The Physics Department offers a 44 semester-hour program with courses designed to meet requirements for pre-engineering of all types, as well as pre-professional requirements in fields of medicine, pharmacy and dentistry. The advanced courses prepare the student for graduate school, secondary teaching or physics related employment.

Strengths of the Program
Hastings College has a 3-2 pre-engineering program leading to degrees in a variety of engineering areas, including, mechanical, electrical, civil, architectural, and environmental engineering. This is a formal arrangement between HC and Washington University, Georgia Tech and Columbia University. The five-year, dual degree program allows students to receive a degree in physics from HC and an engineering degree from the cooperative school. Similar arrangements are available with the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, Iowa State University and the University of Nebraska.

Our "hands-on" approach gives students the opportunity to see how physics works. Nine of our 11 required courses have a laboratory component. In 2010, the Physics Department moved into the new Morrison-Reeves Science Center.  Using gifts from many very generous alumni, we've updated our labs with many new pieces of laboratory equipment; consequently, our laboratories are some of the best equipped undergraduate laboratories in the region.

All seniors complete a senior project during which they design, build, test, and analyze a unique experiment of their choosing.

The wide variety of educational available in the Physics Department prepares our students to pursue graduate studies in engineering or physics. Seventy-five percent of HC physics majors attend graduate school.

Updates

• The Morrison-Reeves Science Center opened in the Fall of 2009.  The Physics Department has all new laboratory spaces, a separate room for physics majors to perform their senior research projects, and research spaces for faculty/student research collaborations.
• $15,000 GeLi detector for use during modern physics laboratory exercises and senior research projects
• $16,000 for new optics equipment including lasers, optical elements, and a Newport 4' X 8' table for use during optics laboratory exercises and senior research projects.
• $50,000 worth of equipment for use during introductory, electronics,  electromagnetism, and astronomy laboratory exercises.
• The new Acoustics Research Laboratory contains our anechoic chamber plus computer, microphones, loudspeakers, electronics parts, and acoustic foams needed by students who wish to study the physics of sound.