2026 Best Value General Nuclear Engineering Schools in California
[General Nuclear Engineering](/majors/engineering/nuclear-engineering/general-nuclear-engineering/) degree programs vary widely in price and payoff across the country. The schools below stand out for delivering a strong general nuclear engineering education at a price that pays off.
To produce this 2026 ranking, College Factual evaluated 2 schools on the balance of cost and outcomes for general nuclear engineering students.
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2026 Best Value General Nuclear Engineering Schools in California
Below are the schools that deliver the strongest value in general nuclear engineering, balancing cost against outcomes.
Best Value General Nuclear Engineering Schools
For return on investment in general nuclear engineering, no school beat University Of California Berkeley this year. Set in the city of Berkeley, University Of California Berkeley is a very large public institution. The average in-state cost of tuition and fees is $15,377, compared with $47,265 for out-of-state students. General Nuclear Engineering graduates carry a median of $14,238 in student loans. Soon after graduation, general nuclear engineering degree recipients from University Of California Berkeley generally make around $70,847. Set against $14,238 in median debt, that is a healthy payoff. University Of California Berkeley admits about 11% of applicants.
Notes and References
The ranking above is published by College Factual (MF_RANKING_2025), 2026 edition. Schools are scored on the balance of cost (tuition and student debt) against student outcomes (post-graduation earnings) — a measure of return on investment, drawn primarily from the U.S. Department of Education (IPEDS and College Scorecard).
Ranking method: College Major Best Value · 2 schools evaluated.
*Averages shown above reflect the top 1 ranked schools only.
- 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).
More about our data sources and methodologies.
