2022 Best Value Gerontology Schools for a Bachelor’s in California

With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Best Value Gerontology Schools for a Bachelor’s in California” ranking - to help you make that decision.

In 2019-2020, 1,226 people earned their degree in gerontology, making the major the 247th most popular in the United States. In 2017-2018, gerontology graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $37,786 and had an average of $32,628 in loans still to pay off.

Across California, there were 258 gerontology graduates with average earnings and debt of $37,567 and $38,695 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 96 gerontology graduates with average earnings and debt of $37,907 and $21,546 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Gerontology Schools for a Bachelor’s in California” ranking, we looked at 4 colleges that offer a degree in gerontology. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent gerontology 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 gerontology program at the school. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

More Ways to Rank Gerontology 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 Gerontology Schools for a Bachelor’s 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. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Best Value Gerontology Schools for a Bachelor’s in California

The colleges and universities below are the best for california bachelor’s degree gerontology students.

Top 4 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Gerontology in California

#1

California State University - Sacramento

Sacramento, California

#2 in overall quality

$9,979 Average Net Price

$34,298 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend California State University - Sacramento. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Gerontology Schools for a Bachelor’s in California. Sacramento, California is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s gerontology degrees to 57 students in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Sac State, the school also landed the #2 spot in our “Best Gerontology Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” ranking. It costs about $9,979 for California Bachelor’s Degree Gerontology students per year to attend California State University - Sacramento.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 4.6%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full Sac State Gerontology Report

#2

San Diego State University

San Diego, California

#3 in overall quality

$14,788 Average Net Price

$33,459 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend San Diego State University. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Gerontology Schools for a Bachelor’s in California list. This large school is located in San Diego, California, and it awarded 8 bachelors’s gerontology degrees in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at SDSU, the school also landed the #3 spot in our “Best Gerontology Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” ranking. It costs about $14,788 for california bachelor’s degree gerontology students per year to attend SDSU.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 89%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 2.8%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Gerontology at San Diego State University

#4

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, California

#1 in overall quality

$29,528 Average Net Price

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Southern California. The school came in at #4 for the Best Value Gerontology Schools for a Bachelor’s in California. USC is a private not-for-profit institution located in Los Angeles, California. The school has a large population, and it awarded 15 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

USC also made our “Best Gerontology Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list, coming in at #1. It costs about $29,528 for California Bachelor’s Degree Gerontology students per year to attend USC.

The low student loan default rate of 1.2% 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%. The 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. With a freshman retention rate of 91%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.

Full USC Gerontology Report

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Gerontology in the Far Western US Region
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Gerontology

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 Photo by Chalmers Butterfield.

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