Career Paths

A major in physics at Merrimack lays the foundation for a diverse array of post-graduate opportunities, including (but not limited to) the following: 

• Direct entry into wide range of private-sector careers.  Bachelor’s degree physicists rarely work as “physicists” in the traditional sense (that is, studying the theoretical and experimental basis of the fundamental laws of nature — one usually needs a Ph.D. for that).  Physics can be thought of as a supercharged liberal arts major, interesting for its own sake but at the same time preparation for a broad spectrum of interesting jobs, especially those with substantial analytical/quantitative components that would be off-limits to most liberal arts majors.
  • Physics Today Job Site
  • Initial employment of physics bachelors (and other related AIP reports)
  • Who’s hiring physics bachelors
  • Profiles of “hidden physicists”
• High-school physics teaching:  Our teacher education program, based on the Physics B.A. and offered in conjunction with the Merrimack Education Department, is approved by the state of Massachusetts. 
• Medicine, Law, Business:  physics is excellent preparation for medical, law, or business school, and opens doors to quantitative areas in these professions. 
• Medical Physics and Health Physics
• Graduate study and subsequent careers in physics or astronomy.
• Graduate study in other areas of science, especially interdisciplinary programs.  The laws of physics provide the foundation for the sciences; the study of physics promotes the development of strong mathematical, analytical, and problem-solving abilities applicable across the sciences.  Consequently, physicists are well-prepared to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries (as evidenced by the existence of fields called “biophysics” and “econophysics”).