a bachelor's degree in geological & earth sciences is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #80 out of 363 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 6 schools in Pennsylvania to determine which ones were the best for geological & earth sciences students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 384 bachelor's degrees in geological & earth sciences to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Geological & Earth Sciences School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of geological & earth sciences for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. 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 geological & earth sciences students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other geological & earth sciences 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 geological & earth sciences 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 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 bachelor's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Geological & Earth Sciences Bachelor's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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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It's hard to beat University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in geological & earth sciences. Located in the large city of Pittsburgh, Pitt is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the geology program make around $38,652 for their early career.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in geological & earth sciences has to take a look at University of Pittsburgh - Johnstown. Located in the small suburb of Johnstown, Pitt Johnstown is a public university with a small student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the geology program make an average of $38,652 for their early career.
Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in geological & earth sciences. SRU is a moderately-sized public university located in the distant town of Slippery Rock.
Soon after graduating, geology bachelor's recipients typically make an average of $41,094 at the beginning of their careers.
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).