2025 Best Chemistry Doctor's Degree Schools in California

Ranked #11 in popularity, chemistry is one of the most sought-after doctor's degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.

College Factual looked at 9 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Chemistry Doctor's Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 417 doctor's degrees in chemistry during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Chemistry School for Your Doctor's Degree

Your choice of chemistry for getting your doctor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality chemistry program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of doctorate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their doctor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on chemistry students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of chemistry students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How much debt chemistry 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 chemistry related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for chemistry students working on their doctor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Chemistry Schools

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

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Chemistry in California

Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for chemistry students seeking a a doctor's degree.

Top California Schools for a Doctorate in Chemistry

1

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

66 Annual Graduates

$108,154 Median Starting Salary

It is hard to beat University of California - Berkeley if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in chemistry. UC Berkeley is a fairly large public university located in the city of Berkeley.

Chemistry doctor's degree recipients from University of California - Berkeley earn a boost of about $19,769 above the typical earnings of chemistry graduates.

More information about a doctorate in chemistry from University of California - Berkeley

2

University of California - Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA

24 Annual Graduates

University of California - Santa Barbara is a great choice for individuals pursuing a doctor's degree in chemistry. Located in the suburb of Santa Barbara, UCSB is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in chemistry from University of California - Santa Barbara

3

University of California - Davis
Davis, CA

44 Annual Graduates

$71,322 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat University of California - Davis if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in chemistry. Located in the suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Students who graduate with their doctorate from the chemistry program state that they receive average early career income of $71,322.

More information about a doctorate in chemistry from University of California - Davis

4

University of California - Irvine
Irvine, CA

41 Annual Graduates

$83,436 Median Starting Salary

It is difficult to beat University of California - Irvine if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in chemistry. UC Irvine is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Irvine.

Students who graduate with their doctorate from the chemistry program state that they receive average early career income of $83,436.

More information about a doctorate in chemistry from University of California - Irvine

5

University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

37 Annual Graduates

$85,864 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public university with a very large student population.

Doctorate students who receive their degree from the chemistry program earn an average of $85,864 in the first couple years of their career.

More information about a doctorate in chemistry from University of California - Los Angeles

6

University of California - San Diego
La Jolla, CA

38 Annual Graduates

$93,148 Median Starting Salary

UCSD is a very large public university located in the large city of La Jolla.

Those chemistry students who get their doctor's degree from University of California - San Diego make $4,763 more than the typical chemistry grad.

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

7

University of California - Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA

16 Annual Graduates

UC Santa Cruz is a large public university located in the small city of Santa Cruz.More information about a doctorate in chemistry from University of California - Santa Cruz

8

University of California - Merced
Merced, CA

11 Annual Graduates

UC Merced is a medium-sized public university located in the suburb of Merced.More information about a doctorate in chemistry from University of California - Merced

9

University of California - Riverside
Riverside, CA

24 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Riverside, UCR is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in chemistry from University of California - Riverside

Best Chemistry Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Chemistry Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	122	50
Oregon	107	37
Nevada	84	6
Hawaii	53	2
Alaska	19	1

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Chemistry

One of 8 majors within the Physical Sciences area of study, Chemistry has other similar majors worth exploring.

Chemistry Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
General Chemistry	402
Other Chemistry	14
Chemical Physics	1

Majors Similar to Chemistry

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Physics	277
Geological & Earth Sciences	133
Materials Sciences	67
Astronomy & Astrophysics	24
Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology	10
Other Physical Science	4

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.