2023 Best Value Colleges for Natural Sciences in the Rocky Mountains Region (With Aid)

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

Natural Sciences is the 345th most popular major in the country with 2,214 degrees awarded in 2020-2021.

Across the Rocky Mountains region, there were 52 natural sciences graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in natural sciences. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great natural sciences programs and cost less that schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the natural sciences 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.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid” 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. 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 Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Natural Sciences in the Rocky Mountains Region (With Aid)

1

Colorado State University - Fort Collins
Fort Collins, Colorado

#1 in overall quality

$18,679 Average Net Price

$45,865 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Colorado State University - Fort Collins. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Best Value Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid list. Fort Collins, Colorado is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out ’s natural sciences degrees to 27 students in 2020-2021.

Colorado State not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region” list. The yearly cost to attend Colorado State University - Fort Collins is $18,679 for rocky mountains region natural sciences students with aid.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 85%. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 2.6%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Natural Sciences at Colorado State

2

University of Wyoming
Laramie, Wyoming

#2 in overall quality

$11,085 Average Net Price

$44,258 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Wyoming. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid list. UW is a fairly large school located in Laramie, Wyoming that handed out 6 ’s natural sciences degrees in 2020-2021.

UW also took the #2 spot in our “Best Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region” ranking. It costs about $11,085 for rocky mountains region natural sciences students with aid per year to attend UW.

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 full report on Natural Sciences at University of Wyoming

• Best Value Colleges for Natural Sciences (With Aid)

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 Agsftw.