2023 Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor's Degree Schools in California
Identifying Quality Schools at More Affordable Prices
Finding the Best Physical Sciences Doctor's Degree School for You
Physical Sciences is the #17 most popular major in California with 8,302 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.
There are lots of options to pick from today when trying to decide which program is right for you. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.
The Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor's Degree Schools in California ranking is one of many tools that Course Advisor has developed to help you make your educational decision. Our analysis looked at 10 schools in California to see which doctor's degree programs offered the best value experiences for physical sciences 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. 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 Physical Sciences Doctor's Degree Schools
Our 2023 rankings named University of California - Santa Barbara the best value school in California for physical sciences students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the midsize suburb of Santa Barbara, UCSB is a public school with a fairly large student population.
In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UCSB are $13,581 per year.
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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of California - Berkeley. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. Located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public school with a very large student population.
The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UC Berkeley are $14,160 a year.
In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, UC Berkeley is ranked #3 for overall quality for physical sciences in California.
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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend University of California - San Diego. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. UCSD is a fairly large public school located in the large city of La Jolla.
In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UCSD are $13,564 per year.
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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend University of California - Los Angeles. The school came in at #4 on this year’s Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public school with a very large student population.
UCLA graduate students pay an average of $13,036 in in-state tuition and fees each year.
On top of its placing in our value ranking, UCLA also did well on our Best Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.
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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend University of California - Santa Cruz. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. UC Santa Cruz is a fairly large public school located in the small city of Santa Cruz.
In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UC Santa Cruz are $13,895 per year.
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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of California - Riverside. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. Located in the large city of Riverside, UCR is a public school with a fairly large student population.
The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UCR are $13,467 a year.
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University of California - Irvine did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for physical sciences students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #7 on the list. Located in the city of Irvine, UC Irvine is a public college with a fairly large student population.
In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UC Irvine are $13,356 per year.
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University of California - Davis came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California ranking. Located in the suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public college with a very large student population.
The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UC Davis are $13,608 a year.
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Stanford University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for physical sciences students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #9 on the list. Stanford is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the large suburb of Stanford.
In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Stanford are $55,011 per year.
Stanford also made our Best Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list, coming in at #1.
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California Institute of Technology did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for physical sciences students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #10 on the list. Caltech is a small private not-for-profit school located in the midsize city of Pasadena.
Caltech graduate students pay an average of $58,443 in in-state tuition and fees each year.
Request InformationBest Value Physical Sciences Colleges in the Far Western US Region
Explore all the Best Value Physical Sciences Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.
| State | Degrees Awarded |
|---|---|
| Washington | 1,936 |
| Oregon | 606 |
| Hawaii | 107 |
| Nevada | 315 |
| Alaska | 60 |
More Physical Sciences Rankings in California
Majors Related to Physical Sciences
Physical Sciences Majors to Study
| Major | Annual Graduates |
|---|---|
| Chemistry | 21,239 |
| Physics | 13,674 |
| Geological & Earth Sciences | 7,821 |
| General Physical Sciences | 3,823 |
| Astronomy & Astrophysics | 1,375 |
| Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology | 1,140 |
| Materials Sciences | 658 |
| Other Physical Science | 538 |
| Physics and Astronomy | 38 |
Majors Similar to Physical Sciences
| Related Major | Annual Graduates |
|---|---|
| Computer & Information Sciences | 254,454 |
| Engineering | 198,468 |
| Biological & Biomedical Sciences | 177,778 |
| Engineering Technologies | 85,188 |
| Mathematics & Statistics | 52,396 |
Notes and References
*These averages are for the top 10 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 NASA.
More about our data sources and methodologies.
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