In 2000, the number of physics bachelor’s degrees conferred in the US was 7% higher than during the previous year, the first increase in nearly a decade. Similar increases are expected for 2001 and 2002, for which data are not yet available, according to a recent report from the American Institute of Physics. The report also cites growing enrollments in high-school physics classes as boding well for future undergraduate physics enrollments.
The total number of physics bachelor’s degrees awarded nationwide in 1999 and 2000 was 3646 and 3849, respectively, representing about 0.3% of the bachelor’s degrees awarded across all fields during those years. The increase in 2000 was mostly in large physics departments that also offer graduate degrees—the same departments that saw the biggest losses in the 1990s, when physics bachelor’s degree production fell by 27%.
Women earned 21% of physics bachelor’s degrees in the combined classes of 1999 and...
