2025 Best Materials Sciences Doctor's Degree Schools in California

a doctor's degree in materials sciences is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #100 out of 306 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Materials Sciences Doctor's Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 67 doctor's degrees in materials sciences during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their doctor's degree from the school. After all, your doctor'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

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to materials sciences students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of materials sciences students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How much debt materials sciences 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 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 doctor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Materials Sciences Schools

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 Doctor's Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Materials Sciences in California

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

Top California Schools for a Doctorate in Materials Science

1

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

31 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat University of California - Berkeley if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in materials sciences. Located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in materials sciences from University of California - Berkeley

2

University of California - Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA

22 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat University of California - Santa Barbara if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in materials sciences. UCSB is a fairly large public university located in the midsize suburb of Santa Barbara.More information about a doctorate 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
Washington	122	0
Oregon	107	3

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Rankings in Majors Related to Materials Science

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

Materials Science Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
General Materials Science	67

Majors Similar to Materials Science

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Chemistry	417
Physics	277
Geological & Earth Sciences	133
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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Per Henning. More about our data sources and methodologies.