The Physics Department offers educational opportunities that are consistent with the broad principles of the School of Arts and Sciences. The undergraduate program for students pursuing a BS or BA degree in physics provides a solid and challenging education and prepares them to excel in diverse career paths where independent thinking, analytical skills, and experimental skills are useful. These paths include graduate or professional school, industrial research, and education, not just in physics but in other scientific, engineering, social, and professional fields.
For non-majors taking introductory physics as a part of their liberal arts or engineering program, the courses develop physical concepts and intuition along with the laboratory work and problem-solving skills required to succeed in their chosen course of study. Different introductory course sequences are designed to suit the different needs of Arts and Science majors and Engineering majors while emphasizing the core features of the physicist's perspective on the natural world. For students interested in physics as an elective part of a broad liberal arts curriculum, courses with few or no prerequisites develop conceptual understanding of topics of general interest. All physics courses encourage students to appreciate the relevance of physics in their everyday lives and to their future professions.