Engineering Physics prepares students to apply physics to tackle 21st century engineering challenges, and to apply engineering to address 21st century questions in physics. Although Engineering Physics is a relatively new program at Stanford (it was introduced six years ago), it has a long history at a number of other schools; see the list at the bottom of this page for examples. See Stanford's Engineering Physics web page for an overview of the purpose and scope of the Engineering Physics major. You can read about the Engineering Physics major in detail in the Stanford Engineering Handbook. Engineering Physics has a student society called EPIC. The EPIC web page contains some four-year plans with commentary by recent graduates of the program, and examples of research that some of the majors have pursued. The fundamental difference between Engineering Physics and other Engineering majors is that in Engineering Physics students study the same advanced physics topics as physics majors -- in particular, at least two quarters of quantum mechanics and at least one quarter of statistical mechanics. Most engineering students (other than engineering physics students) would take these courses only as graduate students (or not at all). An Engineering Physics degree prepares students to work in the private sector or in national laboratories at the very forefront of technology, or to pursue an advanced degree in engineering. An Engineering Physics degree also prepares students to pursue an advanced degree in physics; other engineering majors do not. Industries that need people with very strong scientific backgrounds recognize the Engineering Physics major and what it stands for.

Careers could also include systems engineering, teaching, medicine, law (especially intellectual property or patent law), science writing, history of science, philosophy of science, science policy, energy policy, government, or management in technical fields.