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2023 Most Veteran Friendly in the Far Western US Region for Astronomy

5 Ranked Colleges
344 Degrees Awarded
$37,100 Avg Cost*
Most Veteran Friendly in the Far Western US Region for Astronomy

Veterans 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 “Most Veteran Friendly in the Far Western US Region for Astronomy” ranking is part of that endeavor.

Astronomy & Astrophysics is the 219th most popular major in the country with 1,375 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, astronomy and astrophysics graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $31,221 and had an average of $24,484 in loans still to pay off.

Across the Far Western US region, there were 344 astronomy and astrophysics graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $19,734 respectively.

For this year’s “Most Veteran Friendly in the Far Western US Region for Astronomy” ranking, we looked at 5 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 offer a lot of support to veterans and active service members.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the astronomy and astrophysics program at the school, veteran affordability, and veteran population. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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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 “Most Veteran Friendly in the Far Western US Region for Astronomy” list to help you make the college decision.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Most Veteran Friendly in the Far Western US Region for Astronomy

The following schools top our list of the Best “Most Veteran Friendly in the Far Western US Region for Astronomy”.

Top 5 Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Colleges for Veterans in the Far Western US Region

1

Out of the 5 schools in the Most Veteran Friendly in the Far Western US Region for Astronomy that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Washington - Seattle Campus landed the #1 spot on the list. UW Seattle is a public institution located in Seattle, Washington. The school has a large population, and it awarded 51 ’s degrees in 2020-2021.

UW Seattle also took the #[COLLEGE_QUALITY_RANK_ALL_LEVELS] spot in our “[COLLEGE_QUALITY_NAME_ALL_LEVELS]” ranking.According to our most recent data, UW Seattle supports 48,149 students, and 1,283 of those are GI Bill® students, of which 769 are Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average tuition and fees award for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients was $14,190. During this same period, 0 students qualified for the Yellow Ribbon Program. Eligible students may be able to receive credit for their military training.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]% 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 93%.

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2

Out of the 5 schools in the Most Veteran Friendly in the Far Western US Region for Astronomy that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Los Angeles landed the #2 spot on the list. This large school is located in Los Angeles, California, and it awarded 43 ’s astronomy degrees in 2020-2021.

UCLA did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #[COLLEGE_QUALITY_RANK_ALL_LEVELS] on our “[COLLEGE_QUALITY_NAME_ALL_LEVELS]” list.Among the 44,589 students enrolled at University of California - Los Angeles, 7 are GI Bill® students, according to our most recent data. Out of that number, 4 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average Post-9/11 GI Bill® award for tuition and fees at the school was $8,071. On top of their other funding sources, 0 students qualified for the Yellow Ribbon Program.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 96%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The low undergrad student loan default rate of [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]% 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 veteran student life at University of California - Los Angeles]](/colleges/university-of-california-los-angeles/student-life/veterans/)

3
SDSU crest
San Diego State University
San Diego, California

Out of the 5 schools in the Most Veteran Friendly in the Far Western US Region for Astronomy that were part of this year’s ranking, San Diego State University landed the #3 spot on the list. SDSU is located in San Diego, California and, has a large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 15 ’s astronomy degrees to qualified students.

SDSU did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #[COLLEGE_QUALITY_RANK_ALL_LEVELS] on our “[COLLEGE_QUALITY_NAME_ALL_LEVELS]” list.Our most recent data shows that 1,433 of the 36,334 students enrolled at SDSU were GI Bill® students, of which 853 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average Post-9/11 GI Bill® award for tuition and fees at the school was $4,806. To help with additional expenses, 0 students received funds through the Yellow Ribbon Program. Students may be able to receive credit for their military training, depending on their background.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 89%. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

[Read full report on veteran student life at SDSU]](/colleges/san-diego-state-university/student-life/veterans/)

4

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of California - Santa Cruz. The school came in at #4 for the Most Veteran Friendly in the Far Western US Region for Astronomy. UC Santa Cruz is located in Santa Cruz, California and, has a fairly large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 76 ’s astronomy degrees to qualified students.

In addition to being on our far western us region vets studying astronomy list, UC Santa Cruz has also earned the #[COLLEGE_QUALITY_RANK_ALL_LEVELS] rank in our “[COLLEGE_QUALITY_NAME_ALL_LEVELS]” ranking.According to our most recent data, UC Santa Cruz supports 19,161 students, and 273 of those are GI Bill® students, of which 114 are Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average Post-9/11 GI Bill® award for tuition and fees at the school was $8,631. To help with additional expenses, 0 students received funds through the Yellow Ribbon Program.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 85%. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

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5

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend California Institute of Technology. The school came in at #5 for the Most Veteran Friendly in the Far Western US Region for Astronomy. Caltech is a small school located in Pasadena, California that handed out 28 ’s astronomy degrees in 2020-2021.

Caltech not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #[COLLEGE_QUALITY_RANK_ALL_LEVELS] on our “[COLLEGE_QUALITY_NAME_ALL_LEVELS]” list.Among the 2,240 students enrolled at California Institute of Technology, 4 are GI Bill® students, according to our most recent data. Out of that number, 1 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average Post-9/11 GI Bill® award for tuition and fees at the school was $67,154. To help with additional expenses, 1 students received funds through the Yellow Ribbon Program.

With a freshman retention rate of 94%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 3 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.

Full Caltech Veteran Student Life Report

Notes and References

References

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

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