2023 Best Value Colleges for Planetary Astronomy & Science (Income $48-$75k)

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Planetary Astronomy and Science Schools For Those Making $48-$75k” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

Planetary Astronomy & Science is the 1082nd most popular major in the country with 55 degrees awarded in 2020-2021.

This year’s “Best Value Planetary Astronomy and Science Schools For Those Making $48-$75k” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in planetary astronomy and science. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent planetary astronomy and science programs, but they also cost less that schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the planetary astronomy and science program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Planetary Astronomy & Science 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 Planetary Astronomy and Science Schools For Those Making $48-$75k” 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 Planetary Astronomy and Science Schools For Those Making $48-$75k

The colleges and universities below are the best for planetary astronomy and science students whose families make $48-$75k.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Planetary Astronomy & Science (Income $48-$75k)

1

California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California

#1 in overall quality

$9,755 Average Net Price

$94,845 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend California Institute of Technology. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Best Value Planetary Astronomy and Science Schools For Those Making $48-$75k list. Caltech is a private not-for-profit institution located in Pasadena, California. The school has a small population, and it awarded 11 ’s degrees in 2020-2021.

In addition to being on our planetary astronomy and science students whose families make $48-$75k list, Caltech has also earned the #1 rank in our “Best Planetary Astronomy & Science Schools” ranking. It costs about $9,755 for Planetary Astronomy and Science students whose families make $48-$75k per year to attend California Institute of Technology.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 94%. The undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 3 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one.

Read more about Planetary Astronomy & Science at Caltech

2

University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona

#2 in overall quality

$13,644 Average Net Price

$46,654 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Arizona. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Planetary Astronomy and Science Schools For Those Making $48-$75k list. University of Arizona is a large public school situated in Tucson, Arizona. It awarded 12 ’s planetary astronomy and science degrees in 2020-2021.

University of Arizona also took the #2 spot in our “Best Planetary Astronomy & Science Schools” ranking. The yearly cost to attend University of Arizona is $13,644 for Planetary Astronomy and Science students whose families make $48-$75k.

With a freshman retention rate of 85%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Full University of Arizona Planetary Astronomy & Science Report

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.