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Best Value Materials Sciences Schools in California

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2023 Best Value Materials Sciences Schools in California

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

4 Colleges
$13,914 Avg Tuition & Fees*

Finding the Best Materials Sciences School for You

With 136 degrees and certificates handed out in 2020-2021, materials sciences is the #205 most popular major in California.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. 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 Materials Sciences Schools in California ranking. Our analysis looked at 4 schools in California to see which programs offered the best value experiences for materials science students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

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. 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.

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

2023 Best Value Materials Sciences Schools in California

The following schools top our list of the Best Value Materials Sciences Colleges.

Best California Schools for Affordable Quality in Materials Sciences

$14,417 Average Tuition & Fees

Our 2023 rankings named University of California - Santa Barbara the best value school in California for materials sciences students. UCSB is a very large public school located in the midsize suburb of Santa Barbara.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at UCSB are $14,417 a year.

In addition to its great value ranking, UCSB is in the top 10% of all schools on our Best Materials Sciences Schools in California list.

Full Materials Sciences at University of California - Santa Barbara Report

$14,226 Average Tuition & Fees

The excellent programs at University of California - Berkeley helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best materials sciences schools in California. UC Berkeley is a very large public school located in the city of Berkeley.

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

UC Berkeley did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our Best Materials Sciences Schools in California list.

Read full report on Materials Sciences at University of California - Berkeley

$13,258 Average Tuition & Fees

A rank of #3 on this year’s list means University of California - Los Angeles is a great value for materials sciences students. UCLA is a very large public school located in the city of Los Angeles.

UCLA undergraduate students pay an average of $13,258 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

As a testament to the quality of education it offers, UCLA also is in the top 10% of our Best Materials Sciences Schools in California ranking.

Read full report on Materials Sciences at University of California - Los Angeles

$13,754 Average Tuition & Fees

Out of the 4 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Riverside landed the # 4 spot on the list. UCR is a very large public school located in the large city of Riverside.

In-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at UCR are $13,754 per year.

Read full report on Materials Sciences at University of California - Riverside

Best Value Materials Sciences Colleges in the Far Western US Region

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

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 0
Oregon 7

One of 8 majors within the area of study, materials sciences has other similar majors worth exploring.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Chemistry 21,239
Physics 13,674
Geological & Earth Sciences 7,821
General Physical Sciences 3,823
Astronomy & Astrophysics 1,375

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 4 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 Per Henning.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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