Ranked #36 in popularity, chemistry is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual looked at 238 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Chemistry Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 13,247 bachelor's degrees in chemistry to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Chemistry School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of chemistry for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality chemistry 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 much a school focuses on chemistry students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other chemistry 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 easy is it for chemistry to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized chemistry related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for chemistry 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 Chemistry Bachelor's Degree Schools 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.
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ADBLOCK #171
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Chemistry in the United States
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in chemistry. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
It's difficult to beat University of California - Santa Barbara if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in chemistry. Located in the midsize suburb of Santa Barbara, UCSB is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the chemistry program at University of California - Santa Barbara make $5,899 more than the average graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
It's difficult to beat University of California - San Diego if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in chemistry. UCSD is a fairly large public university located in the city of La Jolla.
Chemistry bachelor's degree recipients from University of California - San Diego earn a boost of around $4,012 over the average income of chemistry graduates.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in chemistry has to take a look at University of Wisconsin - Madison. Located in the city of Madison, UW - Madison is a public university with a very large student population.
Those chemistry students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Wisconsin - Madison make $7,588 more than the typical chemistry student.
Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a very large student population.
Chemistry bachelor's degree recipients from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign get an earnings boost of about $5,736 above the average earnings of chemistry majors.
Located in the large city of Minneapolis, UMN Twin Cities is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Chemistry bachelor's degree recipients from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities earn a boost of approximately $6,153 above the average earnings of chemistry graduates.
UC Berkeley is a fairly large public university located in the city of Berkeley.
Bachelor's recipients from the chemistry program at University of California - Berkeley get $18,278 more than the average graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of Austin, UT Austin is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the chemistry major at The University of Texas at Austin make $2,085 above the standard college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Northeastern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Boston.
Bachelor's recipients from the chemistry degree program at Northeastern University earn $21,213 more than the average graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the large city of Pittsburgh, Pitt is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the chemistry major at University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus get $2,273 above the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of College Station, Texas A&M College Station is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the chemistry degree program at Texas A&M University - College Station make $8,164 above the average graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
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Additional Noteworthy Schools
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Chemistry Bachelor's Degree Schools award.
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.