2023 Best Value Colleges for Genetics (Income $0-$30k) in California

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Genetics Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking is part of that endeavor.

In 2020-2021, 1,543 people earned their degree in genetics, making the major the 206th most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, genetics graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $36,723 and had an average of $22,299 in loans still to pay off.

Across California, there were 156 genetics graduates with average earnings and debt of $55,861 and $13,400 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Genetics Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking looked at 3 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in genetics. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent genetics programs, but they also cost less that schools of similar quality.

To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as the cost to attend the school after aid is awarded and overall quality of the genetics program at the school. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Genetics Schools

When choosing the right school for you, it’s important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we’ve created a number of major-specific rankings, including this “Best Value Genetics Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k” list to help you make the college decision.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Best Value Genetics Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Genetics Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k.

Top 3 Best Value Colleges for Genetics (Income $0-$30k) in California

1

Stanford University
Stanford, California

#1 in overall quality

$1,233 Average Net Price

$83,159 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Stanford University. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Best Value Genetics Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k list. Located in Stanford, California, this fairly large private not-for-profit school awarded 25 diplomas to qualified ’s genetics students in 2020-2021.

Stanford also made our “Best Genetics Schools in California” list, coming in at #1. The estimated yearly cost for Stanford is $1,233 for California Genetics students whose families make $0-$30k.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 0.5%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 4 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. With a freshman retention rate of 86%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read full report on Genetics at Stanford

2

University of California - Davis
Davis, California

#2 in overall quality

$10,006 Average Net Price

$46,065 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of California - Davis. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Genetics Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k list. Davis, California is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out ’s genetics degrees to 110 students in 2020-2021.

In addition to being on our california genetics students whose families make $0-$30k list, UC Davis has also earned the #2 rank in our “Best Genetics Schools in California” ranking. The yearly cost to attend University of California - Davis is $10,006 for California Genetics students whose families make $0-$30k.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 93%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.5%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full University of California - Davis Genetics Report

3

University of California - Irvine
Irvine, California

#3 in overall quality

$6,540 Average Net Price

$44,120 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Genetics Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Irvine landed the #3 spot on the list. University of California - Irvine is a large school located in Irvine, California that handed out 9 ’s genetics degrees in 2020-2021.

UC Irvine did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our “Best Genetics Schools in California” list. The estimated yearly cost for UC Irvine is $6,540 for California Genetics students whose families make $0-$30k.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.4% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 94%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read more about Genetics at UC Irvine

• Best Value Colleges for Genetics (Income $0-$30k) in the Far Western US Region
• Best Value Colleges for Genetics (Income $0-$30k)

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to Domaina.