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Best Value Accounting Graduate Certificate Schools in California

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2023 Best Value Accounting Graduate Certificate Schools in California

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

7 Colleges
$12,027 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$55,627 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Accounting Graduate Certificate School for You

With 893 degrees and certificates handed out in 2020-2021, accounting is the #30 most popular major in California.

It's not easy to decide which program to enroll in when you have so many options available. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Grad Degree Search has created its Best Value Accounting Graduate Certificate Schools in California ranking. This report analyzed 7 schools in California to see which ones offered the best value graduate certificate programs for accounting students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

Our ranking of value is based on the quality of a program as defined in our per sticker price dollar. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

In our regional and nationwide rankings, out-of-state tution and fees are used in our calculations. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

2023 Best Value Accounting Graduate Certificate Schools in California

The colleges and universities below are the best value schools for accounting majors pursuing a graduate certificate.

Best California Schools for Affordable Quality for a Postbaccalaureate Certificates in Accounting

Our analysis found San Jose State University to be the best value school for accounting students who want to pursue a graduate certificate in California. San Jose State is a very large public school located in the city of San Jose.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at San Jose State are $9,286 a year.

Read full report on Accounting at San Jose State University

#2

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, CA

The excellent graduate certificate programs at San Francisco State University helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best value accounting schools in California. Located in the city of San Francisco, SFSU is a public school with a very large student population.

SFSU graduate students pay an average of $8,738 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Accounting at San Francisco State University Report

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend California State University - Los Angeles. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Value Accounting Graduate Certificate Schools in California list. Located in the city of Los Angeles, Cal State LA is a public school with a fairly large student population.

Cal State LA graduate students pay an average of $8,219 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Accounting at California State University - Los Angeles Report

#4

Santa Clara University

Santa Clara, CA

The excellent graduate certificate programs at Santa Clara University helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best value accounting schools in California. Located in the city of Santa Clara, SCU is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at SCU are $25,170 a year. On average, accounting graduates from SCU take out $18,093 in student loans while working on their Graduate Certificate.

SCU did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our Best Accounting Graduate Certificate Schools in California list.

Full Accounting at Santa Clara University Report

A rank of #5 on this year’s list means California State University - Dominguez Hills is a great value for accounting students working on their graduate certificate. CSUDH is a large public school located in the city of Carson.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at CSUDH are $8,494 per year.

Full Accounting at California State University - Dominguez Hills Report

With a ranking of #6, Golden Gate University - San Francisco did quite well on this year’s best value schools for accounting students working on their graduate certificate. Golden Gate University - San Francisco is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of San Francisco.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Golden Gate University - San Francisco are $19,875 a year.

Read full report on Accounting at Golden Gate University - San Francisco

DeVry University - California ranked #7 on this year’s Best Value Accounting Graduate Certificate Schools in California list. Located in the midsize city of Pomona, DeVry University - California is a private for-profit college with a small student population.

DeVry University - California graduate students pay an average of $17,552 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Accounting at DeVry University - California Report

Best Value Accounting Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Value Accounting Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 168
Oregon 95
Nevada 73
Hawaii 22
Alaska 1

One of 20 majors within the area of study, accounting has other similar majors worth exploring.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Business Administration & Management 131,555
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods 31,701
Human Resource Management 12,117
General Business/Commerce 9,137
Finance & Financial Management 5,784

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 7 schools only.

  • 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).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to Pixabay.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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