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Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Master's Degree Schools in California

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2023 Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Master's Degree Schools in California

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

16 Colleges
$15,359 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$48,625 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Natural Resources & Conservation Master's Degree School for You

Natural Resources & Conservation is the #23 most popular major in California with 512 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. You're no longer limited to schools in your local area, either, since online programs are becoming more prevalent. Or you may find the programs at a trade school to be a better alternative for you.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Grad Degree Search has created its Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Master's Degree Schools in California ranking. Our analysis looked at 16 schools in California to see which master's degree programs offered the best value experiences for natural resources and conservation students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. 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.

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

2023 Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Master’s Degree Schools in California

The following schools top our list of the Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Master's Degree Colleges.

Top 10 Best Natural Resources & Conservation Master's Degree Schools

Our 2023 rankings named California State University - Fullerton the best value school in California for natural resources and conservation students working on their master’s degree. Cal State Fullerton is a very large public school located in the large suburb of Fullerton.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Cal State Fullerton are $8,410 a year.

Read full report on Natural Resources & Conservation at California State University - Fullerton

The excellent master’s degree programs at San Jose State University helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best value natural resources and conservation schools in California. San Jose State is a very large public school located in the city of San Jose.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at San Jose State are $9,286 per year.

Read full report on Natural Resources & Conservation at San Jose State University

The excellent master’s degree programs at University of California - Berkeley helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value natural resources and conservation schools in California. UC Berkeley is a very large public school located in the city of Berkeley.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UC Berkeley are $14,160 a year.

In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, UC Berkeley is ranked #2 for overall quality for natural resources and conservation in California.

Read full report on Natural Resources & Conservation at University of California - Berkeley

Out of the 16 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Santa Barbara landed the # 4 spot on the list. UCSB is a very large public school located in the midsize suburb of Santa Barbara.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UCSB are $13,581 per year.

Read full report on Natural Resources & Conservation at University of California - Santa Barbara

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend University of California - Irvine. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Master’s Degree Schools in California list. UC Irvine is a very large public school located in the large city of Irvine.

UC Irvine graduate students pay an average of $13,356 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Natural Resources & Conservation at University of California - Irvine

University of California - Davis ranked #6 on this year’s Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Master’s Degree Schools in California list. UC Davis is a fairly large public school located in the suburb of Davis.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UC Davis are $13,608 a year.

Read full report on Natural Resources & Conservation at University of California - Davis

California State University - Monterey Bay ranked #7 on this year’s Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Master’s Degree Schools in California list. Located in the midsize suburb of Seaside, CSUMB is a public college with a medium-sized student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at CSUMB are $8,652 per year.

Full Natural Resources & Conservation at California State University - Monterey Bay Report

Humboldt State University landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree natural resources and conservation programs. Located in the town of Arcata, Humboldt State University is a public school with a medium-sized student population.

Humboldt State University graduate students pay an average of $9,298 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Natural Resources & Conservation at Humboldt State University Report

California State University - Chico came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Master’s Degree Schools in California ranking. Chico State is a large public school located in the medium-sized city of Chico.

Chico State graduate students pay an average of $9,298 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Natural Resources & Conservation at California State University - Chico Report

California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Master’s Degree Schools in California ranking. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a very large public school located in the suburb of San Luis Obispo.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo are $11,629 per year.

On top of its placing in our value ranking, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo also did well on our Best Natural Resources & Conservation Master’s Degree Schools in California list. It’s in the top 10% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.

Read full report on Natural Resources & Conservation at California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 130
Oregon 297
Nevada 5
Hawaii 36
Alaska 22

Natural Resources & Conservation Majors to Study

Major Annual Graduates
Natural Resources Conservation 3,724
Natural Resource Management 1,073
Forestry 486
Wildlife Management 323
Fisheries Sciences 106
Natural Resources Conservation (Other) 32

Majors Similar to Natural Resources & Conservation

Related Major Annual Graduates
Engineering 61,791
Computer & Information Sciences 60,971
Biological & Biomedical Sciences 28,851
Mathematics & Statistics 15,127
Physical Sciences 12,705

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 16 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 Lynn Betts.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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