2023 Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Natural Sciences Major

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Natural Sciences Major” ranking is part of that endeavor.

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.

At the doctor’s degree level specifically, there were 8 natural sciences graduates with average earnings and debt of $75,260 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Natural Sciences Major” ranking analyzed 3 colleges that offered a degree in natural sciences. That schools that top this list have a program in natural sciences in which the largest percentage of students at the school are enrolled.

See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Natural Sciences Schools

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we’ve developed a number of rankings, including this “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Natural Sciences Major” list, to help you choose the best school for you.

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. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.

Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Natural Sciences Major

The colleges and universities below are the best for doctor’s degree natural sciences students.

Top 3 Most Focused Doctor’s Degree Colleges for Natural Sciences

1

University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Out of the 3 schools in the Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Natural Sciences Major that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs landed the #1 spot on the list. University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is a fairly large school located in Colorado Springs, Colorado that handed out 2 doctorate’s natural sciences degrees in 2020-2021.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 4.3%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Natural Sciences at UCCS

2

Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, Virginia

Top 25% overall quality in United States

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Virginia Commonwealth University. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Natural Sciences Major list. Virginia Commonwealth University is located in Richmond, Virginia and, has a large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 5 doctorate’s natural sciences degrees to qualified students.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 2.6%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Natural Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University

3

University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Arizona. The school came in at #3 for the Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Natural Sciences Major. University of Arizona is a large public school situated in Tucson, Arizona. It awarded 1 doctorate’s natural sciences degrees in 2020-2021.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 85%.

Read full report on Natural Sciences at University of Arizona

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

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate 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.