Physics bridge program a path to many career choices

July 31, 2018 | Jim Townsend

What started out as a way to help minority college students find a path to a Ph.D. in physics has morphed into much more at University of Houston-Clear Lake. It’s drawing students from all over the U.S. into UH-Clear Lake’s master of physics program, which expands students’ career options beyond traditional doctorate-level academia.

The American Physical Society Bridge Program is a national network of universities created to help students in underrepresented racial and ethnic groups find the master’s program that would best prepare them for their academic and career paths through experiential learning, research and mentorship. The APS initiative does this by offering students a free, common application currently shared with 36 partner universities, including UHCL.

“Instead of students having to apply to multiple schools, they apply once,” said David Garrison, professor of physics and director of graduate programs for UHCL’s College of Science and Engineering. “Their application ends up going to all these schools. We all review them and we decide, ‘This is someone we’re interested in.’ That person is notified that we’re interested and they get to find out more about the school.”

What Bridge applicants quickly discover, Garrison says, is that UHCL is uniquely situated – next to Johnson Space Center, a multitude of high-tech contractors, engineering, biotech and more. “Even if the person doesn’t go in for their Ph.D, the internship possibilities here are better than they are in 95 percent of the country,” Garrison said. “Somebody coming from the middle of Kansas, where there are very few opportunities, would rather come here where they’ve got the possibility of going on for their Ph.D, the possibility of working with NASA, or aerospace companies, petrochemical companies or in the medical industry.”

As a result, the Bridge program has been attracting out-of-state students since 2014, when UHCL joined the network, said Garrison, who is also the founder and former chair of the physics department.

“Our first Bridge student came from Florida International University. He lived his life in Miami. He had never been to Texas. As soon as he was accepted, he looked on our website and said, ‘Wow, if I had known you guys existed, I would have applied here directly.’  He’s currently working at the Naval Surface Warfare Center near Washington, D.C.”

UHCL offers a bachelor’s and master’s in physics, a master’s in physics with a specialization in technical management and a linked bachelor’s-master’s physics degree program. “We’ve had pretty good success with students going on to Ph.D. programs,” Garrison said.

But not every student decides to apply to a doctorate program, he added. Many are attracted to other career paths. While the “traditional” career following a Ph.D. is academia, only about 14 percent of doctors of physics actually work in physics education, reports the American Institute of Physics. Twenty percent work in engineering; 23 percent work in physics careers; the rest work in fields as diverse as business, medicine, computer software and hardware and even non-STEM industries. The API also pointed out that physics majors generally score higher on the Medical College Admissions Test than pre-medical majors, and significantly higher on the Law School Admission Test than pre-law majors.

“Even if our program doesn’t lead to a Ph.D., we still want to make sure that students are getting the most value,” Garrison said. “We’ve got practicing engineers from NASA and from the oil industry. They use the program to expand their knowledge. If students want to go on for a Ph.D., that’s great. If they want to take a different career path, that’s great, too.”

For information on UHCL’s physics and applied sciences programs, visit www.uhcl.edu/physics.