When it comes to popularity, zoology sits in the middle of the road, ranking #165 out of 395 majors in the country. So, you may have to do some digging around to find quality schools that offer the degree program. This list can help with that.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for zoology students pursuing a degree. Combined, these schools handed out 204 degrees in zoology to qualified students.
The zoology program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Zoology rankings. For our Best Overall Zoology School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
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 Zoology Schools in California ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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 zoology degrees they offer, see the list below.
University of California - Davis is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a degree in zoology. Located in the small suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 10th out of 161 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 101 zoology students who graduated with this degree at UC Davis in the most recent year we have data available.
It's difficult to beat University of California - Santa Barbara if you want to pursue a degree in zoology. Located in the medium-sized suburb of Santa Barbara, UCSB is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #47 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UCSB is a great university overall.
There were about 27 zoology students who graduated with this degree at UCSB in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the zoology program at University of California - Santa Barbara make $7,846 more than the typical graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
It is difficult to beat Humboldt State University if you want to pursue a degree in zoology. Humboldt State University is a medium-sized public university located in the town of Arcata. This university ranks 125th out of 161 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 37 zoology students who graduated with this degree at Humboldt State University in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the zoology program report average early career wages of $28,565.
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).