2023 Best Value Physical Sciences Graduate Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region
Identifying Quality Schools at More Affordable Prices
Finding the Best Physical Sciences Graduate Certificate School for You
Physical Sciences is the #19 most popular major in the country with 50,306 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.
When it comes to higher education, there are a lot of options for students. 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 Graduate Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking is one of many tools that Course Advisor has developed to help you make your educational decision. Our analysis looked at 2 schools in the Great Lakes Region to see which graduate certificate 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.
This ranking is not just a list of inexpensive schools. We also consider each school's quality, since we believe a low-quality school may not be a 'bargain' at any price. 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.
For nationwide and regional rankings, we use out-of-state tuition and fees in our calculations. Average in-state tuition and fees are used for our statewide rankings.
Best Great Lakes Region Schools for Affordable Quality for a Postbaccalaureate Certificates in Physical Sciences
Our 2023 rankings named Illinois State University the best value school in the Great Lakes Region for physical sciences students working on their graduate certificate. Illinois State is a very large public school located in the suburb of Normal.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Illinois State are $11,773 a year.
Full Physical Sciences at Illinois State University Report
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Out of the 2 schools in the Great Lakes Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Western Michigan University landed the # 2 spot on the list. WMU is a fairly large public school located in the city of Kalamazoo.
WMU graduate students pay an average of $26,248 in tuition and fees each year.
Full Physical Sciences at Western Michigan University Report
Request InformationBest Physical Sciences Colleges by State
Explore the best physical sciences colleges for a specific state in the Great Lakes region.
| State | Degrees Awarded |
|---|---|
| Indiana | 951 |
| Michigan | 1,288 |
| Ohio | 1,581 |
| Illinois | 1,686 |
| Wisconsin | 873 |
More Physical Sciences Rankings in the Great Lakes Region
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 |
Most Popular Majors Related 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 2 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.