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Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor's Degree Schools in California

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2023 Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor's Degree Schools in California

Identifying Quality Schools at More Affordable Prices

10 Colleges
$22,212 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$70,619 Avg Salary

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.

2023 Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California

The following schools top our list of the Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor's Degree Colleges.

Top 10 Best Physical Sciences Doctor's Degree Schools

Our analysis found University of California - Santa Barbara to be the best value school for physical sciences students who want to pursue a doctor’s degree in California. Located in the medium-sized suburb of Santa Barbara, UCSB is a public college with a fairly large student population.

UCSB graduate students pay an average of $13,581 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 - 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 fairly large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UC Berkeley are $14,160 per year.

UC Berkeley not only placed well in our value ranking, but it is also #3 on our Best Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list.

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Out of the 10 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - San Diego landed the # 3 spot on the list. UCSD is a very large public school located in the city of La Jolla.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UCSD are $13,564 per year.

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A rank of #4 on this year’s list means University of California - Los Angeles is a great value for physical sciences students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public college with a fairly large student population.

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

In addition to its great value ranking, UCLA is in the top 20% of all schools on our Best Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list.

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

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of California - Santa Cruz. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. UC Santa Cruz is a 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.

Read full report on Physical Sciences at University of California - Santa Cruz

A rank of #5 on this year’s list means University of California - Riverside is a great value for physical sciences students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Riverside, UCR is a public college with a fairly large student population.

UCR graduate students pay an average of $13,467 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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University of California - Irvine landed the #7 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value doctor’s degree physical sciences programs. Located in the city of Irvine, UC Irvine is a public school with a very large student population.

UC Irvine graduate students pay an average of $13,356 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Physical Sciences at University of California - Irvine

University of California - Davis landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value doctor’s degree physical sciences programs. Located in the small suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public college with a very large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UC Davis are $13,608 per year.

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#9

Stanford University

Stanford, CA

Stanford University came in at #9 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California ranking. Stanford is a 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 took the #1 spot in our Best Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California rankings.

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California Institute of Technology ranked #10 on this year’s Best Value Physical Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. Caltech is a small private not-for-profit school located in the medium-sized city of Pasadena.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Caltech are $58,443 per year.

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Best 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

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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