2022 Best Value Area Studies Schools for a Doctorate in California

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Area Studies Schools for a Doctorate in California” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

Area Studies is the 106th most popular major in the country with 6,820 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. In 2017-2018, area studies graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $33,734 and had an average of $23,024 in loans still to pay off.

Across California, there were 1,008 area studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $30,743 and $17,480 respectively. At the doctor’s degree level specifically, there were 11 area studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $71,544 and $133,402 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Area Studies Schools for a Doctorate in California” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree in area studies. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality area studies programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the area studies program at the school and the cost to attend the school once aid has been awarded. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Area Studies 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 Area Studies Schools for a Doctorate in California” list to help you make the college decision.

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 Area Studies Schools for a Doctorate in California

The colleges and universities below are the best for california doctor’s degree area studies students.

Top 3 Best Value Doctor’s Degree Colleges for Area Studies in California

#1

University of California - Berkeley

Berkeley, California

#2 in overall quality

$29,347 Avg Grad Tuition & Fees

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of California - Berkeley. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Area Studies Schools for a Doctorate in California. Berkeley, California is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out doctorate’s area studies degrees to 6 students in 2019-2020.

UC Berkeley not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #2 on our “Best Area Studies Doctor’s Degree Schools in California” list. Although you might pay more or less depending on your area of study, average graduate tuition and fees at UC Berkeley are $29,347.

Read more about Area Studies at University of California - Berkeley

#2

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, California

#1 in overall quality

$48,715 Avg Grad Tuition & Fees

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Area Studies Schools for a Doctorate in California that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Southern California landed the #2 spot on the list. This large school is located in Los Angeles, California, and it awarded 3 doctorate’s area studies degrees in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at USC, the school also landed the #1 spot in our “Best Area Studies Doctor’s Degree Schools in California” ranking. Average graduate tuition and fees at University of Southern California are $48,715, but some majors have different tuition rates.

Read more about Area Studies at University of Southern California

#3

Stanford University

Stanford, California

#1 in overall quality

$55,011 Avg Grad Tuition & Fees

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Area Studies Schools for a Doctorate in California that were part of this year’s ranking, Stanford University landed the #3 spot on the list. Stanford, California is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out doctorate’s area studies degrees to 2 students in 2019-2020.

Stanford not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best Area Studies Doctor’s Degree Schools in California” list. Average graduate tuition and fees at Stanford are $55,011, but you may pay more or less depending on your major.

Full Stanford Area Studies Report

• Best Value Doctor’s Degree Colleges for Area Studies in the Far Western US Region
• Best Value Doctor’s Degree Colleges for Area Studies

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 Karl Udo Gerth.

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