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2022 Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s For Those Making $30-$48k

7 Ranked Colleges
219 Degrees Awarded
$9,100 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor's For Those Making $30-$48k

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s For Those Making $30-$48k” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

Materials Sciences is the 258th most popular major in the country with 689 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. In 2017-2018, materials sciences graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $60,225 and had an average of $23,698 in loans still to pay off.

At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 219 materials sciences graduates with average earnings and debt of $38,303 and $24,501 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s For Those Making $30-$48k” ranking looked at 7 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in materials sciences. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality materials sciences programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the materials sciences program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

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 Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s For Those Making $30-$48k” 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 Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s For Those Making $30-$48k

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s For Those Making $30-$48k.

Top 7 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Materials Sciences (Income $30-$48k)

#1

Northwestern University

Evanston, Illinois
#2 in overall quality

Out of the 7 schools in the Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s For Those Making $30-$48k that were part of this year’s ranking, Northwestern University landed the #1 spot on the list. Evanston, Illinois is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s materials science degrees to 2 students in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Northwestern, the school also landed the #2 spot in our “Best Materials Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Northwestern is $3,995 for bachelor’s degree materials science students whose families make $30-$48k.

The impressive student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 0.8%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 97%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read more about Materials Sciences at Northwestern

#3 in overall quality

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Columbia University in the City of New York. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s For Those Making $30-$48k. Columbia University in the City of New York is a large private not-for-profit school situated in New York, New York. It awarded 5 bachelors’s materials science degrees in 2019-2020.

Columbia also took the #3 spot in our “Best Materials Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools” ranking. It costs about $4,287 for Bachelor’s Degree Materials Science students whose families make $30-$48k per year to attend Columbia University in the City of New York.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 95%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The impressive student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. The low student loan default rate of 2.1% 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 Materials Sciences at Columbia

#3

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Out of the 7 schools in the Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s For Those Making $30-$48k that were part of this year’s ranking, Carnegie Mellon University landed the #3 spot on the list. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s materials science degrees to 34 students in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Carnegie Mellon, the school also landed the #1 spot in our “Best Materials Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools” ranking. It costs about $13,782 for Bachelor’s Degree Materials Science students whose families make $30-$48k per year to attend Carnegie Mellon.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 96%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. 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 school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 0.6%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Materials Sciences at Carnegie Mellon

#4 in overall quality

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of California - Berkeley. The school came in at #4 for the Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s For Those Making $30-$48k. Located in Berkeley, California, this large public school handed out 36 diplomas to qualified bachelors’s materials science students in 2019-2020.

In addition to being on our bachelor’s degree materials science students whose families make $30-$48k list, UC Berkeley has also earned the #4 rank in our “Best Materials Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools” ranking. It costs about $9,130 for Bachelor’s Degree Materials Science students whose families make $30-$48k per year to attend University of California - Berkeley.

The low student loan default rate of 1.7% 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 96%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Full University of California - Berkeley Materials Sciences Report

#5

University of California - Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Out of the 7 schools in the Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s For Those Making $30-$48k that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Los Angeles landed the #5 spot on the list. University of California - Los Angeles is a large school located in Los Angeles, California that handed out 19 bachelors’s materials science degrees in 2019-2020.

UCLA also took the #5 spot in our “Best Materials Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for University of California - Los Angeles is $9,254 for Bachelor’s Degree Materials Science students whose families make $30-$48k.

The low student loan default rate of 1.0% 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 96%.

Read full report on Materials Sciences at UCLA

#6

University of Arizona

Tucson, Arizona

University of Arizona landed the #6 spot on the 2022 Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s For Those Making $30-$48k ranking. This large school is located in Tucson, Arizona, and it awarded 17 bachelors’s materials science degrees in 2019-2020.

In addition to being on our bachelor’s degree materials science students whose families make $30-$48k list, University of Arizona has also earned the #6 rank in our “Best Materials Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools” ranking. It costs about $11,466 for bachelor’s degree materials science students whose families make $30-$48k per year to attend University of Arizona.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 85%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read full report on Materials Sciences at University of Arizona

University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire landed the #7 spot on the 2022 Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s For Those Making $30-$48k ranking. This fairly large school is located in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and it awarded 5 bachelors’s materials science degrees in 2019-2020.

UW - Eau Claire also took the #7 spot in our “Best Materials Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for UW - Eau Claire is $11,828 for Bachelor’s Degree Materials Science students whose families make $30-$48k.

Read more about Materials Sciences at UW - Eau Claire

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.

Credits

  • Credit for the banner image above goes to Per Henning.

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