
| 6 | Brown University Providence, RI |
$74,400 | 5.2% | 52 | Reach |
| 7 | Columbia University New York, NY |
$74,400 | 4.2% | 67 | Reach |
| 8 | Cornell University Ithaca, NY |
$74,400 | 8.2% | 109 | Reach |
| 9 | Dartmouth College Hanover, NH |
$74,400 | 6.2% | 43 | Reach |
| 10 | Duke University Durham, NC |
$74,400 | 6.8% | 41 | Reach |
| 11 | Harvard University Cambridge, MA |
$74,400 | 3.5% | 121 | Reach |
| 12 | Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD |
$74,400 | 7.6% | 41 | Reach |
| 13 | New York University (NYU) New York, NY |
$74,400 | 9.4% | 84 | Reach |
| 14 | Northwestern University Evanston, IL |
$74,400 | 7.1% | 38 | Reach |
| 15 | Princeton University Princeton, NJ |
$74,400 | 4.5% | 78 | Reach |
| 16 | UCLA Los Angeles, CA |
$74,400 | 9.0% | 205 | Reach |
| 17 | University of Chicago Chicago, IL |
$74,400 | 4.8% | 119 | Reach |
| 18 | University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA |
$74,400 | 5.9% | 85 | Reach |
| 19 | Yale University New Haven, CT |
$74,400 | 4.5% | 54 | Reach |
| 20 | Georgia Tech Atlanta, GA |
$71,280 | 16.5% | 106 | Match |
| 21 | Georgetown University Washington, DC |
$69,600 | 13.1% | 21 | Reach |
| 22 | Tufts University Medford, MA |
$69,600 | 10.1% | 33 | Reach |
| 23 | USC Los Angeles, CA |
$69,600 | 10.0% | 34 | Reach |
| 24 | University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI |
$64,800 | 17.9% | 174 | Match |
| 25 | University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC |
$64,800 | 18.7% | 138 | Match |
| 26 | University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA |
$64,800 | 16.9% | 139 | Match |
| 27 | Texas A&M University Austin, TX |
$60,000 | 29.1% | 242 | Match |
| 28 | UC Irvine Irvine, CA |
$60,000 | 25.6% | 220 | Match |
| 29 | UC San Diego La Jolla, CA |
$60,000 | 24.5% | 320 | Match |
| 30 | UC Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA |
$60,000 | 27.8% | 343 | Match |
Data source: IPEDS, College Scorecard.