2023 Best Value Colleges for Natural Sciences in the Rocky Mountains Region

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. 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” 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” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree in natural sciences. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent natural sciences 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 natural sciences program at the school. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

More Ways to Rank Natural Sciences 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 Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region” 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 Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for rocky mountains region natural sciences students.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Natural Sciences in the Rocky Mountains Region

1

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 #1 on our 2023 Best Value Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region 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. The yearly cost to attend University of Wyoming is $11,085 for rocky mountains region natural sciences students.

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 Natural Sciences at University of Wyoming

2

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 join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Colorado State University - Fort Collins. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Natural Sciences Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region. 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 is $18,679 for Rocky Mountains Region Natural Sciences students.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 2.6% 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%. With a freshman retention rate of 85%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read more about Natural Sciences at Colorado State

• Best Value Colleges for Natural Sciences

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.