Geological & Earth Sciences is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #82 most popular master's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual reviewed 7 schools in the Southwest Region to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of geological & earth sciences. Combined, these schools handed out 230 master's degrees in geological & earth sciences to qualified students.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Geosciences (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Geosciences (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" 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 = 4
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 1 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 1
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 0 offers with relevance >= 1.0
DEBUG: Backfilling with 0 offers with relevance >= 0.9
DEBUG: Backfilling with 1 offers with relevance >= 0.8
Choosing a Great Geological & Earth Sciences School for Your Master's Degree
The geology master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. 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 for a Master's Degree 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 master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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 geological & earth sciences students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other geological & earth sciences students want to attend this school to pursue a master'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 geological & earth sciences students go into to obtain their master'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 geological & earth sciences related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for geological & earth sciences students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Geological & Earth Sciences Master's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "physical-sciences//geological-and-earth-sciences"
Texas A&M University - College Station is a great option for individuals interested in a master's degree in geological & earth sciences. Located in the medium-sized city of College Station, Texas A&M College Station is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the geology program make an average of $70,539 for their early career.
University of Oklahoma Norman Campus is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in geological & earth sciences. Located in the midsize suburb of Norman, University of Oklahoma is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those geological & earth sciences students who get their master's degree from University of Oklahoma Norman Campus earn $10,948 more than the typical geology graduate.
University of Houston is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in geological & earth sciences. Located in the city of Houston, UH is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Geological & Earth Sciences master's degree recipients from University of Houston get an earnings boost of around $14,347 above the average earnings of geological & earth sciences graduates.
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).
The geology master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
