Physics Bachelors: Two-Year Colleges as a Starting Point
Report Highlights
- Thirteen percent of physics bachelor’s degree recipients in the 2020-2021 and 2021–22 academic years combined began their post-secondary education at a two-year college.
- Physics bachelor’s that first attended a two-year college tended to be older, with a median age of 24, compared to a median age of 22 for those who did not.
- Physics bachelor’s degree recipients who took more advanced high school physics were less likely to have started at a two-year college.
- The proportion of new physics bachelor’s degree recipients who were employed or were pursuing graduate study in physics or astronomy was similar, regardless of whether they began their post-secondary education at a two-year or four-year institution.
Most physics bachelor’s degree recipients enroll in a four-year program after high school. However, data from AIP show that about 13% of all physics bachelor’s degree recipients during the 2020–21 and 2021–22 academic years took classes at a two-year college after high school but before enrolling in a four-year program. This proportion has remained relatively unchanged in recent years (Figure 1). According to the National Survey of College Graduates by the National Science Foundation, about 19% of all bachelor’s degree recipients reported the same1. Although their educational path differs from most physics bachelor’s degree recipients, the degree recipients who enrolled in a two-year college first shared many similar characteristics and outcomes with those who followed the more traditional path. This report will examine those similarities as well as some noteworthy differences.
For the purposes of this report “two-year colleges” refers to both two-year and community colleges.
Figure 1
Demographics
Physics bachelor’s who attended a two-year college prior to enrolling in the four-year program tended to be older than degree recipients who did not (Table 1). Almost half of physics bachelors who were age 24 or older at the time of graduation had previously attended a two-year college, compared to just 7% of those who were younger than 24 at graduation. The median age of physics bachelors who had previously attended a two-year college was 24, whereas those who did not attend a two-year college had a median age of 22. These differences are not surprising since students who transfer from one institution to another often take longer to graduate. A similar proportion of men and women earning a physics bachelor’s degree started their post-secondary education at a two-year college.
Table 1
High School Physics
The highest level of high school physics taken by physics bachelors strongly correlates with whether they started their undergraduate education at a two-year college (Figure 2). Forty percent of physics bachelors who did not take a high school course started their undergraduate education at a two-year college. As the level of high school physics courses taken increases, the proportion starting their undergraduate education at a two-year college decreases, with only four percent of physics bachelors who took an APC physics class in high school starting their undergraduate education at a two-year college. Overall, 10% of physics bachelors during the academic years 2020-21 and 2021-22 had not taken any form of physics in high school, while 57% had taken an AP-level course.
For more information on the types of high school physics taken by physics bachelor’s degree recipients, see our report “Physics Bachelors: Influences and Backgrounds”
Figure 2
Influences
A variety of factors can influence an individual’s decision to pursue a degree in physics. Influences can take the form of informal visits to museums or watching YouTube videos, to participating in science fairs or taking high school or college-level science classes. Overall, physics bachelors most often reported informal exposures to science as being influential in their decision to pursue the subject (Figure 3). There were four influences that had statistically significant differences between physics bachelors who attended a two-year college and those who did not. Those who attended a two-year college were more likely to report being influenced by science literature or a personal hobby, and less likely to report being influenced by a high school physics teacher or class, or participating in a science fair. Although the influence of a high school teacher or class was indicated less frequently by individuals who started at a two-year college than by those who did not, over half still indicated it was influential.
Figure 3
Degree Focus
Regardless of whether they started their education at a two-year college, most physics graduates received a traditional physics degree. However, a larger proportion of those who started at a two-year college earned a physics degree with a particular focus than those who did not (Table 2). While those who started at a two-year college were more likely to have a specific focus, there is no statistically significant evidence to suggest a difference among the various foci.
Table 2
Outcomes
Regardless of where they started their post-secondary education, the initial post-degree outcome for most graduates earning a physics bachelor’s degree was to enter the workforce (56%). Initial post-degree outcomes of physics bachelor’s differed somewhat when disaggregated by whether they started their post-secondary education at a two-year college. Degree recipients from the academic years 2020-21 and 2021-22 who began at a two-year college were less likely to report immediately pursuing graduate study in non-physics and astronomy fields and more likely to report being unemployed (Figure 4). This difference in unemployment rates was not the case for degree recipients from academic years 2018-2019 and 2019-20, where unemployment rates were around 7% for both groups.
Figure 4
Articulation Agreements
Many states have articulation agreements between two-year colleges and their four-year public institutions. These agreements can vary by state, but generally allow students who attended a two-year college to transfer into a four-year program more easily. This can be include transferable credits or guaranteed admission2.
Conclusion
Two-year colleges are an important part of the education pathway for many students who earn a physics bachelor’s degree. Over the past decade, the proportion of physics bachelors who began their education at a two-year college has remained relatively stable (13%-15%). Starting their post-secondary education at a two-year college can offer many advantages to students. These institutions tend to be less expensive than four-year universities, lowering a student’s total higher education costs. Two-year colleges often have smaller class sizes, which can lead to better student support and more successful development of academic readiness. Physics bachelors who started at a two-year college share many characteristics with those who took the more common educational route of enrolling directly into a four-year college or university. However, they tended to be older, to have a specific curricular focus within their physics degree, and to have been more influenced to pursue their undergraduate physics degree by science literature and personal hobbies.
Survey Methodology
Each fall AIP Research conducts a Survey of Enrollments and Degrees, which asks all degree-granting physics and astronomy departments in the US to provide information concerning the number of students they have enrolled and counts of recent degree recipients. At the same time, they are asked to provide the names and emails of recent bachelor’s degree recipients. We then use this degree recipient information to conduct our follow-up survey in the winter following the academic year in which respondents received their degrees. The data in this report comes from those surveys.
The data in this report primarily comes from the physics bachelor’s degree recipient follow-up survey for the academic years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. The total number of physics bachelor’s degrees awarded in these years were 9,031 and 8,618, respectively. The findings in this report are based on information from 3,642 of those degree recipients. The follow-up surveys were administered in a web-based format. Nonresponding degree recipients were contacted up to six times with invitations to participate in the survey.
Data in Figure 2 does not include data for Physics Advanced Placement B (APB), as the course ceased being offered in 2014-15. APB remained an option on the follow-up survey until the academic year 2021-2022, as those who graduated from college at that point could have taken the course during their high school years. All references to APB in figures reflect answers only from the academic year 2021.
Our survey also included options for a gender identity other than man or woman; however, due to the low number of respondents in this category, we cannot reliably report disaggregated data on these genders.
Where graduates started their post-secondary education was determined based on answers to the question “After graduating from high school, did you start your college education at a two-year or community college?”
AIP Research Updates
You can sign up to receive email alerts that notify you when we post a new report. Visit https://ww2.aip.org/newsletters to sign up. We will contact you only when we post a new report.
Follow Us on Twitter
AIP is your source for data on education and employment in physics, astronomy, and other physical sciences. Follow us at @AIP_Stats .
Physics Bachelors: Two-Year Colleges as a Starting Point
By Jack Pold and Patrick Mulvey
Published: July 2025
American Institute of Physics
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740
References
1National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. NCSES Table Builder — the National Survey of College Graduates. National Science Foundation. Accessed June 11, 2025. https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/builder/nscg
2Whinnery, E., and L. Peisach. July 2022. Transfer and articulation 2022. Education Commission of the States. https://reports.ecs.org/comparisons/transfer-and-articulation-2022
