2023 Most Veteran Friendly in California for Astronomy for a Master’s

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San Diego State University
San Diego, California

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend San Diego State University. The school came in at #1 for the Most Veteran Friendly in California for Astronomy for a Master’s. San Diego, California is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out masters’s astronomy degrees to 6 students in 2020-2021.

SDSU also made our “Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Master’s Degree Schools in California” list, coming in at #3.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 tuition and fees award for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients was $4,806. To help with additional expenses, 0 students qualified for the Yellow Ribbon Program. SDSU does offer credit for military training for eligible students.

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%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 89%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

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

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University of California - Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of California - Santa Cruz. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Most Veteran Friendly in California for Astronomy for a Master’s list. UC Santa Cruz is a fairly large school located in Santa Cruz, California that handed out 5 masters’s astronomy degrees in 2020-2021.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at UC Santa Cruz, the school also landed the #4 spot in our “Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Master’s Degree Schools in California” ranking.Among the 19,161 students enrolled at UC Santa Cruz, 273 are GI Bill® students, according to our most recent data. Out of that number, 114 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average tuition and fees award for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients was $8,631. To help with additional expenses, 0 students received funds through the Yellow Ribbon Program.

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

Full University of California - Santa Cruz Veteran Student Life Report

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California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California

Out of the 3 schools in the Most Veteran Friendly in California for Astronomy for a Master’s that were part of this year’s ranking, California Institute of Technology landed the #3 spot on the list. Located in Pasadena, California, this small private not-for-profit school handed out 16 degrees to qualified masters’s astronomy students in 2020-2021.

Caltech did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our “Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Master’s Degree Schools in California” list.Our most recent data shows that 4 of the 2,240 students enrolled at Caltech were GI Bill® students, of which 1 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average tuition and fees award for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients was $67,154. On top of their other funding sources, 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. With a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of 3 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed.

Full California Institute of Technology Veteran Student Life Report