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2024 Best Marine Biology Schools in California

6 Colleges in California
239 Biological Oceanography Degrees Awarded
Marine Biology is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #298 most popular degree program in the country. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 6 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for marine biology students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 239 degrees in marine biology during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Degree-Level Rankings

Choosing a Great Marine Biology School

Best Marine Biology Schools in California Your choice of marine biology school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for marine biology schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.

You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.

Marine Biology Rankings by Degree Level

Bachelor's Degrees in Biological Oceanography
Master's Degrees in Biological Oceanography
Doctor's Degrees in Biological Oceanography

The biological oceanography school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Marine Biology Schools in California. 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.

If you want to learn more about how we derive our rankings, see College Factual's Methodology.

Best Schools for Marine Biology in California

If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the biological oceanography degrees they offer, see the list below.

Top California Schools in Biological Oceanography

1
Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type
4th Most Popular In CA

Any student pursuing a degree in marine biology needs to take a look at University of California - Los Angeles. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #26 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UCLA is a great university overall.

There were roughly 10 marine biology students who graduated with this degree at UCLA in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in marine biology from University of California - Los Angeles

1
Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type
6th Most Popular In CA

Any student who is interested in marine biology has to check out University of Southern California. USC is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Los Angeles. A Best Colleges rank of #11 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means USC is a great university overall.

There were roughly 2 marine biology students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in marine biology from University of Southern California

2
Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type
1st Most Popular In CA
121 Biological Oceanography Degrees Awarded

It is hard to beat University of California - San Diego if you wish to pursue a degree in marine biology. UCSD is a fairly large public university located in the city of La Jolla. A Best Colleges rank of #38 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UCSD is a great university overall.

There were approximately 121 marine biology students who graduated with this degree at UCSD in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in marine biology from University of California - San Diego

3
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
6th Most Popular In CA

University of California - Santa Barbara is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in marine biology. Located in the suburb of Santa Barbara, UCSB is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 10th out of 168 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.

There were about 2 marine biology students who graduated with this degree at UCSB in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in marine biology from University of California - Santa Barbara

4
Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type
2nd Most Popular In CA
72 Biological Oceanography Degrees Awarded

It's hard to beat University of California - Santa Cruz if you want to pursue a degree in marine biology. UC Santa Cruz is a large public university located in the small city of Santa Cruz. This university ranks 19th out of 168 schools for overall quality in the state of California.

There were about 72 marine biology students who graduated with this degree at UC Santa Cruz in the most recent year we have data available.

More information about a degree in marine biology from University of California - Santa Cruz

5
Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type
5th Most Popular In CA

San Jose State is a fairly large public university located in the large city of San Jose. This university ranks 23rd out of 168 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.

There were about 6 marine biology students who graduated with this degree at San Jose State in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in marine biology from San Jose State University

6
Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type
3rd Most Popular In CA

CSULB is a fairly large public university located in the city of Long Beach. This university ranks 28th out of 168 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.

There were approximately 25 marine biology students who graduated with this degree at CSULB in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in marine biology from California State University - Long Beach

Best Marine Biology Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Marine Biology Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State Colleges Degrees Awarded
Washington 831 51
Oregon 587 17
Hawaii 267 108
Alaska 167 14

View All Rankings >

Marine Biology is one of 11 different types of Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology programs to choose from.

Majors Similar to Biological Oceanography

Related Major Annual Graduates
Ecology 144
Other Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology 116
Epidemiology 94
Evolutionary Biology 59
Aquatic Biology/Limnology 35
Environmental Biology 34
Evolutionary Biology 7
Population Biology 3

View All Biological Oceanography Related Majors >

Notes and References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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