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Best Value Education Doctor's Degree Schools in California

2023 Best Value Education Doctor's Degree Schools in California

Identifying Quality Schools at More Affordable Prices

43 Colleges
$11,239 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$77,195 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Education Doctor's Degree School for You

In 2020-2021, education students earned 25,545 degrees and certificates from a California school, making the subject the 7th in the state.

There are lots of options to pick from today when trying to decide which program is right for you. You're no longer limited to schools in your local area, either, since online programs are becoming more prevalent. Or you may find the programs at a trade school to be a better alternative for you.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Course Advisor has created its Best Value Education Doctor's Degree Schools in California ranking. This report analyzed 43 schools in California to see which ones offered the best value doctor's degree programs for education students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. More specifically, we discount our quality score by the published tuition and fees charged by a school. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The value is determined by how much quality your dollar buys.

Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. Average in-state tuition and fees are used for our statewide rankings.

Top 10 Best Education Doctor's Degree Schools

Our analysis found Concordia University, Irvine to be the best value school for education students who want to pursue a doctor’s degree in California. Located in the city of Irvine, Concordia University, Irvine is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Concordia University, Irvine are $8,564 a year.

Concordia University, Irvine also took the #4 spot in our Best Education Doctor’s Degree Schools in California rankings.

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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend California State University - San Bernardino. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Education Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. CSUSB is a fairly large public school located in the city of San Bernardino.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at CSUSB are $8,647 a year.

In addition to its great value ranking, CSUSB is in the top 20% of all schools on our Best Education Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list.

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Out of the 43 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, California State University - Sacramento landed the # 3 spot on the list. Sac State is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Sacramento.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Sac State are $8,826 a year.

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#4

Brandman University

Irvine, CA

The excellent doctor’s degree programs at Brandman University helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best value education schools in California. Located in the city of Irvine, Brandman is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.

Brandman graduate students pay an average of $12,720 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Brandman also claimed a spot on our Best Education Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools in this category.

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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend California State University - Fullerton. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Best Value Education Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. Located in the large suburb of Fullerton, Cal State Fullerton is a public school with a fairly large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Cal State Fullerton are $8,410 per year.

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A rank of #5 on this year’s list means California State University - East Bay is a great value for education students working on their doctor’s degree. Cal State East Bay is a fairly large public school located in the large suburb of Hayward.

Cal State East Bay graduate students pay an average of $8,429 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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California State University - Northridge landed the #7 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value doctor’s degree education programs. CSUN is a very large public school located in the city of Northridge.

CSUN graduate students pay an average of $8,477 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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#8

San Diego State University

San Diego, CA

San Diego State University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for education students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #8 on the list. SDSU is a fairly large public school located in the city of San Diego.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at SDSU are $9,570 per year.

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San Jose State University came in at #9 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Education Doctor’s Degree Schools in California ranking. Located in the large city of San Jose, San Jose State is a public school with a very large student population.

San Jose State graduate students pay an average of $9,286 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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University of California - Santa Cruz did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for education students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #10 on the list. UC Santa Cruz is a large public school located in the small city of Santa Cruz.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UC Santa Cruz are $13,895 per year.

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Best Value Education Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Value Education Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 5,206
Oregon 4,001
Hawaii 830
Nevada 1,387
Alaska 331

Education Majors to Study

Major Annual Graduates
Teacher Education Grade Specific 110,226
Educational Administration 46,469
Teacher Education Subject Specific 43,297
Special Education 36,792
General Education 29,810
Curriculum & Instruction 19,832
Student Counseling 13,858
Instructional Media Design 8,695
Teaching English or French 5,791
Other Education 4,858
Teaching Assistants 2,751
Educational Assessment 2,552
Multilingual Education 1,910
Education Philosophy 737
International Education 293

Related Major Annual Graduates
Social Sciences 205,984
Psychology 195,678
Communication & Journalism 120,571
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences 55,820
History 32,731

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.

  • The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
  • Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to Horadrim.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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