2022 Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. Our mission at College Factual is to arm you with as much information as we can to help you make that decision. Our “Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region” ranking is one tool we have developed to help in this regard.

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.

Across the Middle Atlantic region, there were 248 materials sciences graduates with average earnings and debt of $61,800 and $24,806 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 39 materials sciences graduates with average earnings and debt of $39,278 and $24,587 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree 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. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region” 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. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region.

Top 2 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Materials Sciences in the Middle Atlantic Region

#1

Columbia University in the City of New York

New York, New York

#2 in overall quality

$23,306 Average Net Price

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 #1 for the Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region. Columbia University in the City of New York is located in New York, New York and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 5 bachelors’s materials science degrees to qualified students.

Columbia did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our “Best Materials Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list. It costs about $23,306 for middle atlantic region bachelor’s degree materials science students per year to attend Columbia.

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%.

Full Columbia Materials Sciences Report

#2

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

#1 in overall quality

$34,508 Average Net Price

$66,077 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Carnegie Mellon University. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Materials Science Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region list. Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this fairly large private not-for-profit school awarded 34 degrees to qualified bachelors’s materials science 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 in the Middle Atlantic Region” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Carnegie Mellon University is $34,508 for middle atlantic region bachelor’s degree materials science students.

The student-to-faculty ratio of 5 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one. With a freshman retention rate of 96%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. The low student loan default rate of 0.6% 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%.

Full Carnegie Mellon University Materials Sciences Report

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Materials Sciences

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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