2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Astrophysical Sciences Major in the Far Western US Region

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Astrophysical Sciences Major in the Far Western US Region” ranking - to help you make that decision.

Astrophysics is the 598th most popular major in the country with 436 degrees awarded in 2021-2022.

Across the Far Western US region, there were 172 astrophysics graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 10 astrophysics graduates with average earnings and debt of $62,396 and $49,784 respectively.

This year’s “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Astrophysical Sciences Major in the Far Western US Region” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in astrophysics. The colleges and universities that top this list are recognized because their astrophysics program is one of the largest majors offered at the school.

See our ranking methodology to learn more.

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 “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Astrophysical Sciences Major in the Far Western US Region” list, to help you choose the best school for you.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. 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.

Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Astrophysical Sciences Major in the Far Western US Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for far western us region master’s degree astrophysical sciences students.

Top 2 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Astrophysics in the Far Western US Region

1

California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California

#7 overall quality in Far Western US

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend California Institute of Technology. The school came in at #1 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Astrophysical Sciences Major in the Far Western US Region. This small school is located in Pasadena, California, and it awarded 5 masters’s astrophysical sciences degrees in 2021-2022.

Since the school has a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of 3 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 99%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read full report on Astrophysics at Caltech

2

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, California

#3 overall quality in Far Western US

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of California - Berkeley. The school came in at #2 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Astrophysical Sciences Major in the Far Western US Region. Located in Berkeley, California, this large public school handed out 5 degrees to qualified masters’s astrophysical sciences students in 2021-2022.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.5%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 96%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read more about Astrophysics at UC Berkeley

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

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate 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.