Where are the physics majors?

American Journal of Physics

Volumn 66, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 79-86

  Ehrlich, Robert ^a  

^a GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0032330045     PISSN: 00029505     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.18811     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. Patrick Mulvey, Elizabeth Dodge, and Starr Nicholson, Roster of Physics Departments with Enrollment and Degree Data, 1994 (and 1995) (American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD, 1996). These data are also available on diskette.
2. Higher education - not just physics - has very different degrees of popularity in the various states. Arizona, for example, is second highest in the nation in the number of college students per 1000 population (72.2), while Arkansas is the lowest at 38.5. See James W. Fonseca and Alice Andrews, The Atlas of American Higher Education (New York U.P., New York, 1993).
3. Massachusetts is the highest in the number of out-of-state students, according to the reference cited in Ref. 2.
4. The raw data used to generate Fig. 2 was the number of departments that produced N graduates. These numbers are small, possibly zero, when N is large. Thus one expects to find horizontal segments in each curve connecting N values for which no departments produced graduates. If one had used a linear scale instead of a logarithmic one for the fraction f, the discontinuities in slope and horizontal segments which begin to appear around f=0.01 would have still been present, but they would have been much less visually apparent, because the slope of each curve would be close to zero beyond that point.
5. According to Margaret A. Miller of the State Council of Higher Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia, most states have boards that routinely monitor degree programs for productivity. Some states also do regular state-wide program reviews, none of which have degree thresholds that vary by subject matter.
6. According to an informal communication from Patrick Mulvey of the Statistics Division of the AIP, there is also little correlation between the number of physics bachelor degrees and the size of the student body.
7. Physics departments (along with graduate programs in other disciplines) were rated by the National Research Council in Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States: Continuity and Change, edited by Marvin L. Goldberger, Brendan A. Maher, and Pamela Ebert Flattau, National Research Council, Washington, DC (National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1995). Obviously, not everyone agrees with these ratings. See, for example, the letter by John P. Perdew and Frank J. Tipler, in the October 1996 issue of Physics Today for an interesting alternative rating system.
8. This observation was made in a talk Dr. John S. Rigden gave at George Mason University on October 21, 1996.
9. Peterson's Competitive Colleges 1995-1996, edited by Michael Ditchkofsky (Peterson's, Princeton, NJ, 1995).
10. The newsletter was sent by Dr. George Skadron, the Chair of the physics department at Illinois State University.
11. Comment on the survey made by Curt Larson, Physics Chair at the University of Wisconsin - River Falls.
12. Comment on the survey made by Stephen Yerian, Physics Chair at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH.
13. For a comparison of drop rates of students in different majors, see Indicators of Science and Mathematics Education, 1995, edited by Larry E. Suter (National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA, 1996) (NSF 96-52).
14. Sam C. Carrier and David Davis-Van Atta, "Maintaining America's Scientific Productivity: The Necessity of the Liberal Arts Colleges," Final report for the second conference on "The Future of Science at Liberal Arts Colleges," Oberlin, OH, June 1985.
15. Washington Post, May 10, 1997, p. 1.
16. Peterson's Top Colleges for Science, edited by David Davis-Van Atta (Peterson's, Princeton, NJ, 1996).
17. Communications from Stephen Padalino, chair at SUNY Geneseo, Paul Scholten, chair at Miami University (Ohio), and George Skadron, chair at Illinois State University. Despite rating the importance of innovative teaching methods highly in terms of increased student satisfaction, these chairs were unable to make a definitive statement that the number of majors has increased because of such methods.
18. Last year our physics department mailed out about 300 flyers to regional high school students indicating an interest in physics using ETS-supplied mailing labels. None of these students is now a physics major at GMU.