If you are deciding between majoring in physics or engineering, you might want to know more about what each major has to offer. This post will show you the key facts about each major and help you to decide which would be a better degree for you.
Quick overview:
| | Engineering | Physics |
| Payscale reported Average pay | $85,100 | $86,600 |
| Ease of finding a job | Good | Moderate |
| Types of jobs you can qualify for | Software engineer Mechanical engineer Civil engineer Project engineer Structural engineer Electrical engineer Industrial engineer Chemical engineer | Software engineer Data scientist Physicist Data analyst Mechanical engineer |
| Difficulty of the major | Hard | Hard |
| Key things to note | Can give good job prospects with just a bachelor’s degree. Many of the more lucrative engineering jobs require a master’s degree. The jobs you will qualify for will depend a lot on the specific type of engineering degree you choose. | Not as employable by itself as an engineering degree. Many of the more physics orientated jobs will require at least a master’s degree. Combining the degree with an applied minor such as computer science will improve your job prospects. |
Source for physics pay and jobs
While there are some similarities between the two degrees, there are also a number of things to consider when deciding between them including what you want to do after graduation and what you find most interesting.
Details about a degree in engineering
Below are details about a degree in engineering.
It can pay well
According to Payscale, the average salary for someone with a bachelor’s degree in engineering is $85,100. This puts engineering among the highest paying degrees available.
Engineering is also a major that will give you good job prospects with just a bachelor’s degree. This is because engineering degrees tend to be applied to specific job roles meaning that you should be reasonably well prepared for certain jobs without needing too much extra training. In comparison, a physics degree does not tend to be as applied to certain job roles and this can make it more difficult to find a job with a physics degree when compared with most engineering degrees.
However, many of the better jobs will require a master’s degree. Getting one will also improve your long-term pay prospects. However, this can also be said for most majors.
Something to consider is that the average salary will vary depending on the specific field that you are intending to enter. You can look here to see what the median and average pay is for each of the different types of engineering degrees.
Also, the job progression and working hours will depend a lot on the specific field you want to enter.
Before choosing an engineering degree, it would help a lot to do lots of research on the specific type of engineering degree that you are interested in and to make sure that it has good job prospects. It would also help to make sure that it is something that you would be interested in doing.
Job prospects are projected to improve
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics it is expected that there will be a total of 139,300 new jobs by 2026 when compared to 2016. You can look here to see how each of the different types of engineering jobs are projected to improve.
Many people with engineering degrees go down the software engineering route. These jobs tend to pay well and be less demanding unless there are deadlines coming up.
With that being the case, picking up a minor in computer science will help to broaden your job prospects significantly. At the very least, it would help to make sure to take computer science algorithms and data structures since that is what gets tested in software engineering interviews.
The types of jobs you can expect to qualify for will depend a lot on the type of engineering degree you choose and the electives you choose.
But you can expect to qualify for jobs such as:
- Mechanical engineer
- Civil engineer
- Project engineer
- Structural engineer
- Electrical engineer
- Industrial engineer
- Chemical engineer
If you also take computer science classes you could also qualify for software engineering roles. You might also qualify for roles in data science, machine learning and data analysis if you learn programming (in Python), take computer science electives and also complete projects related to machine learning and data science.
It can be difficult to get a high GPA
Engineering majors are, usually, majors with a high dropout rate. There are many possible reasons for this but one main reason is that an engineering major is more challenging than people would expect.
Engineering makes use of lots of mathematics. In engineering, you will need to learn, single and multivariable calculus, linear algebra, discrete math and differential equations as well as some physics. These can be difficult classes that will require a lot of time spent studying. Many students are not willing to put the necessary amount of time into studying for these classes so they end up not doing very well in them.
However, if you are also interested in a physics degree, it is likely that you will be able to do well on the math and physics side of an engineering degree which is where most students struggle.
Another thing to consider is your level of interest in the subject. If you are interested in engineering then you will likely have an easier time motivating yourself to continue studying when you are struggling.
Engineering degrees will often require more credits
Another reason that people have a hard time doing well in engineering is that it will often require more credits to graduate than some of the other majors.
This means that you will likely have to take more classes in each semester as an engineering major and you will have to spend more time studying.
Alternative degrees
There are a number of alternatives if you are thinking of getting an engineering degree.
The alternatives can include:
- Computer science
- Mathematics
- Statistics
- Computer engineering
- Physics
Things to consider
Since the different engineering degrees will be more applied to a specific job role, they should give you better job prospects than a physics degree by itself.
However, it can still be difficult when job searching especially right after graduation so it could help a lot to improve your job opportunities by also taking classes from a discipline such as computer science. With that being said, a physics degree can also be very employable if you also combine it with more job-related topics such as with computer science algorithms and data structures, programming and statistics.
Details about a physics degree
Below are some details about a degree in physics.
Current pay
According to Payscale, the average pay of someone with a bachelor’s degree in physics is $86,600. This is very close to the reported pay of people with engineering degrees.
However, something to be aware of is that the average pay of someone fresh out of college with no work experience will likely be a lot lower than that.
Job opportunities
A physics degree can give access to a wide range of job opportunities. However, a physics degree can be quite general in nature and it can be difficult to find a job with just a bachelor’s degree in physics. However, this will depend a lot on the classes that you choose to take. You can also greatly improve your job prospects by minoring in something more applied such as computer science, completing programming projects and getting summer internships.
Jobs that you could get with a bachelor’s degree in physics could include:
Software engineer
Data scientist
Physicist
Data analyst
Mechanical engineer
Physics can give good job opportunities if you combine it with more practical skills. Currently, data science is a popular career path for physics majors. If you are interested in data science, it would help to learn programming, data analysis, machine learning to complete data science projects and to take a number of computer science classes including data structures and algorithms.
Another popular career path is a software engineer. To get these jobs, it would help to take a number of computer science classes, to learn programming in languages such as javascript and Python and to complete software engineering projects such as to create a web app.
Difficulty
A physics degree can also be a very difficult degree and you will have to put a lot of time into the degree. Overall, you can expect the degree to have a similar difficulty to that of most engineering degrees at the undergraduate level.
Classes
You can expect to take math classes such as:
Differential calculus
Integral calculus
Multivariate calculus
Differential equations
Linear algebra
Partial differential equations
In addition you can expect to have the option to take more math classes if you would like. You might also have the option to take some classes from related disciplines such as statistics, engineering and computer science.
You can also expect to take multiple physics classes including:
Introduction to physics
Mechanics and waves
Electricity and magnetism
Quantum physics
Statistical mechanics
Thermodynamics
You can look here to see an example of required classes in a physics degree.
Reasons to choose an engineering degree
As mentioned above, most engineering degrees have better job prospects than a physics degree by itself. Getting an engineering degree should be a reliable way to put yourself in a good position after graduating. However, it would still help to try to do internships along the way and it would help to choose classes related to the job you are interested in.
It would also be a good idea if you are interested in the more applied aspects of physics since an engineering takes physics and applies it to specific applications.
If you want to improve your job prospects further, it could also help to minor in another employable subject such as computer science.
Reasons to choose a physics degree
Physics can also be a very interesting subject and many students really enjoy their time in the major. Also, the mathematics used in undergraduate physics tends to be more applied and not proof-heavy which most students prefer.
If you are planning on going to graduate school, in physics, then physics would also be a good option for undergrad. However, in this case, it would likely help to take more math classes since graduate-level physics will make use of more advanced math.
Again, if you choose to major in physics, it would help to consider what you would like to do after graduating and to make sure to take classes related to that. Combining physics with a computer science minor could be a good option since many physics students get programming roles after graduating.
