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by our College Data Analytics Team
When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Library Science Schools in the Far Western US Region” ranking is part of that endeavor.
In 2020-2021, 5,950 people earned their degree in library and information science, making the major the 121st most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, library and information science graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $43,949 and had an average of $27,472 in loans still to pay off.
Across the Far Western US region, there were 857 library and information science graduates with average earnings and debt of $40,882 and $37,917 respectively.
This year’s “Best Value Library Science Schools in the Far Western US Region” ranking looked at 5 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in library and information science. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent library and information science programs, but they also cost less that schools of similar quality.
To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as the cost to attend the school after aid is awarded and overall quality of the library and information science program at the school. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.
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 Library Science Schools in the Far Western US Region” list to help you make the college decision.
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. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Library Science Schools in the Far Western US Region.
Out of the 5 schools in the Best Value Library Science Schools in the Far Western US Region that were part of this year’s ranking, San Jose State University landed the #2 spot on the list. San Jose, California is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out ’s library science degrees to 648 students in 2020-2021.
In addition to being on our far western us region library science students list, San Jose State has also earned the #1 rank in our “Best Library & Information Science Schools in the Far Western US Region” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for San Jose State is $16,542 for Far Western US Region Library Science students.
The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 2.9%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 86%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.
You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Washington - Seattle Campus. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Value Library Science Schools in the Far Western US Region list. UW Seattle is a large school located in Seattle, Washington that handed out 122 ’s library science degrees in 2020-2021.
UW Seattle also made our “Best Library & Information Science Schools in the Far Western US Region” list, coming in at #4. The yearly cost to attend University of Washington - Seattle Campus is $12,017 for far western us region library science students.
With a freshman retention rate of 93%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 2.1% 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 Library & Information Science at University of Washington - Seattle Campus
Out of the 5 schools in the Best Value Library Science Schools in the Far Western US Region that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Hawaii at Manoa landed the #4 spot on the list. UH Manoa is a fairly large public school situated in Honolulu, Hawaii. It awarded 11 ’s library science degrees in 2020-2021.
In addition to being on our far western us region library science students list, UH Manoa has also earned the #5 rank in our “Best Library & Information Science Schools in the Far Western US Region” ranking. It costs about $14,687 for Far Western US Region Library Science students per year to attend University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The low undergrad student loan default rate of 3.5% 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 Library & Information Science at University of Hawaii at Manoa
You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Southern California. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Library Science Schools in the Far Western US Region list. This large school is located in Los Angeles, California, and it awarded 36 ’s library science degrees in 2020-2021.
As a testament to the quality of education offered at USC, the school also landed the #3 spot in our “Best Library & Information Science Schools in the Far Western US Region” ranking. It costs about $32,569 for far western us region library science students per year to attend University of Southern California.
With a freshman retention rate of 91%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.3% 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 our data sources and methodologies
