OverviewSalary and DebtIs a Bachelor's EnoughCareersSchoolsRelated ProgramsGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Acoustics is a program that focuses on the scientific study of sound, and the properties and behavior of acoustic wave phenomena under different conditions. includes instruction in wave theory, the acoustic wave equation, energy transformation, vibration phenomena, sound reflection and transmission, scattering and surface wave phenomena, singularity expansion theory, ducting, and applications to specific research problems such as underwater acoustics, crystallography, and health diagnostics.
Highlights
School with the highest reported median starting salary ($100K) with a Doctorate: University of Arizona
Explore Pathways
Careers for program graduates
Acoustics majors work in these careers, which are sized by percentage of majors in the career (at least 1%) and colored by the predominant level of education.
Have completions for physics changed over time? Increasing completions may mean you'll likely have an easier time finding a school that offers this degree, with the opposite being true as well.
How are students who recently completed a degree in acoustics doing?
Below is the distribution of starting salaries along with accumulated federal and private education loans across schools that offer a degree in the field physics, which includes
acoustics.
Distribution: physics majors' salaries by education level
What is the salary distribution for graduates with a bachelor's inphysics by the level of their highest degree (Graduate degrees may not be in the same field as the bachelor’s)
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
Education level of workers with a bachelor's in physics
Is a bachelor's degree going to be sufficient to make you competative in the job market? We can look at the education level of workers with a bachelors in this degree to see if there is a likely need for a graduate degree. You'll also want to check out the careers section on this page to where they are employed.
This chart shows the level of education of workers with a bachelor's degree in physics. The worker's graduate degree may have been completed in a different field.
Context: Graduate degrees in any field by undergraduate ACS degree
About 68% of physics majors chose to also earn a graduate degree (possibly of a different major). The percentage of physics majors who also earned a graduate degree is higher than about 97% of other fields.
Context: Percentage salary boost obtained with a graduate degree
How important is a graduate degree for earning a higher salary? We can see the difference in salary of workers with a bachelors in this degree to workers with a bachelor’s AND a graduate degree.
Following are the most frequent jobs held by people who earned a bachelor's degree in Physics (which combines 4 programs), though may not be limited to just those with a bachelor’s.
Where do physics majors work, and how well do those jobs pay? A ** in the job title indicates that the Department of Education recommends this job for this program.
Career
Select any column header to sort by that column, and select any row to explore that career.
The top ten careers for workers with a bachelor's in physics
Take a minute to interact with this sankey diagram. Follow the top ten jobs held by physics graduates through to their most hired majors. Learn where it may easiest to find work. Expand the careers to explore other majors that might lead to the job that excites you the most. *For many majors, the top ten jobs don't even include half of graduates!*
What careers hire physics majors as one of their top 10?
To the left of this diagram, see all careers that hire physics majors as one of their top 10 majors, and on the right, see what proportion of openings for the jobs on the left are filled by physics majors.
Explore schools that offer acoustics degrees and certificates
You can use this table to find schools that offer this program based on location and program level offered. Each entry goes to a school page similar to this one with all our information about that school.
Understanding the columns
The school list includes a few facts about each school that give you an
idea of the educational quality each school might offer:
Student-Faculty Ratio: A small number of students per full-time instructor
suggests individual attention for each student and an up-to-date curriculum.
Satisfaction Rate: A high percentage of returning first-year students
should correlate with satisfaction (schools call this their retention rate).
Repayment Rate: A high repayment rate means most alumni earn enough
to make progress repaying loans within 7 years of leaving.
We also show the total enrollment for the school as measured by
full-time-equivalent (FTE) students enrolled annually.
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4 schools offer this award at any level in the selected area.
Following are related programs, ordered by those with the highest number of completions. You can explore a full list by pressing the more details button.
physics is part of a larger collection of programs: Physical Sciences. Is there a different program that's close to physics that might be a better match for your interests? You can use this table to see a little about the programs that fall under this umbrella. If you click on any of the table headers, that will sort the table by that column, or click on a row and see Ididio's profile for that program.
Here is an overview of race/origin for all acoustics graduates from this last academic year. We found a higher percentage of international graduates in this program than in 76% of other programs.