2023 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Optics/Optical Sciences in the Southwest Region

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Optics/Optical Sciences Major in the Southwest Region” ranking is part of that endeavor.

In 2021-2022, 220 people earned their degree in optics/optical sciences, making the major the 816th most popular in the United States.

Across the Southwest region, there were 130 optics/optical sciences graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 62 optics/optical sciences graduates with average earnings and debt of $56,505 and $37,295 respectively.

For this year’s “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Optics/Optical Sciences Major in the Southwest Region” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree in optics/optical sciences. The colleges and universities that top this list are recognized because their optics/optical sciences program is one of the largest majors offered at the school.

Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

More Ways to Rank Optics/Optical 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 “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Optics/Optical Sciences Major in the Southwest Region” list to help you make the college decision.

In addition to College Factual’s rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you. Test it out by comparing your favorite schools against others you are considering, or bookmark the tool so you can experiment with it later.

Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Optics/Optical Sciences Major in the Southwest Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for southwest region master’s degree optics/optical sciences students.

Top 2 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Optics/Optical Sciences in the Southwest Region

1

University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona

#19 overall quality in Southwest

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Arizona. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Optics/Optical Sciences Major in the Southwest Region list. Tucson, Arizona is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out masters’s optics/optical sciences degrees to 58 students in 2021-2022.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.6%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Optics/Optical Sciences at University of Arizona

2

University of New Mexico - Main Campus
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Out of the 2 schools in the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Optics/Optical Sciences Major in the Southwest Region that were part of this year’s ranking, University of New Mexico - Main Campus landed the #2 spot on the list. Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this large public school handed out 4 degrees to qualified masters’s optics/optical sciences students in 2021-2022.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 2.6% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Read full report on Optics/Optical Sciences at UNM

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to A. T. Service.