Economics is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #15 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 35 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Economics Bachelor's Degree Schools in California ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 6,016 bachelor's degrees in economics to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Economics School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of economics for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality economics 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
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to economics students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other economics students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt economics 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 economics related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for economics 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 Economics Bachelor's Degree Schools in California 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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University of California - Berkeley is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in economics. Located in the city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics major at University of California - Berkeley get $26,342 above the average graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Stanford University is a wonderful decision for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in economics. Located in the large suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from Stanford University earn a boost of around $44,000 above the typical income of economics majors.
University of California - Los Angeles is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in economics. UCLA is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Los Angeles.
Those economics students who get their bachelor's degree from University of California - Los Angeles receive $7,987 more than the typical economics student.
It's hard to beat University of California - Santa Barbara if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in economics. UCSB is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized suburb of Santa Barbara.
Economics bachelor's degree recipients from University of California - Santa Barbara receive an earnings boost of about $12,230 above the average earnings of economics graduates.
Claremont McKenna is a small private not-for-profit college located in the suburb of Claremont.
Bachelor's recipients from the economics program at Claremont McKenna College get $35,401 more than the typical college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
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 economics for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality economics program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
