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Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California

2023 Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California

Identifying Quality Schools at More Affordable Prices

31 Colleges
$14,295 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$61,137 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Education Graduate Certificate 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.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Course Advisor has created the Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California to help you in your search for the best school for you. This report analyzed 31 schools in California to see which ones offered the best value graduate certificate 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 Graduate Certificate Schools

Our 2023 rankings named California State University - Sacramento the best value school in California for education students working on their graduate certificate. Sac State is a very large public school located in the large city of Sacramento.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Sac State are $8,826 per year.

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The excellent graduate certificate programs at California State University - Long Beach helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best value education schools in California. Located in the city of Long Beach, CSULB is a public college with a fairly large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at CSULB are $8,280 per year.

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The excellent graduate certificate programs at California State University - San Bernardino helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value education schools in California. CSUSB is a large public school located in the midsize city of San Bernardino.

CSUSB graduate students pay an average of $8,647 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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The excellent graduate certificate programs at California State University - Los Angeles helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best value education schools in California. Cal State LA is a fairly large public school located in the city of Los Angeles.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Cal State LA are $8,219 a year.

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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend California State University - Fresno. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California list. Fresno State is a fairly large public school located in the city of Fresno.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Fresno State are $8,087 per year.

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#6

Brandman University

Irvine, CA

Brandman University landed the #6 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value graduate certificate education programs. Located in the large city of Irvine, Brandman is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Brandman are $12,720 per year.

Brandman excels when it comes to quality. It’s ranked in the top 20% of all schools on our Best Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California list.

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San Jose State University ranked #7 on this year’s Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California list. Located in the large city of San Jose, San Jose State is a public school with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at San Jose State are $9,286 a year.

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California State University - Northridge ranked #8 on this year’s Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California list. CSUN is a very large public school located in the city of Northridge.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at CSUN are $8,477 per year.

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#9

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, CA

With a ranking of #9, San Francisco State University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for education students working on their graduate certificate. SFSU is a fairly large public school located in the city of San Francisco.

SFSU graduate students pay an average of $8,738 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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University of California - Irvine landed the #10 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value graduate certificate education programs. Located in the large city of Irvine, UC Irvine is a public college with a very large student population.

UC Irvine graduate students pay an average of $13,356 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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Best Value Education Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Value Education Colleges 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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