As of about a year ago, 764 distinct college-level physics departments existed in the US. Of those, a whopping 513 are at institutions whose highest degree offered is a bachelor’s. 1 The vast majority of the schools are liberal arts colleges—by which we mean institutions that focus primarily on undergraduate education, rather than on graduate education and research; this category includes some of the smaller state universities and a few colleges with small graduate programs. Liberal arts colleges represent a significant job market, one that many PhD-level physicists aspire to join.
But how does one go about getting a job in physics in a liberal arts college? Whether you are a graduate student, a postdoc, or a working physicist looking for a change, your options for getting advice on this topic are probably limited. However good your PhD or postdoctoral mentor may be at research, the odds are that...
