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Best Value Marine Science Schools in California

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2023 Best Value Marine Science Schools in California

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

5 Colleges
$9,443 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$27,607 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Marine Science School for You

Marine Science is the #212 most popular major in California with 110 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. As online education oppotunities continue to grow, you're not restricted to just schools in your local area anymore. Even some of the 'big name' schools are offering online courses. Also, there are a number of trade schools with offerings that you might find attractive.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Course Advisor has created the Best Value Marine Science Schools in California to help you in your search for the best school for you. Our analysis looked at 5 schools in California to see which programs offered the best value experiences for marine science students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

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 Marine Science Schools in California

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

Best California Schools for Affordable Quality in Marine Science

$7,218 Average Tuition & Fees

Our 2023 rankings named California State University - Monterey Bay the best value school in California for marine science students. Located in the midsize suburb of Seaside, CSUMB is a public school with a moderately-sized student population.

CSUMB undergraduate students pay an average of $7,218 in in-state tuition and fees each year. Marine Science majors at CSUMB take out an average of $17,832 in student loans while working on their egree.

Read full report on Marine Science at California State University - Monterey Bay

$10,195 Average Tuition & Fees

A rank of #2 on this year’s list means California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo is a great value for marine science students. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a very large public school located in the small suburb of San Luis Obispo.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo undergraduate students pay an average of $10,195 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo excels when it comes to quality. It’s ranked in the top 5% of all schools on our Best Marine Science Schools in California list.

Read full report on Marine Science at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

Out of the 5 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, San Jose State University landed the # 3 spot on the list. San Jose State is a very large public school located in the city of San Jose.

In-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at San Jose State are $7,852 per year.

On top of its placing in our value ranking, San Jose State also did well on our Best Marine Science Schools in California list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.

Read full report on Marine Science at San Jose State University

$14,645 Average Tuition & Fees

The excellent programs at University of California - Davis helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best marine science schools in California. UC Davis is a very large public school located in the small suburb of Davis.

UC Davis undergraduate students pay an average of $14,645 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

In addition to its great value ranking, UC Davis is in the top 15% of all schools on our Best Marine Science Schools in California list.

Read full report on Marine Science at University of California - Davis

#5

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, CA
$7,304 Average Tuition & Fees

Out of the 5 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, San Francisco State University landed the # 5 spot on the list. Located in the city of San Francisco, SFSU is a public school with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at SFSU are $7,304 a year.

Full Marine Science at San Francisco State University Report

Best Value Marine Science Colleges in the Far Western US Region

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

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 0
Hawaii 8
Alaska 0

One of 44 majors within the area of study, marine science has other similar majors worth exploring.

Majors Similar to Marine Science

Related Major Annual Graduates
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies 34,975
Biological & Physical Science 30,075
Interdisciplinary Studies 9,074
International Studies 7,368
Nutrition Science 5,330

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 5 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 Daderot.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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