If you want to understand the forces that shape everything around you, a physics major at Occidental gives you that foundation. You’ll explore matter and energy across scales, dive into hands-on research, and strengthen the skills needed to solve complex problems.
Earn Your Physics Degree From Oxy
As a student in the Occidental College Physics Department, you’ll study the laws that govern matter, energy, space, and time. Learn to build models, analyze data, and design experiments while developing a clear understanding of how physical systems behave. Physics faculty teach collaborative problem-solving through hands-on labs and research experiences that prepare you to think rigorously and creatively.
You’ll gain hands-on research experience across the Occidental campus and through partnerships with places around Los Angeles such as NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Students often join Oxy’s Summer Research Program, publish research with faculty, or pursue an engineering pathway through the 3-2 Engineering Program. Oxy is also a top national producer of students who later earn Ph.Ds in the sciences, reflecting the rigor and support built into the major.
