Cal State Long Beach Physics (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Physics
- Public university
- Long Beach, CA
- About 32 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Cal State Long Beach physics graduates earn about what physics graduates earn nationally, $42,057 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $23,229 in federal loans, close to the national median of $23,000. Several California programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The California and national columns are the medians across all physics bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Cal State Long Beach graduates earn about the national figure and about the same as the California median.
Debt and first-year pay at every California physics program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the California medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
What graduates earn over time
Pay rises about 89% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $246 a month, or 7.0% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
The government publishes these as ranges to protect privacy. They were measured in 2018 to 2020, partly during the pandemic pause on federal loan payments, so the forbearance share may be higher than usual.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
100% of graduates (30 of 30) were working in California one year after graduating. Prices in the Los Angeles area are about 14% above the national average, so a $42,057 salary here buys what about $37,033 buys in a typical US city.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to physics, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education
$101,370Median pay in California. 99,230 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to stay about the same in number from 2025 to 2035, with about 63,500 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Natural Sciences Managers
$210,230Median pay in California. 14,950 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 8% from 2025 to 2035, with about 9,200 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus 5 years or more of related work experience.
Physicists
$207,490Median pay in California. 5,930 people work in this job in California. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 7% from 2025 to 2035, with about 1,300 openings a year. Typical education to start: doctoral or professional degree.
About Cal State Long Beach
Physics ranks 21st of 61 bachelor's programs at Cal State Long Beach by first-year earnings. The top three are Nursing ($100,178), Construction Engineering Technology ($89,003), and Computer Engineering ($79,809).
Other physics bachelor's programs near Long Beach
Common questions
The median graduate earns $42,057 one year after graduating and $79,330 five years after. The median across physics bachelor's programs in California is $50,219.
The median federal loan balance is $23,229, which ranks 10th lowest of 10 physics bachelor's programs in California. That works out to about $246 a month over 10 years.
It depends on your other options. Debt equals 55% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 49%. Compare the cost with other California programs before deciding.
Most do. 100% (30 of 30) were working in California one year after graduating.
About this data
- Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid (grants or loans).
- Earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school. Graduates who went straight to further study are not included.
- Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
- Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of California comparisons when their main campus is in another state.
- Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.
- School-level numbers like tuition, admission rate, and graduation rate are for the whole school, not the physics program.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024
- NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024