Astronomy & Astrophysics is about average in terms of popularity for bachelor's degrees programs. That is, it ranks #168 out of the 363 majors across the country that we analyze each year. So, you may have to do some digging around to find quality schools that offer the degree program. This list can help with that.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Bachelor's Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 127 bachelor's degrees in astronomy & astrophysics during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Astronomy & Astrophysics School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of astronomy & astrophysics for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality astronomy program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
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 astronomy & astrophysics students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of astronomy & astrophysics students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
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 astronomy & astrophysics 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 astronomy & astrophysics related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for astronomy & astrophysics students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Astronomy & Astrophysics 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 Best Astronomy & Astrophysics Bachelor's Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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University of California - Berkeley is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in astronomy & astrophysics. UC Berkeley is a very large public university located in the city of Berkeley.
Astronomy & Astrophysics bachelor's degree recipients from University of California - Berkeley earn a boost of about $9,788 over the average earnings of astronomy & astrophysics graduates.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in astronomy & astrophysics needs to look into University of California - Santa Cruz. UC Santa Cruz is a large public university located in the city of Santa Cruz.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the astronomy program state that they receive average early career income of $35,171.
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.
Your choice of astronomy & astrophysics for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality astronomy program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
