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Best Value Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools in California

2023 Best Value Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools in California

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

11 Colleges
$22,439 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$111,936 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Engineering Doctor's Degree School for You

In 2020-2021, engineering students earned 25,076 degrees and certificates from a California school, making the subject the 8th in the state.

It's not easy to decide which program to enroll in when you have so many options available. Along with traditional schools that require in-person attendence, you can attend one of many reputable online schools. Some programs even offer a hybrid experience. Alternatively, you may choose a trade school that prepares you to enter the workforce with knowledge in a specific field.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Course Advisor has created its Best Value Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools in California ranking. This report analyzed 11 schools in California to see which ones offered the best value doctor's degree programs for engineering students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

Our ranking of value is based on the quality of a program as defined in our per sticker price dollar. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

In our regional and nationwide rankings, out-of-state tution and fees are used in our calculations. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

Top 10 Best Engineering Doctor's Degree Schools

Our analysis found University of California - Berkeley to be the best value school for engineering students who want to pursue a doctor’s degree in California. UC Berkeley is a fairly large public school located in the city of Berkeley.

UC Berkeley graduate students pay an average of $14,160 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

UC Berkeley did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our Best Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list.

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Out of the 11 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Los Angeles landed the # 2 spot on the list. UCLA is a fairly large public school located in the city of Los Angeles.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UCLA are $13,036 per year.

On top of its placing in our value ranking, UCLA also did well on our Best Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.

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The excellent doctor’s degree programs at University of California - Santa Barbara helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value engineering schools in California. UCSB is a very large public school located in the midsize suburb of Santa Barbara.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UCSB are $13,581 a year.

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Out of the 11 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - San Diego landed the # 4 spot on the list. Located in the large city of La Jolla, UCSD is a public college with a fairly large student population.

UCSD graduate students pay an average of $13,564 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of California - Davis. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Engineering Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. UC Davis is a fairly large public school located in the small suburb of Davis.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UC Davis are $13,608 a year.

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University of California - Irvine did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for engineering students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #6 on the list. UC Irvine is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Irvine.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UC Irvine are $13,356 a year.

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#7

Santa Clara University

Santa Clara, CA

With a ranking of #7, Santa Clara University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for engineering students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the medium-sized city of Santa Clara, SCU is a private not-for-profit college with a moderately-sized student population.

SCU graduate students pay an average of $25,170 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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University of California - Riverside landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value doctor’s degree engineering programs. UCR is a very large public school located in the city of Riverside.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UCR are $13,467 per year.

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University of California - Merced did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for engineering students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #9 on the list. Located in the rural area of Merced, UC Merced is a public college with a medium-sized student population.

UC Merced graduate students pay an average of $13,207 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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#10

Stanford University

Stanford, CA

Stanford University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for engineering students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #10 on the list. Located in the suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.

Stanford graduate students pay an average of $55,011 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, Stanford is ranked #1 for overall quality for engineering in California.

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Best Value Engineering Colleges in the Far Western US Region

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

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 3,545
Oregon 2,281
Hawaii 301
Nevada 900
Alaska 178

Engineering Majors to Study

Major Annual Graduates
Mechanical Engineering 46,178
Electrical Engineering 28,844
Civil Engineering 21,388
Computer Engineering 17,987
Chemical Engineering 12,917
Biomedical Engineering 12,811
General Engineering 11,796
Industrial Engineering 9,072
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering 8,001
Systems Engineering 3,904
Materials Engineering 3,415
Other Engineering 2,760
Environmental Engineering 2,759
Operations Research 1,698
Agricultural Engineering 1,472
Engineering Science 1,454
Electrical and Computer Engineering. 1,378
Petroleum Engineering 1,256
Robotics Engineering 1,243
Architectural Engineering 1,012
Engineering Physics 994
Manufacturing Engineering 947
Construction Engineering 878
Nuclear Engineering 864
Marine Engineering 445
Biological Engineering 410
Polymer & Plastics Engineering 360
Geoscience Engineering 325
Mining Engineering 314
Textile Engineering 310
Ocean Engineering 285
Engineering Mechanics 272
Metallurgical Engineering 179
Energy Systems Engineering 138
Biochemical Engineering 109
Ceramic Engineering 94
Surveying Engineering 73
Electromechanical Engineering 45
Forest Engineering 41
Paper Science & Engineering 27
Engineering Chemistry 13

Related Major Annual Graduates
Computer & Information Sciences 254,454
Biological & Biomedical Sciences 177,778
Engineering Technologies 85,188
Mathematics & Statistics 52,396
Physical Sciences 50,306

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 11 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 Petty Officer 3rd Class Declan Barnes.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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