2025 Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Schools in the Far Western US Region
4Colleges in the Far Western US Region
285Astronomy Degrees Awarded
$40,467Avg Early-Career Salary
Astronomy & Astrophysics isn't the most popular major in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #219 in popularity out of 395 majors in the country. So, you may have to do some digging around to find quality schools that offer the degree program. This list can help with that.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in the Far Western US Region to determine which ones were the best for astronomy & astrophysics students pursuing a degree. Combined, these schools handed out 285 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. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for astronomy & astrophysics schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each 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.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Schools in the Far Western US Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Astronomy & Astrophysics in the Far Western US Region
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the astronomy degree levels they offer.
Any student who is interested in astronomy & astrophysics needs to look into University of California - Berkeley. Located in the midsize 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 colleges nationwide means UC Berkeley is a great university overall.
There were about 56 astronomy & astrophysics students who graduated with this degree at UC Berkeley in the most recent year we have data available. Astronomy & Astrophysics degree recipients from University of California - Berkeley get an earnings boost of around $14,279 above the average earnings of astronomy & astrophysics graduates.
It's 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. A Best Colleges rank of #28 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UCLA is a great university overall.
There were roughly 47 astronomy & astrophysics students who graduated with this degree at UCLA in the most recent year we have data available.
University of Washington - Seattle Campus is a good decision for students interested in a degree in astronomy & astrophysics. UW Seattle is a fairly large public university located in the city of Seattle. This university ranks 1st out of 50 schools for overall quality in the state of Washington.
There were approximately 38 astronomy & astrophysics students who graduated with this degree at UW Seattle in the most recent year we have data available.
It's hard to beat University of California - Santa Cruz if you want to pursue a degree in astronomy & astrophysics. Located in the city of Santa Cruz, UC Santa Cruz is a public university with a 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. Graduates who receive their degree from the astronomy program make around $35,171 for their early career.
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. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for astronomy & astrophysics schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
