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Best Value International Relations & Security Master's Degree Schools in California

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2023 Best Value International Relations & Security Master's Degree Schools in California

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

9 Colleges
$29,391 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$56,002 Avg Salary

Finding the Best International Relations & National Security Master's Degree School for You

International Relations & National Security is the #49 most popular major in California with 534 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. 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.

The Best Value International Relations & Security Master's Degree Schools in California ranking is one of many tools that Grad Degree Search has developed to help you make your educational decision. Our analysis looked at 9 schools in California to see which master's degree programs offered the best value experiences for international relations 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 International Relations & National Security Master’s Degree Schools in California

The following schools top our list of the Best Value International Relations & National Security Master's Degree Colleges.

Best California Schools for Affordable Quality for a Master's in International Relations & Security

Our 2023 rankings named University of California - San Diego the best value school in California for international relations and national security students working on their master’s degree. Located in the large city of La Jolla, UCSD is a public college with a fairly large student population.

UCSD graduate students pay an average of $13,564 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

On top of its placing in our value ranking, UCSD also did well on our Best International Relations & Security Master’s Degree Schools in California list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.

Read full report on International Relations & National Security at University of California - San Diego

#2

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, CA

Out of the 9 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, San Francisco State University landed the # 2 spot on the list. Located in the city of San Francisco, SFSU is a public school with a fairly large student population.

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

Full International Relations & National Security at San Francisco State University Report

#3

San Diego State University

San Diego, CA

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend San Diego State University. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Value International Relations & Security Master’s Degree Schools in California list. Located in the city of San Diego, SDSU is a public college with a very large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at SDSU are $9,570 per year.

Read full report on International Relations & National Security at San Diego State University

Out of the 9 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, California State University - San Bernardino landed the # 4 spot on the list. Located in the city of San Bernardino, CSUSB is a public college with a fairly large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at CSUSB are $8,647 per year.

Read full report on International Relations & National Security at California State University - San Bernardino

#5

Stanford University

Stanford, CA

Out of the 9 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, Stanford University landed the # 5 spot on the list. Located in the large suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.

Stanford graduate students pay an average of $55,011 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Stanford also took the #1 spot in our Best International Relations & Security Master’s Degree Schools in California rankings.

Read full report on International Relations & National Security at Stanford University

Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey landed the #6 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree international relations and national security programs. Located in the suburb of Monterey, Middlebury Institute is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly small student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Middlebury Institute are $42,804 per year.

Read More…

Claremont Graduate University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for international relations and national security students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #7 on the list. Located in the large suburb of Claremont, Claremont Graduate University is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Claremont Graduate University are $36,380 a year.

On top of its placing in our value ranking, Claremont Graduate University also did well on our Best International Relations & Security Master’s Degree Schools in California list. It’s in the top 10% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.

Read More…

#8

University of San Diego

San Diego, CA

University of San Diego landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree international relations and national security programs. USD is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of San Diego.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at USD are $28,410 per year.

As a testament to the quality of education it offers, USD also is in the top 20% of our Best International Relations & Security Master’s Degree Schools in California ranking.

Read More…

University of Southern California did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for international relations and national security students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #9 on the list. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit school with a very large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at USC are $61,396 per year.

USC also made our Best International Relations & Security Master’s Degree Schools in California list, coming in at #5.

Full International Relations & National Security at University of Southern California Report

Best Value International Relations & National Security Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Value International Relations & National Security Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 13
Hawaii 17

One of 12 majors within the area of study, international relations and national security has other similar majors worth exploring.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Economics 6,173
Political Science & Government 2,664
Geography & Cartography 2,315
Sociology 1,907
Anthropology 1,446

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 RepubFan12.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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