How common is a Physics major at Harvard?

Do more people go to MIT for Physics?

Harvard graduated 34 physics majors in 2017, MIT had 42.

http://web.mit.edu/physics/about/index.html
https://www.physics.harvard.edu/academics/undergrad/

These are the numbers from the university themselves for undergrads.

It really would depend on your interests in the field. That said, MIT might have more opportunities. It’s more likely that a Harvard physics major also has other interests which could be in any field. It’s also likely an MIT physics student would have more of a STEM bent. You really have to look at both curriculums and see which one appeals more to you. You should also factor in what you want to do with the degree if you know. While I was not a physics major, I would attend MIT over Harvard if physics was my thing. Harvard is great but MIT is MIT. Or I would attend Princeton ( also known for good physics Einstein) The convergence of so many STEM related fields at MIT would appeal to me if I was studying physics. Plus it has equal standing in terms of WOW factor if that’s something you are looking at ( and it really shouldn’t be the basis of your decision). Talk to a graduate of each program and you will gain more clarification. Don’t forget there may be many more schools for you once you narrow the field within the study of physics.

At the risk of stating the obvious, one needs to be accepted by those three schools first before being forced to make such a “difficult” choice.

At the end of the day, any of them will provide a great education and opportunities to the aspiring physics major.

There’s a striking difference between the numbers in post #1 (which come off the NCES College Navigator website and are drawn from standard-format reports filed by the universities with the U.S. Department of Education) and the information on the departments’ sites linked in post #2.

The Harvard Physics Department says it graduates 50-60 physics concentrators/year, which seems like a lot more than the 34 reported by NCES. On another page, however, there is more precise information. https://handbook.fas.harvard.edu/book/physics That shows about 140 Physics concentrators the last couple or years, of whom about 80 are joint concentrators, 20-30 of whom have primary concentrations other than Physics, so that they will show up in some other category in the NCES data. That’s completely consistent with showing 34 Physics degrees in a particular year. (I am pretty sure the Harvard concentrator numbers do not include first year students, so you would divide them by 3 to get the number of degrees expected per year.) The NCES data (which currently represents degrees awarded in the 2016-2017 academic year) include some standard joint concentration degrees like Chemistry & Physics (8 degrees) and Astrophysics (6 degrees). Those bring the total Harvard Physics degrees to 48, which is not so far off 50. There are probably some Applied Math/Physics or History of Science/Physics joint concentrators included in the other department’s numbers, and the NCES data have 29 “interdisciplinary” “Natural Sciences” degrees some of which might include a Physics joint concentration. So the Harvard numbers can probably be reconciled.

MIT is tougher. It claims 280 Physics majors, which ought to translate into 60-100 degrees awarded per year (depending on whether/how many first-year students are included in the numbers). That’s a lot more than 42, and there are no other categories in the NCES data into which Physics majors may fall. But there may be double majors who are included in the NCES data under their other major, and the 280 “majors” reported by the department may include some students who ultimately take Physics minors as well.