2022 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Marine Science in California

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. 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 Marine Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in California” ranking is part of that endeavor.

Marine Science is the 304th most popular major in the country with 312 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. In 2017-2018, marine science graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $28,200 and had an average of $21,630 in loans still to pay off.

Across California, there were 115 marine science graduates with average earnings and debt of $28,200 and $17,259 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 96 marine science graduates with average earnings and debt of $37,907 and $21,546 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Marine Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in California” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in marine science. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent marine 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 marine science program at the school. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Marine Science 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 Marine Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in California” list to help you make the college decision.

In addition to College Factual’s rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest 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 Marine Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in California

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Marine Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in California.

Top 2 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Marine Science in California

#1

University of California - Davis

Davis, California

#1 in overall quality

$14,669 Average Net Price

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Marine Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in California that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Davis landed the #1 spot on the list. UC Davis is a large school located in Davis, California that handed out 19 bachelors’s marine science degrees in 2019-2020.

UC Davis not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best Marine Science Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list. It costs about $14,669 for California Bachelor’s Degree Marine Science students per year to attend UC Davis.

The student loan default rate at the school is 1.9%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 93%.

Read more about Marine Science at UC Davis

#2

California State University - Monterey Bay

Seaside, California

#2 in overall quality

$12,212 Average Net Price

$28,960 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend California State University - Monterey Bay. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Marine Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in California list. California State University - Monterey Bay is a medium-sized public school situated in Seaside, California. It awarded 57 bachelors’s marine science degrees in 2019-2020.

CSUMB also made our “Best Marine Science Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list, coming in at #2. The yearly cost to attend CSUMB is $12,212 for california bachelor’s degree marine science students.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 5.0%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Marine Science at CSUMB

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

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 Daderot.

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