2025 Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Schools in California
3Colleges in California
212Astronomy Degrees Awarded
$40,467Avg Early-Career Salary
When it comes to popularity, astronomy & astrophysics sits in the middle of the road, ranking #219 out of 395 majors in the country. So, it might take a little more work to find colleges and universities that offer the degree program.
College Factual reviewed 3 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for degree seekers in the field of astronomy & astrophysics. Combined, these schools handed out 212 degrees in astronomy & astrophysics to qualified students.
The astronomy program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Astronomy & Astrophysics rankings. For our Best Overall Astronomy & Astrophysics School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
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 Astronomy & Astrophysics Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Best Schools for Astronomy & Astrophysics in California
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the astronomy degrees they offer, see the list below.
Every student who is interested in astronomy & astrophysics has to take a look at University of California - Berkeley. Located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #14 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UC Berkeley is a great university overall.
There were roughly 56 astronomy & astrophysics students who graduated with this degree at UC Berkeley in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the astronomy & astrophysics program at University of California - Berkeley get $14,279 above the average college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
It is hard to beat University of California - Los Angeles if you wish to pursue a degree in astronomy & astrophysics. UCLA is a very large public university located in the city of Los Angeles. This university ranks 4th out of 161 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were about 47 astronomy & astrophysics students who graduated with this degree at UCLA in the most recent data year.
It is hard to beat University of California - Santa Cruz if you wish to pursue a degree in astronomy & astrophysics. Located in the small city of Santa Cruz, UC Santa Cruz is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 13th out of 161 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were roughly 61 astronomy & astrophysics students who graduated with this degree at UC Santa Cruz in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the astronomy program report average early career earnings of $35,171.
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).
The astronomy program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Astronomy & Astrophysics rankings. For our Best Overall Astronomy & Astrophysics School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
