If you plan on majoring in food science, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #305 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 4 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Food Science Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 230 degrees in food science during the 2020-2021 academic year.
The food sciences program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Food Science rankings. We derive our Best Overall Food Science School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Food Science Schools in California ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the food sciences degree levels they offer.
It is difficult to beat University of California - Davis if you wish to pursue a degree in food science. Located in the suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #52 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UC Davis is a great university overall.
There were approximately 75 food science students who graduated with this degree at UC Davis in the most recent data year.
Any student who is interested in food science has to check out California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo. Located in the small suburb of San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #95 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a great university overall.
There were about 47 food science students who graduated with this degree at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the most recent data year.
California State University - Fresno is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in food science. Fresno State is a very large public university located in the city of Fresno. This university ranks 74th out of 168 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were roughly 49 food science students who graduated with this degree at Fresno State in the most recent year we have data available.
California State Polytechnic University - Pomona is a wonderful choice for students pursuing a degree in food science. Cal Poly Pomona is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Pomona. This university ranks 65th out of 168 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were roughly 41 food science students who graduated with this degree at Cal Poly Pomona in the most recent year we have data available.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
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).