2025 Best Urban Studies/Affairs Bachelor's Degree Schools in California

If you plan on getting your bachelor's degree in urban studies/affairs, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #236 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.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 6 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Urban Studies/Affairs Bachelor's Degree Schools in California ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 217 bachelor's degrees in urban studies/affairs to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Urban Studies/Affairs School for Your Bachelor's Degree

The urban affairs bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality urban affairs 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

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

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 urban studies/affairs students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other urban studies/affairs students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor'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.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized urban studies/affairs related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for urban studies/affairs students working on their bachelor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Urban Studies/Affairs Schools

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

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Urban Studies/Affairs in California

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in urban studies/affairs.

Top California Schools for a Bachelor's in Urban Affairs

1

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

14 Annual Graduates

University of Southern California is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in urban studies/affairs. USC is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Los Angeles.More information about a bachelor’s in urban studies/affairs from University of Southern California

2

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

35 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in urban studies/affairs has to check out University of California - Berkeley. UC Berkeley is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley.More information about a bachelor’s in urban studies/affairs from University of California - Berkeley

3

University of California - San Diego
La Jolla, CA

33 Annual Graduates

Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in urban studies/affairs needs to look into University of California - San Diego. UCSD is a very large public university located in the city of La Jolla.More information about a bachelor’s in urban studies/affairs from University of California - San Diego

4

University of California - Irvine
Irvine, CA

67 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in urban studies/affairs needs to look into University of California - Irvine. UC Irvine is a very large public university located in the city of Irvine.More information about a bachelor’s in urban studies/affairs from University of California - Irvine

5

San Diego State University
San Diego, CA

18 Annual Graduates

SDSU is a fairly large public university located in the city of San Diego.More information about a bachelor’s in urban studies/affairs from San Diego State University

6

California State University - Northridge
Northridge, CA

25 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Northridge, CSUN is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a bachelor’s in urban studies/affairs from California State University - Northridge

Best Urban Studies/Affairs Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Urban Studies/Affairs Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	521	37
Oregon	343	25
Nevada	201	35

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Urban Affairs

One of 0 majors within the Urban Studies area of study, Urban Studies/Affairs has other similar majors worth exploring.

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 Andrew Bossi. More about our data sources and methodologies.