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2022 Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts

6 Ranked Colleges
65 Degrees Awarded
$23,000 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor's in Massachusetts

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. At College Factual, we’re committed to helping you make that decision by providing information such as that found in our “Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts” ranking.

Astronomy & Astrophysics is the 222nd most popular major in the country with 1,268 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. In 2017-2018, astronomy and astrophysics graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $27,700 and had an average of $21,346 in loans still to pay off.

Across Massachusetts, there were 117 astronomy and astrophysics graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $25,857 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 65 astronomy and astrophysics graduates with average earnings and debt of $42,887 and $24,387 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts” ranking, we looked at 6 colleges that offer a degree in astronomy and astrophysics. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent astronomy and astrophysics 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 astronomy and astrophysics program at the school. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Astronomy & Astrophysics Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

We’ve created a tool called College Combat that lets you create your own customized comparisons based on the factors that matter the most to 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 Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts.

Top 6 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Astronomy & Astrophysics in Massachusetts

#1

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Amherst, Massachusetts

Out of the 6 schools in the Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Massachusetts Amherst landed the #1 spot on the list. University of Massachusetts Amherst is located in Amherst, Massachusetts and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 17 bachelors’s astronomy degrees to qualified students.

UMass Amherst also made our “Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Massachusetts” list, coming in at #5. The estimated yearly cost for University of Massachusetts Amherst is $22,501 for Massachusetts Bachelor’s Degree Astronomy students.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 2.8%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 89%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.

Read more about Astronomy & Astrophysics at University of Massachusetts Amherst

#2

Williams College

Williamstown, Massachusetts
#6 in overall quality

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Williams College. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts. Williams is a small school located in Williamstown, Massachusetts that handed out 6 bachelors’s astronomy degrees in 2019-2020.

Williams not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #6 on our “Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Massachusetts” list. The estimated yearly cost for Williams College is $19,480 for Massachusetts Bachelor’s Degree Astronomy students.

With a freshman retention rate of 90%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 2.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Read full report on Astronomy & Astrophysics at Williams College

#3

Harvard University

Cambridge, Massachusetts
#1 in overall quality

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Harvard University. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts. Harvard is a private not-for-profit institution located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school has a large population, and it awarded 18 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Harvard, the school also landed the #1 spot in our “Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Massachusetts” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Harvard is $15,386 for massachusetts bachelor’s degree astronomy students.

Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 5 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors. The low student loan default rate of 1.1% 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 full report on Astronomy & Astrophysics at Harvard University

#4

Smith College

Northampton, Massachusetts
#4 in overall quality

Out of the 6 schools in the Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts that were part of this year’s ranking, Smith College landed the #4 spot on the list. Smith College is a private not-for-profit institution located in Northampton, Massachusetts. The school has a small population, and it awarded 7 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Smith, the school also landed the #4 spot in our “Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Massachusetts” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Smith College is $28,305 for Massachusetts Bachelor’s Degree Astronomy students.

The student loan default rate at the school is 1.1%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 7 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Read more about Astronomy & Astrophysics at Smith

#5

Boston University

Boston, Massachusetts
#2 in overall quality

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Boston University. The school came in at #5 for the Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts. Located in Boston, Massachusetts, this large private not-for-profit school awarded 12 degrees to qualified bachelors’s astronomy students in 2019-2020.

Boston U did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our “Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Massachusetts” list. The yearly cost to attend Boston U is $30,259 for Massachusetts Bachelor’s Degree Astronomy students.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 92%. The low student loan default rate of 1.4% 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 impressive student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.

Full Boston University Astronomy & Astrophysics Report

#6

Wellesley College

Wellesley, Massachusetts
#3 in overall quality

Wellesley College came in at #6 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts ranking. Wellesley is located in Wellesley, Massachusetts and, has a small student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 2 bachelors’s astronomy degrees to qualified students.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Wellesley, the school also landed the #3 spot in our “Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Massachusetts” ranking. It costs about $22,087 for Massachusetts Bachelor’s Degree Astronomy students per year to attend Wellesley.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 93%. The student loan default rate at the school is 1.5%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. The student-to-faculty ratio of 7 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one.

Full Wellesley Astronomy & Astrophysics 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

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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