Geological & Earth Sciences is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #80 most popular bachelor's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 10 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Geological & Earth Sciences Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 315 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. 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 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.
The geology school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Geological & Earth Sciences Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region.
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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Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in geological & earth sciences needs to check out University of Utah. U of U is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Salt Lake City.
Geological & Earth Sciences bachelor's degree recipients from University of Utah earn a boost of around $7,158 above the typical earnings of geological & earth sciences majors.
University of Wyoming is a good decision for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in geological & earth sciences. UW is a large public university located in the remote town of Laramie.
Geological & Earth Sciences bachelor's degree recipients from University of Wyoming earn a boost of about $3,470 over the average earnings of geological & earth sciences graduates.
It is hard to beat Colorado State University - Fort Collins if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in geological & earth sciences. Colorado State is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Fort Collins.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the geology program make about $41,158 in their early career salary.
It's hard to beat University of Colorado Boulder if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in geological & earth sciences. CU - Boulder is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Boulder.
Those geological & earth sciences students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Colorado Boulder receive $3,975 more than the standard geology graduate.
Located in the medium-sized city of Greeley, University of Northern Colorado is a public university with a medium-sized student population.
Geological & Earth Sciences bachelor's degree recipients from University of Northern Colorado earn a boost of about $4,666 over the average income of geological & earth sciences majors.
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 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
