2023 Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

In 2020-2021, 3,904 people earned their degree in systems engineering, making the major the 160th most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, systems engineering graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $89,736 and had an average of $21,799 in loans still to pay off.

Across California, there were 537 systems engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $125,714 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking analyzed 3 colleges that offered a degree in systems engineering. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality systems engineering programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the systems engineering program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Systems Engineering Schools

The systems 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 “Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k”.

We’ve created a tool called College Combat that lets you create your own customized comparisons based on the factors that matter the most to you. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

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

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

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

1

University of California - San Diego
La Jolla, California

#2 in overall quality

$9,823 Average Net Price

$50,251 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of California - San Diego. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k. La Jolla, California is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out ’s systems engineering degrees to 36 students in 2020-2021.

UCSD also took the #2 spot in our “Best Systems Engineering Schools in California” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for UCSD is $9,823 for california systems engineering students whose families make $0-$30k.

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 school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.0%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full University of California - San Diego Systems Engineering Report

2

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California

#1 in overall quality

$17,287 Average Net Price

$65,044 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Southern California. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k. Located in Los Angeles, California, this large private not-for-profit school awarded 28 degrees to qualified ’s systems engineering students in 2020-2021.

In addition to being on our california systems engineering students whose families make $0-$30k list, USC has also earned the #1 rank in our “Best Systems Engineering Schools in California” ranking. It costs about $17,287 for california systems engineering students whose families make $0-$30k per year to attend University of Southern California.

The undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 91%. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Systems Engineering at University of Southern California

3

Loyola Marymount University
Los Angeles, California

#3 in overall quality

$32,730 Average Net Price

$48,301 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Systems Engineering Schools in California For Those Making $0-$30k that were part of this year’s ranking, Loyola Marymount University landed the #3 spot on the list. Loyola Marymount is a fairly large school located in Los Angeles, California that handed out 10 ’s systems engineering degrees in 2020-2021.

In addition to being on our california systems engineering students whose families make $0-$30k list, Loyola Marymount has also earned the #3 rank in our “Best Systems Engineering Schools in California” ranking. It costs about $32,730 for California Systems Engineering students whose families make $0-$30k per year to attend Loyola Marymount University.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 1.8%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. Since the school has a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Read more about Systems Engineering at Loyola Marymount

• Best Value Colleges for Systems Engineering (Income $0-$30k) in the Far Western US Region
• Best Value Colleges for Systems Engineering (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 luis gomes.