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Best Value General Engineering Master's Degree Schools in California

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2023 Best Value General Engineering Master's Degree Schools in California

Identifying Quality Schools at More Affordable Prices

9 Colleges
$15,234 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$87,583 Avg Salary

Finding the Best General Engineering Master's Degree School for You

In 2020-2021, 266 degrees and certificates were awarded to general engineering students who went to a California college or university. This makes it the #70 most popular major in the state.

With all the programs available today, it can be tough to choose which one is the best for you. With more and more schools offering online options, you could even register for a great program on the other side of the country. On top of that, there are a considerable number of trade schools that offer fast-track entry to many fields.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Grad Degree Search has created its Best Value General Engineering Master's Degree Schools in California ranking. This report analyzed 9 schools in California to see which ones offered the best value master's degree programs for engineering 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. More specifically, we discount our quality score by the published tuition and fees charged by a school. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The value is determined by how much quality your dollar buys.

In our regional and nationwide rankings, out-of-state tution and fees are used in our calculations. Average in-state tuition and fees are used for our statewide rankings.

2023 Best Value General Engineering Master’s Degree Schools in California

Check out the engineering master's degree programs at these schools if you want to get the best value for your educational dollar.

Best California Schools for Affordable Quality for a Master's in General Engineering

Our 2023 rankings named University of California - Los Angeles the best value school in California for general engineering students working on their master’s degree. Located in the city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public college with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UCLA are $13,036 a year.

UCLA did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #4 on our Best General Engineering Master’s Degree Schools in California list.

Full General Engineering at University of California - Los Angeles Report

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend San Jose State University. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value General Engineering Master’s Degree Schools in California list. Located in the large city of San Jose, San Jose State is a public college with a fairly large student population.

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

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Out of the 9 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, California State Polytechnic University - Pomona landed the # 3 spot on the list. Cal Poly Pomona is a fairly large public school located in the suburb of Pomona.

Cal Poly Pomona graduate students pay an average of $8,873 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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Out of the 9 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, California State University - Fresno landed the # 4 spot on the list. Fresno State is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Fresno.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Fresno State are $8,087 per year.

Read full report on General Engineering at California State University - Fresno

Out of the 9 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo landed the # 5 spot on the list. Located in the suburb of San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a public college with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo are $11,629 a year.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo excels when it comes to quality. It’s ranked in the top 10% of all schools on our Best General Engineering Master’s Degree Schools in California list.

Read full report on General Engineering at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

#6

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, CA

With a ranking of #6, San Francisco State University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for general engineering students working on their master’s degree. SFSU is a very large public school located in the large city of San Francisco.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at SFSU are $8,738 a year.

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University of California - Irvine did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for general engineering students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #7 on the list. Located in the large city of Irvine, UC Irvine is a public college with a very large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UC Irvine are $13,356 per year.

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University of California - Riverside ranked #8 on this year’s Best Value General Engineering Master’s Degree Schools in California list. Located in the city of Riverside, UCR is a public school with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UCR are $13,467 a year.

Read full report on General Engineering at University of California - Riverside

University of the Pacific came in at #9 in this year’s edition of the Best Value General Engineering Master’s Degree Schools in California ranking. Pacific is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Stockton.

Pacific graduate students pay an average of $50,638 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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Best Value General Engineering Colleges in the Far Western US Region

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

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 4
Oregon 15
Alaska 3

General Engineering is one of 39 different types of programs to choose from.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Electrical Engineering 11,021
Mechanical Engineering 9,007
Civil Engineering 6,042
Computer Engineering 5,557
Biomedical Engineering 4,252

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 9 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 Rémi Kaupp.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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