A Physicist has a solid understanding of fundamental laws, which in turn can be applied to a wide area of scientific and engineering fields. It is an exciting career that requires discipline and significant amount of work. It also requires development of mathematical, experimental, theoretical, and computational skills. As a result of the Physicist’s solid and broad background, Physicists can apply to a wide range of job opportunities, including National Laboratories and Research Centers, Industry, and Academia.
Core Curriculum - 42 Hours
The Core Curriculum serves as a broad foundation for the undergraduate degree. All candidates for a bachelor’s degree must achieve core student learning outcomes, including communication, critical thinking, empirical and quantitative skills, teamwork, personal responsibility and social responsibility, by completing courses within each category or component area of the Core Curriculum as outlined below.
The University has approved specific courses that satisfy Core Curriculum Requirements. Approved courses can be found on the Core Curriculum Page. Students seeking the most efficient way to complete the core curriculum and major or minor requirements are advised to take approved courses that can fulfill both requirements. Although core curriculum courses can also be used to fulfill major or minor requirements, earned credits hours are only applied once. The courses listed below fulfill core curriculum and major requirements. Students who have completed a core curriculum category with courses other than those listed below will still be required to take the listed course(s) to meet major requirements.
020 Mathematics – 3 hours
030 Life and Physical Sciences – 6 hours
| PHYS 2425 | Physics for Scientists and Engineers I | 4 |
| PHYS 2426 | Physics for Scientists and Engineers II | 4 |
090 Integrative and Experiential Learning – 6 hours
Complete any additional one credit hour course from 090 to satisfy the six credit hour requirement. Two credit hours from PHYS 2425 and PHYS 2426 applies.
Major Requirements – 75 Hours
Required Courses - 45 hours
Pure and Applied Physics Concentration - 18 hours
Advanced Physics Electives - 9 hours
Choose any advanced Physics (PHYS) courses.
Approved Science Electives - 9 hours
Science electives need to be accepted and approved to be suitable by the department chair of the physics department. Any courses with the prefix ASTR, BENG, BIOL, CSCI, CHEM, ELEE, EEMS, ENGR, ENGT, ENST, ENVR, GEOG, GEOL, MARS, MATE, MATH, MECE, PHYS, PSCI, SAFS, STAT can be used for this requirement. PHYS 1401/PHYS 1402 and PSCI 1421/PSCI 1422 cannot be used to satisfy this requirement.
Support Courses - 12 hours
Free Electives – 3 hours
Free electives credit hours required may vary to achieve the institutional minimum of 120 hours for a degree.
Free elective credit hours at the advanced level may be needed to achieve the institutional minimum of 42 advanced hours.
Total Credit Hours: 42