Interested in attending a STEM school in California? Our ranking of top research universities for bachelor’s degrees displays schools that will best prepare you for STEM careers.
California’s higher education institutes span across the entire state, allowing students to study by the beach, in the forest, in small towns, and in large cities. There are over 30 high quality online programs that would allow you to earn a degree from literally anywhere in California, or the world.
The state’s largest university is the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). UCLA serves nearly 44,000 students and offers a tuition rate around $13,000. This isn’t the only school with a large student body though. California is home to 23 colleges and universities with student populations of over 20,000 students.
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However, more than half of the state’s schools serve smaller student populations, offering plenty of options for students who crave a more intimate campus experience. Additionally, California boasts 50 religiously affiliated schools. Many of these schools have high graduation rates. However, tuition costs can range greatly, from $8,000 at Bethesda University up to $54,000 at Pepperdine University.
Additionally, many of California’s colleges and universities boast influential faculty and alumni, including Neil Armstrong, Jerry Lewis, and Weird Al
Yankovic. In addition to famous alumni and professors, California’s schools are also home to some of the country’s top degree programs, including nursing, business, religious studies, education, literature, and law. Many of these schools offer online courses and complete online programs in these same disciplines.
Though Hollywood has given us an inside look into California’s most popular landmarks and attractions, these one-of-a-kind places aren’t the only reason people flock to The Golden State. With hundreds of colleges and universities, as well as community and junior colleges, to choose from, students have countless opportunities to further their education in California.
Many of these opportunities are also accessible through online courses and online colleges. A growing number of online programs in California have received accreditation from the Western Association of Schools, which means online students have a higher level of quality assurance than ever before. It’s also worth noting that students who live in California can still get an in-state discount on their associate degree or bachelor’s degree even when completing online courses or online programs.
To learn more about earning your degree in California, check out some of the state’s top programs and career paths.
Related: Differences between research universities and teaching colleges
Selecting a college could be one of the most challenging decisions you have to make in life. Should you go to a liberal arts college and focus on a general program? Or is a research university a better option? This option allows you to focus on more specific fields of study.
A research university offers you a lot of exceptional academic and career opportunities. These schools, often supported by the National Science Foundation and similar agencies, focus on facilitating research studies conducted by graduate students, professors, and industry experts. This makes a research university suitable for undergraduate students who plan to pursue higher academics.
Here are some interesting reasons why attending a research university is good for you.
You can make connections with well-known and distinguished industry experts. This allows students to be networked with key players in the industry. Many researchers take their students with them to conferences and introduce these students around. This is a helpful way to become established in your field and launch yourself well into your career.
Research universities have improved course selections. Research universities often receive alumni, business, and government funding. This is why most of these universities have relatively bigger facilities with multiple departments.
Those who attend research schools will find it easier to select from unique academic programs and classes that will allow them to fine-tune their preferred majors.
Research universities offering undergraduate programs often award the same benefits to their undergrad students. This allows these students to learn from experts and take advantage of improved educational tools.
While all schools generally differ in the way they are structured, a research university is an ultimate option for highly passionate enrollees. Since these schools have ample resources, research universities can adjust to specialized academic endeavors such as double majors.
Research universities have to live up to their role as producers of the latest innovations and technologies, which is why these schools always have widespread prestige. Thus, these schools are usually featured in the news for their projects. Major industry players even partner with research universities to help them with their academic missions.
You have an advantage in admission to professional and graduate schools. Many professional and graduate schools have this belief that students coming from research universities are better trained than those coming from smaller schools. Graduate schools put more faith in letters of recommendation coming from well-known professors at research universities.
Research universities have more fine-grained majors. Research universities have a larger faculty, which means they have a wider range of disciplines offered. This gives students more choices of majors. For instance, the University of California-Berkeley has more than 300 majors and programs.
In a single field, you can find different fine-tuned variations. UC Berkeley’s biological sciences department gives you the option to choose either Biochemistry, Integrative Biology, Genetics, Neurobiology, Immunology, or Cell Biology.
There are also more obscure majors like Epidemiology, Demography, Media Studies, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual and Transgender Studies, Folklore, and Native American Studies. In small colleges and universities, majors usually range from 25 to 30 only. Needless to say, choices in research universities are good.
You can secure internships and work with industry experts. It’s been proven that some of the best experiences for college students happen not inside the classroom, but in the interaction they experience with professors outside the classroom, especially in shared research activities.
Through internships and collaborative projects, students will have the chance to become researchers. Sometimes, they can even coauthor published papers or co-present at conferences. Either way, these experiences are a major feather in a students’s cap.
A research university is a great option for students interested in obtaining STEM degrees. Research universities invest heavily in research, which consequently provides meaningful and extensive opportunities for its students and faculty to participate in research. We’ve identified 29 research universities in California. To be included in our ranking, schools must be a fully accredited universities and must must offer doctoral degrees across the range of STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math).
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
4%
Graduation
96%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1495/33
Stanford University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
14%
Graduation
93%
Student body
43K
Median SAT/ACT
1420/32
University of California, Berkeley’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
11%
Graduation
92%
Student body
46K
University of California, Los Angeles’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$62K
Acceptance
13%
Graduation
92%
Student body
38K
Median SAT/ACT
1435/32
University of Southern California’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
4%
Graduation
93%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1555/35
California Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
34%
Graduation
89%
Student body
41K
Median SAT/ACT
1375/31
University of California, San Diego’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
29%
Graduation
85%
Student body
27K
Median SAT/ACT
1345/31
University of California, Santa Barbara’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
29%
Graduation
84%
Student body
37K
Median SAT/ACT
1330/29
University of California, Irvine’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
49%
Graduation
87%
Student body
38K
Median SAT/ACT
1280/29
University of California, Davis’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
59%
Graduation
78%
Student body
20K
Median SAT/ACT
1260/29
University of California, Santa Cruz’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
65%
Graduation
76%
Student body
26K
Median SAT/ACT
1180/26
University of California, Riverside’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$56K
Acceptance
54%
Graduation
91%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1360/30
Santa Clara University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
38%
Graduation
76%
Student body
34K
Median SAT/ACT
1195/25
San Diego State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$53K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
76%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1235/27
University of San Francisco’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
53%
Graduation
83%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1305/28
Pepperdine University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$59K
Acceptance
60%
Graduation
80%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1260/27
Chapman University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$53K
Acceptance
53%
Graduation
80%
Student body
8K
University of San Diego’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$52K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
69%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1210/26
University of the Pacific ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
46%
Graduation
79%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1300/29
Loyola Marymount University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$44K
Acceptance
61%
Graduation
70%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1180/25
Biola University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
87%
Graduation
72%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/21
University of California, Merced’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$42K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
72%
Student body
8K
Azusa Pacific University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$46K
Acceptance
72%
Graduation
69%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1055/20
University of La Verne’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Student body
8K
Northcentral University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
93%
Student body
8K
University of Massachusetts Global’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Many of our 2022 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2021. That’s because we took a fundamentally different apporach. For 2021 we utilized our Concentrated Influence algorithm, designed to take away the size advantage larger schools have when we rank their faculty and alumni’s academic influence. Concentrated influence highlights smaller schools that are proportionally as successful as larger universities at cultivating influential alumni and faculty.
Check out our directory of research universities throughout the U.S. for a look at the top research institutions in every state.