2022 Best Value Physics and Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Physics and Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s” ranking is part of that endeavor.

With 55 degrees handed out in 2019-2020, physics and astronomy is the most popular major in the United States.

At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 13 physics and astronomy graduates with average earnings and debt of $38,303 and $24,501 respectively.

Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent physics and astronomy 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 physics and astronomy program at the school. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

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 Physics and Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s” 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. Test it out by comparing your favorite schools against others you are considering, or bookmark the tool so you can experiment with it later.

Best Value Physics and Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s

The colleges and universities below are the best for bachelor’s degree physics and astronomy students.

Top 1 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Physics and Astronomy

#1

University of Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky

#1 in overall quality

$17,127 Average Net Price

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Kentucky. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Physics and Astronomy Schools for a Bachelor’s. Lexington, Kentucky is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s physics and astronomy degrees to 12 students in 2019-2020.

UK also made our “Best Physics and Astronomy Bachelor’s Degree Schools” list, coming in at #1. The yearly cost to attend UK is $17,127 for Bachelor’s Degree Physics and Astronomy students.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 86%.

Full University of Kentucky Physics and Astronomy Report

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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