what to do with a degree in physics?

Actually Physics Is Not A Small branch it has a lot of branches if u have a degree u can  be a teacher at any scool or otherwise u have to selc a physics discipline like geophysics,nuclear physics, electronics atomic physics and many more

Hi there =)

well, i'm not an expert but i can easily say that one good way to follow is research.There are tons of researches in very different subjects and areas.

Physics is a very very big field, there are literally thousands of areas you could work in, what particular areas are of interest to you?

If you like hot stuff then you could do work with high energy plasmas and try to hook yourself up at ITER working on the Tokamak.

If you like cold stuff then you could perhaps work on trying to understand how type II superconductors work.

In order to enter the fields which have been mentioned you will most definitely require a graduate degree in physics. When it comes to getting a job after university with an undergraduate degree in physics you may find it difficult to get into an interesting position.

This is just the general case from my experience and there are many exceptions to the rule, but lets just say there are alot of physics majors who go to grad school, and a large portion of the rest are teachers. If you are interested in teaching physics than this is definitely the way to go. Physics degree and then a year of teachers college and you are set.

So I would say if you are interested in going into one of the cutting edge fields you will definitely want to go into grad school for atleast a master's degree. This means 6 or more years of university, but is attainable if you work hard and perservere.

I would suggest you also look into engineering. When I was entering University i found not many people had an idea of what engineering was. Specifically it is applied sciences. Historically it has been know as taking scientific principles and using them to build things or design. You may find that you will have alot more usefullness out of an undergraduate engineering degree in terms of entering the workforce.

In addition to this you can jump from a focused practical undergraduate degree in engineering into a heavily research based engineering masters if you wish. This way you have practical knowledge on how to apply science and you have a base of research experience.