2023 Best Value Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $0-$30k

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. At College Factual, we’re committed to helping you make that decision by providing information such as that found in our “Best Value Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking.

Natural Sciences is the 208th most popular major in the country with 2,214 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, natural sciences graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $25,745 and had an average of $18,648 in loans still to pay off.

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

For this year’s “Best Value Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree in natural sciences. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality natural sciences programs that also have a lower cost than 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. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

More Ways to Rank Natural Sciences Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

To further help you make the college decision, we’ve developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools 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 Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $0-$30k

The colleges and universities below are the best for rocky mountains region natural sciences students whose families make $0-$30k.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Natural Sciences (Income $0-$30k) in the Rocky Mountains Region

1

Colorado State University - Fort Collins
Fort Collins, Colorado

#1 in overall quality

$11,924 Average Net Price

$45,865 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $0-$30k that were part of this year’s ranking, Colorado State University - Fort Collins landed the #1 spot on the list. Located in Fort Collins, Colorado, this large public school handed out 27 diplomas to qualified ’s natural sciences students in 2020-2021.

Colorado State also took the #1 spot in our “Best Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Colorado State is $11,924 for Rocky Mountains Region Natural Sciences students whose families make $0-$30k.

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%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 85%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read full report on Natural Sciences at Colorado State

2

University of Wyoming
Laramie, Wyoming

#2 in overall quality

$6,905 Average Net Price

$44,258 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $0-$30k that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Wyoming landed the #2 spot on the list. This fairly large school is located in Laramie, Wyoming, and it awarded 6 ’s natural sciences degrees in 2020-2021.

UW did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our “Best Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region” list. It costs about $6,905 for Rocky Mountains Region Natural Sciences students whose families make $0-$30k per year to attend UW.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 3.5%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Full University of Wyoming Natural Sciences Report

• Best Value Colleges for Natural Sciences (Income $0-$30k)

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.