2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California
8
Ranked Colleges
167
Degrees Awarded
$42,400
Avg Cost*

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California” ranking - to help you make that decision.
Environmental Studies is the 87th most popular major in the country with 10,196 degrees awarded in 2021-2022.
Across California, there were 1,625 environmental studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 167 environmental studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $63,735 and $51,649 respectively.
For this year’s “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California” ranking, we looked at 8 colleges that offer a degree in environmental studies. This a ranking of the schools where the largest percentage of students has enrolled in environmental studies.
Check out our ranking methodology for more information.
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Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California
The following schools top our list of the Best “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California”.
Top 8 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Environmental Studies in California
You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California list. Monterey, California is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out masters’s ecosystem studies degrees to 34 students in 2021-2022.
The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 1 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 0.1%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.
Read full report on Environmental Studies at Middlebury Institute
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of San Francisco. The school came in at #2 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California. San Francisco, California is the setting for this medium-sized institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out masters’s ecosystem studies degrees to 27 students in 2021-2022.
The low undergrad student loan default rate of 0.5% 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%. With a freshman retention rate of 86%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.
Full USFCA Environmental Studies Report
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of California - Berkeley. The school came in at #3 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California. University of California - Berkeley is a public institution located in Berkeley, California. The school has a large population, and it awarded 51 masters’s degrees in 2021-2022.
The low undergrad student loan default rate of 0.5% 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%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 96%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.
Read more about Environmental Studies at University of California - Berkeley
Out of the 8 schools in the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Southern California landed the #4 spot on the list. Los Angeles, California is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out masters’s ecosystem studies degrees to 20 students in 2021-2022.
The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.5%, 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 96%.
Read more about Environmental Studies at USC
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of California - Davis. The school came in at #5 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California. UC Davis is a large school located in Davis, California that handed out 26 masters’s ecosystem studies degrees in 2021-2022.
The low undergrad student loan default rate of 0.9% 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%. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 91%.
Full University of California - Davis Environmental Studies Report
University of California - Santa Cruz ranked #6 on this year’s Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California list. UC Santa Cruz is a public institution located in Santa Cruz, California. The school has a fairly large population, and it awarded 4 masters’s degrees in 2021-2022.
With a freshman retention rate of 89%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 1.3%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.
Read full report on Environmental Studies at University of California - Santa Cruz
University of California - Irvine did quite well in the 2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California ranking, coming in at #7. UC Irvine is a large school located in Irvine, California that handed out 50 masters’s ecosystem studies degrees in 2021-2022.
The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 0.6%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 93%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.
Read full report on Environmental Studies at UC Irvine
Southern California Institute of Architecture did quite well in the 2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Ecosystem Studies Major in California ranking, coming in at #7. Located in Los Angeles, California, this small private not-for-profit school awarded 5 degrees to qualified masters’s ecosystem studies students in 2021-2022.
Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 93%.
Full Southern California Institute of Architecture Environmental Studies Report
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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
- *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 Lynn Betts.