2025 Best Geography Doctor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region

If you plan on getting your doctor's degree in geography, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #93 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in the Far Western US Region to determine which ones were the best for geography students pursuing a doctor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 30 doctor's degrees in geography during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Other Factors We Consider

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

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on geography students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of geography 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.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized geography related body.

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

More Ways to Rank Geography Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Geography Doctor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Geography in the Far Western US Region

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in geography.

Top Far Western US Region Schools for a Doctorate in Geography

1

University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

11 Annual Graduates

Every student who is interested in a doctor's degree in geography needs to look into University of California - Los Angeles. UCLA is a fairly large public university located in the city of Los Angeles.More information about a doctorate in geography from University of California - Los Angeles

2

University of California - Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

12 Annual Graduates

Every student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in geography has to check out University of California - Santa Barbara. UCSB is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized suburb of Santa Barbara.More information about a doctorate in geography from University of California - Santa Barbara

Best Geography Colleges by State

Explore the best geography schools for a specific state in the Far Western US Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
California	381	29
Washington	216	6
Oregon	145	6
Nevada	111	2
Hawaii	65	2

View All Rankings >

Geography Related Rankings by Major

Geography is one of 2 different types of Geography & Cartography programs to choose from.

Most Popular Majors Related to Geography

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Geographic Information Science	13
Other Geography	3

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 Couleur. More about our data sources and methodologies.