2023 Most Popular Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Materials Engineering in California
9
Ranked Colleges
189
Degrees Awarded
$59,066
Avg Salary
With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. At College Factual, we’re committed to helping you make that decision by providing information such as that found in our “Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s” ranking.
Materials Engineering is the 154th most popular major in the country with 3,415 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, materials engineering graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $65,007 and had an average of $23,030 in loans still to pay off.
Across California, there were 497 materials engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $59,066 and $15,554 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 189 materials engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $39,566 and $21,995 respectively.
This year’s “Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s” ranking analyzed 9 colleges that offered a degree in materials engineering. To top this list, a school must have a successful materials engineering program that graduates more students in the field than other colleges that offer the same major.
See our ranking methodology to learn more.
One Size Does Not Fit All
The materials engineering 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 “Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s”.
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. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.
Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s
The following schools top our list of the Best “Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s”.
Top 9 Most Popular Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Materials Engineering in California
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo. The school came in at #1 for the Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s. San Luis Obispo, California is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s materials engineering degrees to 41 students in 2020-2021.
Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 94%. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.7%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.
Read more about Materials Engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of California - Los Angeles. The school came in at #2 for the Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s. UCLA is a large school located in Los Angeles, California that handed out 33 bachelors’s materials engineering degrees in 2020-2021.
With a freshman retention rate of 96%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.6% 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%.
Read more about Materials Engineering at UCLA
Out of the 9 schools in the Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Davis landed the #3 spot on the list. University of California - Davis is a large school located in Davis, California that handed out 31 bachelors’s materials engineering degrees in 2020-2021.
The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 1.5%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 93%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.
Full University of California - Davis Materials Engineering Report
Out of the 9 schools in the Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Irvine landed the #4 spot on the list. University of California - Irvine is a large public school situated in Irvine, California. It awarded 28 bachelors’s materials engineering degrees in 2020-2021.
The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.4%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 94%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.
Read full report on Materials Engineering at UC Irvine
Out of the 9 schools in the Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Riverside landed the #5 spot on the list. Riverside, California is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s materials engineering degrees to 22 students in 2020-2021.
The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 91%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 2.3%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.
Read more about Materials Engineering at University of California - Riverside
San Jose State University landed the #6 spot on the 2023 Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s ranking. Located in San Jose, California, this large public school awarded 14 degrees to qualified bachelors’s materials engineering students in 2020-2021.
The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 86%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 2.9% 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%.
Read more about Materials Engineering at San Jose State
University of California - Merced ranked #7 on this year’s Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s list. Merced, California is the setting for this medium-sized institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s materials engineering degrees to 12 students in 2020-2021.
The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 2.8%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 86%.
Read more about Materials Engineering at UC Merced
Stanford University came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s ranking. Stanford is located in Stanford, California and, has a fairly large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 6 bachelors’s materials engineering degrees to qualified students.
The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.5%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 86%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 4 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one.
Full Stanford University Materials Engineering Report
California Institute of Technology landed the #9 spot on the 2023 Most Well Attended Materials Engineering Major in California for a Bachelor’s ranking. California Institute of Technology is located in Pasadena, California and, has a small student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 2 bachelors’s materials engineering degrees to qualified students.
The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 94%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 3 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.
Full California Institute of Technology Materials Engineering Report
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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
- *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate 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.
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