2023 Most Focused Colleges for Optics/Optical Sciences in the Southeast Region

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual has developed its “Schools Highly Focused on Optics/Optical Sciences Major in the Southeast Region” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

In 2020-2021, 196 people earned their degree in optics/optical sciences, making the major the 816th most popular in the United States.

Across the Southeast region, there were 13 optics/optical sciences graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Schools Highly Focused on Optics/Optical Sciences Major in the Southeast Region” ranking, we looked at 3 colleges that offer a degree in optics/optical sciences. The colleges and universities that top this list are recognized because their optics/optical sciences program is one of the largest majors offered at the school.

Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we’ve developed a number of rankings, including this “Schools Highly Focused on Optics/Optical Sciences Major in the Southeast Region” list, to help you choose the best school for you.

One of our other unique offerings is College Combat. This tool lets you build your own customized comparisons utilizing the factors that are most important to you. Test it out by comparing your favorite schools against others you are considering, or bookmark the tool so you can experiment with it later.

Schools Highly Focused on Optics/Optical Sciences Major in the Southeast Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for southeast region optics/optical sciences students.

Top 3 Most Focused Colleges for Optics/Optical Sciences in the Southeast Region

1

University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, North Carolina

$46,346 Average Early-Career Earnings

$25,284 Average Student Debt

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of North Carolina at Charlotte. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Schools Highly Focused on Optics/Optical Sciences Major in the Southeast Region list. Charlotte, North Carolina is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out ’s optics/optical sciences degrees to 6 students in 2020-2021.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 4.4%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 85%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read more about Optics/Optical Sciences at University of North Carolina at Charlotte

2

Duke University
Durham, North Carolina

#1 overall quality in Southeast

$71,290 Average Early-Career Earnings

$12,182 Average Student Debt

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Duke University. The school came in at #2 for the Schools Highly Focused on Optics/Optical Sciences Major in the Southeast Region. Duke is a fairly large private not-for-profit school situated in Durham, North Carolina. It awarded 4 ’s optics/optical sciences degrees in 2020-2021.

With a freshman retention rate of 97%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. With a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 0.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full Duke Optics/Optical Sciences Report

3

Clemson University
Clemson, South Carolina

#17 overall quality in Southeast

$47,889 Average Early-Career Earnings

$24,072 Average Student Debt

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Clemson University. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Schools Highly Focused on Optics/Optical Sciences Major in the Southeast Region list. Clemson is a large public school situated in Clemson, South Carolina. It awarded 3 ’s optics/optical sciences degrees in 2020-2021.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 94%. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.7% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Full Clemson Optics/Optical Sciences Report

• Most Focused Colleges for Optics/Optical Sciences

Notes and References

References

• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to A. T. Service.