2025 Best Materials Sciences Master's Degree Schools in California

Materials Sciences isn't the most popular master's program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #190 in popularity out of 343 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.

College Factual looked at 2 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Materials Sciences Master's Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 66 master's degrees in materials sciences during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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

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

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on materials sciences students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other materials sciences students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
• 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 materials sciences students go into to obtain their master'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 materials sciences related body.

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

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 Materials Sciences Master's Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Materials Sciences in California

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in materials sciences.

Top California Schools for a Master's in Materials Science

1

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

42 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat University of California - Berkeley if you wish to pursue a master's degree in materials sciences. UC Berkeley is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Berkeley.More information about a master’s in materials sciences from University of California - Berkeley

2

University of California - Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA

10 Annual Graduates

Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in materials sciences needs to look into University of California - Santa Barbara. Located in the suburb of Santa Barbara, UCSB is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in materials sciences from University of California - Santa Barbara

Best Materials Sciences Colleges in the Far Western US Region

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Oregon	158	4

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Materials Sciences Related Rankings by Major

Materials Sciences is one of 8 different types of Physical Sciences programs to choose from.

Materials Science Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
General Materials Science	66

Most Popular Majors Related to Materials Science

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Chemistry	277
Physics	243
Geological & Earth Sciences	215
Astronomy & Astrophysics	46
Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology	19
General Physical Sciences	12
Physics and Astronomy	1

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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Per Henning. More about our data sources and methodologies.