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Best Value Optometry Schools in California

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2023 Best Value Optometry Schools in California

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

3 Colleges
$14,226 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$73,054 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Optometry School for You

Optometry is the #174 most popular major in California with 256 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

It's not easy to decide which program to enroll in when you have so many options available. With more and more schools offering online options, you could even register for a great program on the other side of the country. On top of that, there are a considerable number of trade schools that offer fast-track entry to many fields.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Course Advisor has created its Best Value Optometry Schools in California ranking. This report analyzed 3 schools in California to see which ones offered the best value programs for optometry 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.

2023 Best Value Optometry Schools in California

Check out the optometry programs at these schools if you want to get the best value for your educational dollar.

Best California Schools for Affordable Quality in Optometry

$14,226 Average Tuition & Fees

Our 2023 rankings named University of California - Berkeley the best value school in California for optometry students. UC Berkeley is a very large public school located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at UC Berkeley are $14,226 a year.

UC Berkeley also made our Best Optometry Schools in California list, coming in at #3.

Read full report on Optometry at University of California - Berkeley

Out of the 3 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, Western University of Health Sciences landed the # 2 spot on the list. Located in the suburb of Pomona, Western University of Health Sciences is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

Full Optometry at Western University of Health Sciences Report

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Marshall B Ketchum University. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Value Optometry Schools in California list. MBKU is a fairly small private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Fullerton.

Read full report on Optometry at Marshall B Ketchum University

Best Value Optometry Colleges in the Far Western US Region

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

State Degrees Awarded
Oregon 88

Optometry is one of 30 different types of programs to choose from.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Nursing 322,592
Health & Medical Administrative Services 89,359
Allied Health & Medical Assisting Services 84,492
Practical Nursing & Nursing Assistants 84,274
Allied Health Professions 82,308

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 3 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).

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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