2024 Best Colleges for Chemistry

SUMMARY

Choosing to study Chemistry is a valuable choice and usually a requisite first step for students endeavoring to pursue a career as a chemist, a chemical lab technician, or an epidemiologist. Interestingly, chemistry is of average popularity ranking as the 34th most popular major. Last academic year, there were 15,395 chemistry degrees conferred. In-state tuition for chemistry at private colleges is, on average, 4.3 times more costly than their public fellows.

With a staggering 1172 colleges offering this degree chances are that any universities you are considering will have an option for you. If you are hoping to surround yourself with other chemistry students, consider looking at institutions in California which have more undergraduates admitted to chemistry than any other state. Zooming out, the top region to major in chemistry is in the Southeast region with University of Florida, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Virginia Commonwealth University best representing the region. Interestingly, our pick of the top conference to major in chemistry is the Big Ten Conference with University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and Purdue University-Main Campus representing the conference. From our list of the best colleges, our choice for the best school for chemistry is Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The objectively best school might not actually be the best school for every student. There are lots more factors to weigh when choosing college. Stuff like campus amenities, transportation services, and food would impact one's thoughts of which college to attend. At authority.org, we evaluated the pros and cons for you. If, as an example, you want to know which chemistry college has the best campus, the answer is Harvard University. If, for example, you are very interested in which university is home to the top campus, we have an entire page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through professor reviews, government databases, student reviews, and more to evaluate every major in the United States in an unbiased and informative way. You can find our well researched list for the colleges with the best student life&nbsphere and our choice of the college with the best student life for chemistry is Cornell University. Curious why? Keep scrolling to learn more about Authority's top selections. Many of our decisions will probably surprise you.

If expense is a primary deciding factor in your choice of where you attend university, you might be cautious about University of Chicago. University of Chicago&nbspappears to be the most expensive university for chemistry, at least for out of state enrollment. That being said, we have a list of the most expensive&nbspuniversities that might put the cost at University of Chicago&nbspinto perspective. For more context, you could be interested to know that chemistry is the 31st most expensive degree in the United States, with an average bill of $52,100. To zoom out a little, the most costly state for chemistry in the country is Maine with costs at the primary three schools Bates College at $55,683, Bowdoin College at $55,822, and at Colby College of $55,822. Even more broadly, the most expensive region of the country for chemistry is the New England region which is best demonstrated with Amherst College with a cost of $57,640, Tufts University with a cost of $57,324, and Brown University with a cost of $57,112.

Our cheapest region for chemistry is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by Brigham Young University-Idaho with a cost of $4,208, Brigham Young University-Provo with a cost of $5,790, and Weber State University with a cost of $14,973. On the bright side, the most affordable college for chemistry is University of Florida. Authority.org's entire list of the most affordable schools can be found here.

In-state students can expect to pay around $10,000 for a degree in chemistry. The price increases by a lot to a median of $22,800 for the out-of-state public-school undergraduate. On that note, our selection for the university with the best value for chemistry: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Here you can find our comprehensive list about the universities we see as being the best value&nbspin general. That being said, this section is predicated on being an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when in-state tuition costs are considered, but as we do not know what state(s) you might qualify for in-state tuition, we are approaching this discussion through out-of-state tuition costs.

Earnings for chemistry students vary a lot, but within two years completing the major students will regularly earn around $47,800. There is much variation in pay; top earners can enjoy pay up to $85,200. Even right out of college, the lowest end positions within the chemistry field earn $27,000, which isn't that bad. The highest earning grads for chemistry graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology&nbspand if you are looking for universities with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.

The general diversity of chemistry is near the very top, coming within the 97th percentile of majors nationally. The school with the highest composite diversity for chemistry is Massachusetts Institute of Technology&nbspand here you can find our comprehensive list for the colleges which have the most diversity. The financial diversity of the Chemistry major is only within the 35th percentile compared to all other majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, in the 92nd percentile. White undergraduates compose the largest share, 45%, of those majoring in chemistry. Additionally, 55% of undergrads pursuing a chemistry major are men.

The median rating for chemistry professors is 3.6 stars, a ranking which is 10% below the median score across all majors; this is a subpar ranking. If you are interested in the most popular chemistry professor nationally, consider looking up Marybeth Lemon from Brigham Young University-Idaho. It may come as a surprise, but the best ranked chemistry instructors from student rankings come from University of California-Davis. If we consider data beyond just rankings it becomes clear that the school possessing comprehensively the best professors for chemistry is Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You will find more detail on our ever evolving ranking methodology for the best overall professors here, along with many of the best instructors in the country.

Finally, the most difficult school to get into for chemistry is Stanford University. While we are unsure why you would be interested, we do have a detailed list for the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, here at Authority we do hope you believe that considering university with a perspective mainly informed by superlatives can create problems. We at Authority encourage you to look at some of our more nuanced pages on individual colleges and peruse some of Authority's helpful background pages on essential details to consider as you continue your school search.