Biotechnology isn't the most popular bachelor's program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #165 in popularity out of 363 majors in the country. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
College Factual reviewed 6 schools in the Far Western US Region to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of biotechnology. Combined, these schools handed out 184 bachelor's degrees in biotechnology to qualified students.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Grad Cert - Biotechnology (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Grad Cert - Biotechnology (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Grad Cert - Biomimicry (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Grad Cert - Biomimicry (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Science & Engineering Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Science & Engineering Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Science & Engineering Diploma Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Science & Engineering Diploma Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 2
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 2 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 2
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 1 offers with relevance >= 1.0
Choosing a Great Biotechnology School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of biotechnology for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality biotech program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
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.
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 bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to biotechnology students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other biotechnology 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.
Student Debt - How much debt biotechnology students go into to obtain their bachelor'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 biotechnology related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for biotechnology students working on their bachelor's degree.
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 Biotechnology Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US 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.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "biological-biomedical-sciences//biotechnology"
It is difficult to beat University of California - Davis if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in biotechnology. Located in the small suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those biotechnology students who get their bachelor's degree from University of California - Davis earn $6,111 more than the average biotech grad.
California State Polytechnic University - Pomona is a good option for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in biotechnology. Cal Poly Pomona is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Pomona.
Bachelor's recipients from the biotechnology degree program at California State Polytechnic University - Pomona earn $7,652 more than the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
California State University - San Marcos is a good option for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in biotechnology. CSUSM is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of San Marcos.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the biotech program make an average of $49,615 in their early career salary.
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).
Your choice of biotechnology for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality biotech program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
