2025 Best General Biology Doctor's Degree Schools in California

General Biology is of the hottest doctor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #19 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for general biology students pursuing a doctor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 186 doctor's degrees in general biology during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great General Biology School for Your Doctor's Degree

Your choice of general biology for getting your doctor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality biology program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their doctor's degree from the school. After all, your doctor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to general biology students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of general biology students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How much debt general biology students go into to obtain their doctor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized general biology related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for general biology students working on their doctor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best General Biology Doctor's Degree Schools in California list, to help you choose the best school for you.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study General Biology in California

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in general biology.

Top California Schools for a Doctorate in Biology

1

University of California - San Diego
La Jolla, CA

63 Annual Graduates

$80,294 Median Starting Salary

University of California - San Diego is a great choice for students pursuing a doctor's degree in general biology. Located in the large city of La Jolla, UCSD is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Soon after graduating, biology doctorate recipients typically earn an average of $80,294 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a doctorate in general biology from University of California - San Diego

2

Stanford University
Stanford, CA

36 Annual Graduates

Every student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in general biology needs to check out Stanford University. Located in the suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in general biology from Stanford University

3

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

26 Annual Graduates

University of California - Berkeley is a wonderful choice for individuals pursuing a doctor's degree in general biology. Located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in general biology from University of California - Berkeley

Best General Biology Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best General Biology Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	122	13
Oregon	107	21
Nevada	84	6
Hawaii	53	0
Alaska	19	2

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General Biology Related Rankings by Major

General Biology is one of 14 different types of Biological & Biomedical Sciences programs to choose from.

Biology Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Biology Studies	117
General Biomedical Sciences	69

Majors Similar to Biology

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	164
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	144
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	114
Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences	110
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	100
Physiology & Pathology Sciences	63
Pharmacology & Toxicology	61
Microbiological Sciences & Immunology	60
Genetics	39
Zoology	35

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• 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 the rest 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). More about our data sources and methodologies.