Engineering Physics What Is It, Really?

The Physics Department at University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP) initiated its engineering physics program in 1996. During these past 5 years, the number one question heard from university administrators, prospective employers, and prospective students has been “What is Engineering Physics?”. We have developed and refined an answer to that question based on our program at UWP, and that answer has seemed to satisfy most of the questioners. But as we prepared for our initial ABET inspection in fall 2000, we began to ask “What does Engineering Physics mean in other schools?” This paper is an attempt to answer that question.