Astronomy & Astrophysics at University of California - Berkeley

What traits are you looking for in a astronomy school? To help you decide if University of California - Berkeley is right for you, we've gathered the following information about the school's astronomy program.

UC Berkeley is located in Berkeley, California and has a total student population of 42,327. In the 2020-2021 academic year, 49 students received a bachelor's degree in astronomy from UC Berkeley.

Want to know more about the career opportunities in this field? Check out the Careers in Astronomy & Astrophysics section at the bottom of this page.

UC Berkeley Astronomy & Astrophysics Degrees Available

• Bachelor’s Degree in Astronomy
• Master’s Degree in Astronomy
• Doctorate Degree in Astronomy

UC Berkeley Astronomy & Astrophysics Rankings

The following rankings from College Factual show how the astronomy progam at UC Berkeley compares to programs at other colleges and universities.

Note: Rankings don't always give a complete picture of a school's strengths and weaknesses, so it's a good idea to extend your research and also look at other factors when trying to decide if the school is right for you.

Bachelor’s Degree Overall Quality & Other Notable Rankings

The astronomy major at UC Berkeley is not ranked on College Factual’s Best Colleges and Universities for Astronomy & Astrophysics. This could be for a number of reasons, such as not having enough data on the major or school to make an accurate assessment of its quality.

Ranking Type	Rank
Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Doctor’s Degree Schools	6
	8

In 2021, 11 students received their master’s degree in astronomy from UC Berkeley. This makes it the #4 most popular school for astronomy master’s degree candidates in the country.

There were 5 students who received their doctoral degrees in astronomy, making the school the #9 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

Astronomy Student Demographics at UC Berkeley

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the astronomy majors at University of California - Berkeley.

UC Berkeley Astronomy & Astrophysics Bachelor’s Program

For the most recent academic year available, 55% of astronomy bachelor's degrees went to men and 45% went to women. The typical astronomy bachelor's degree program is made up of only 41% women. So female students are more repesented at UC Berkeley since its program graduates 4% more women than average.

Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 34% more racial-ethnic minorities in its astronomy bachelor's program than the national average.*

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from University of California - Berkeley with a bachelor's in astronomy.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	13
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	13
White	17
International Students	2
Other Races/Ethnicities	4

UC Berkeley Astronomy & Astrophysics Master’s Program

During the 2020-2021 academic year, 11 astronomy majors earned their master's degree from UC Berkeley. Of these graduates, 55% were men and 45% were women.

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from University of California - Berkeley with a master's in astronomy.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	1
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	0
White	5
International Students	3
Other Races/Ethnicities	2

UC Berkeley also has a doctoral program available in astronomy. In 2021, 5 students graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Related Majors

• Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology
• Geological & Earth Sciences
• Materials Sciences
• Chemistry
• Physics

Careers That Astronomy Grads May Go Into

A degree in astronomy can lead to the following careers. Since job numbers and average salaries can vary by geographic location, we have only included the numbers for CA, the home state for University of California - Berkeley.

Occupation	Jobs in CA	Average Salary in CA
Natural Sciences Managers	7,870	$168,790
Physicists	3,200	$115,970
Atmospheric, Earth, Marine, and Space Sciences Professors	1,310	$124,250
Physics Postsecondary Professors	1,190	$138,250
Astronomers	280	$113,130

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• Image Credit: By LAgirl5252 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.