New data support the oft-repeated claim that physics is a good launchpad for many careers. Among applicants to US law, medical, and business schools, physics bachelors as a group do well on the admissions tests.
On the Law School Admission Test in 2012, physics majors’ average score was 162.1 out of a possible 180. The median score of applicants accepted by all 193 ranked schools was 157, and to the top 13 schools, 170. Physics majors made up 0.2% of 66 197 law school applicants that year.
In the same year, physics majors were also among the top scorers in all three categories of the Medical College Admission Test: physical science, biological science, and verbal reasoning; premed and biology majors came in below average for each category. Among 44 464 applicants to medical school in 2012, 0.5% were physics majors. And in the period 2008–12, physics majors had the highest...