Physics (B.S.)

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Student Learning Outcomes

66 Major Hours, 120 Degree Hours

Students in this major must also complete requirements for a degree in the College of Arts & Sciences .

Departmental Requirements (36 hours)

Select 7 credit hours below of elective coursework or the Applied Physics specialization

Electives (7 cr hrs)-no specialization

PHYS 498 - Research (C) (1 cr hr required)
PHYS XXX-Upper division electives (6 cr hrs required)

Applied Physics specialization (7 cr hrs)

Nondepartmental Requirements (30 hours)

Students who complete the Physics major will have fulfilled the requirements for the Mathematics Minor and are not required to complete an additional minor, although they are welcome to add another minor.

Non-Departmental Requirements in Chemistry and Computer Science may be applied to an additional minor.

B.S. / M.S. Accelerated Options

Undergraduate Physics majors may elect to complete both the B.S. and M.S. thesis with Analytics for Large Datasets specialization concurrently. Students who pursue the accelerated option will be awarded their undergraduate degree first, but may be awarded both degrees upon completion of the graduate requirements. Students may apply for admission to the M.A. or M.S. program after completing 75 undergraduate credit hours and may begin taking graduate level courses upon completion of 90 undergraduate credit hours and acceptance into the accelerated graduate program. Additional information about the accelerated degree can be found on the accelerated program catalog page for the M.S. in Physics.

Secondary Education/Physics Education (B.S.)

See Physics (B.S.) with Secondary Education Certification for program requirements for degree along with the appropriate teaching certification courses.

Students must have a CGPA of 2.6 to co-register for EDFN 338 and SEED 296 and to be admitted to Teacher Education. Beginning Summer 2015, students must have a CGPA of 2.7 to be admitted to the Teacher Education Program.

Four-Year Program Guides and Costs

USD encourages students to take 15 credits per semester or 30 credits within the year in order to graduate in 4 years. To help students complete their academic degree program in four years, we provide a sample academic plan. Please work with your academic advisor to confirm your plan.

State Authorization - It Matters Where You Live

If your learning placement course (internship, externship, clinical, rotation, practicum, independent study, study away, etc.) or your online course will be taken outside South Dakota, please reference USD’s State Authorization webpage.

State Authorization