2022 Best Value Planetary Astronomy and Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Far Western US Region

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Planetary Astronomy and Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Far Western US Region” ranking is part of that endeavor.

In 2019-2020, 59 people earned their degree in planetary astronomy and science, making the major the 1071st most popular in the United States.

Across the Far Western US region, there were 7 planetary astronomy and science graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 5 planetary astronomy and science graduates with average earnings and debt of $38,083 and $22,209 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Planetary Astronomy and Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Far Western US Region” ranking analyzed 2 colleges that offered a degree 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.

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 planetary astronomy and science program at the school. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 a Bachelor’s in the Far Western US 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. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

Best Value Planetary Astronomy and Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Far Western US Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for far western us region bachelor’s degree planetary astronomy and science students.

Top 2 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Planetary Astronomy & Science in the Far Western US Region

#1

University of California - Berkeley

Berkeley, California

#2 in overall quality

$15,329 Average Net Price

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of California - Berkeley. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Planetary Astronomy and Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Far Western US Region. This large school is located in Berkeley, California, and it awarded 3 bachelors’s planetary astronomy and science degrees in 2019-2020.

UC Berkeley also made our “Best Planetary Astronomy & Science Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region” list, coming in at #2. The yearly cost to attend UC Berkeley is $15,329 for Far Western US Region Bachelor’s Degree Planetary Astronomy and Science students.

The student loan default rate at the school is 1.7%, 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%.

Full University of California - Berkeley Planetary Astronomy & Science Report

#2

California Institute of Technology

Pasadena, California

#1 in overall quality

$24,274 Average Net Price

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Planetary Astronomy and Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Far Western US Region that were part of this year’s ranking, California Institute of Technology landed the #2 spot on the list. This small school is located in Pasadena, California, and it awarded 2 bachelors’s planetary astronomy and science degrees in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Caltech, the school also landed the #1 spot in our “Best Planetary Astronomy & Science Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region” ranking. The yearly cost to attend California Institute of Technology is $24,274 for far western us region bachelor’s degree planetary astronomy and science students.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 94%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The 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. The student loan default rate at the school is 1.0%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Planetary Astronomy & Science at California Institute of Technology

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Planetary Astronomy & Science

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.

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