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Best Value Special Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California

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2023 Best Value Special Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

10 Colleges
$20,405 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$49,862 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Special Education Graduate Certificate School for You

Special Education is the #16 most popular major in California with 1,632 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

There are so many programs in today's world that it can tough to figure out which one is the right one for you. 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.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Grad Degree Search has created the Best Value Special Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California to help you in your search for the best school for you. Our analysis looked at 10 schools in California to see which graduate certificate programs offered the best value experiences for special ed students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

This ranking is not just a list of inexpensive schools. We also consider each school's quality, since we believe a low-quality school may not be a 'bargain' at any price. 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.

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

2023 Best Value Special Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California

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

Top 10 Best Special Education Graduate Certificate Schools

Our 2023 rankings named California State University - Los Angeles the best value school in California for special education students working on their graduate certificate. Located in the city of Los Angeles, Cal State LA is a public school with a very large student population.

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

Read full report on Special Education at California State University - Los Angeles

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend California State University - Long Beach. The school came in at #2 on this year’s Best Value Special Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California list. CSULB is a fairly large public school located in the city of Long Beach.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at CSULB are $8,280 a year.

Full Special Education at California State University - Long Beach Report

The excellent graduate certificate programs at California State University - Northridge helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value special education schools in California. Located in the city of Northridge, CSUN is a public school with a very large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at CSUN are $8,477 per year.

Read More…

#4

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, CA

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend San Francisco State University. The school came in at #4 on this year’s Best Value Special Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California list. 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 Special Education at San Francisco State University Report

#5

National University

La Jolla, CA

Out of the 10 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, National University landed the # 5 spot on the list. Located in the city of La Jolla, National University is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.

National University graduate students pay an average of $15,480 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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#6

Mount Saint Mary's University

Los Angeles, CA

Mount Saint Mary’s University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for special education students to get a graduate certificate. It came in at #6 on the list. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, MSMU is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at MSMU are $13,099 per year.

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Saint Mary’s College of California landed the #7 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value graduate certificate special education programs. SMC is a small private not-for-profit school located in the large suburb of Moraga.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at SMC are $33,357 per year.

In addition to its great value ranking, SMC is in the top 20% of all schools on our Best Special Education Graduate Certificate Schools in California list.

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#8

Holy Names University

Oakland, CA

Holy Names University landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value graduate certificate special education programs. Located in the large city of Oakland, HNU is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at HNU are $18,590 a year.

Read full report on Special Education at Holy Names University

#9

Mills College

Oakland, CA

With a ranking of #9, Mills College did quite well on this year’s best value schools for special education students working on their graduate certificate. Mills is a fairly small private not-for-profit school located in the city of Oakland.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Mills are $36,443 per year.

Read full report on Special Education at Mills College

With a ranking of #10, University of Southern California did quite well on this year’s best value schools for special education students working on their graduate certificate. Located in the city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit school with a very large student population.

USC graduate students pay an average of $61,396 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read More…

Best Value Special Education Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Value Special Education Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 90
Oregon 180
Nevada 147
Hawaii 28
Alaska 46

One of 14 majors within the area of study, special education has other similar majors worth exploring.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Educational Administration 45,458
Teacher Education Grade Specific 34,451
General Education 21,189
Teacher Education Subject Specific 20,616
Curriculum & Instruction 19,784

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 10 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 woodleywonderworks.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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