2024 Best Colleges for Gerontology

SUMMARY

Going to school for Gerontology is a valuable choice and ordinarily an essential first step for scholars endeavoring to pursue a career as a life enrichment coordinator, an ambulatory care coordinator, or a nursing home administrator. Interestingly, gerontology is a ​unique degree ranking as the 322nd most popular major. Last year alone, there were 298 gerontology diplomas received. In-state tuition for gerontology at private colleges is, on average, 3.8 times more costly than their public peers.

With only 38 universities having programs for this degree you might have limited options as to the institutions which will have a degree program for you. If you're hoping to surround yourself with other gerontology undergraduates, look at schools in California which have the most undergrads admitted to gerontology annually. Zooming out, the best region to major in gerontology is in the Far West region with California State University-Sacramento, University of Southern California, and Ashford University best representing the region. Interestingly, our pick of the top conference to major in gerontology is the Big Sky Conference with California State University-Sacramento representing the conference. From our comprehensive list of the best colleges, our belief is that the best school for gerontology is University of Southern California.

The objectively 'best' school is not necessarily the best school for every student. There are a bunch of perspectives to think about when selecting ​university. External stuff like campus amenities, transportation services, and food could change one's feelings of which college to attend. Here at authority.org, we weighed the pros and cons for you. If, as an example, you want to know which gerontology college has the top campus, the answer is San Diego State University. If you are very interested in which university is home to the top campus, we have a whole page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through student reviews, professor reviews, government databases, and more to compare every major in an unbiased and informative way. Here you can explore our well researched list for the colleges with the best student life&nbspand from that list, our pick for the school with the best student life for gerontology is University of Southern California. Curious why? Continue scrolling to find out more about Authority's top recommendations. Many of our picks might shock you.

If expense is a primary factor in your decision on where to go to school, you might consider avoiding University of Southern California. University of Southern California&nbspappears to be our most expensive college for gerontology, at least for out of state students. That being said, we have an entire page for the most expensive&nbspcolleges that could put the price tag at University of Southern California&nbspinto perspective. You may also want to know that gerontology is the 370th most expensive major in the US, with an average cost of $17,600. On a broader scale, the most costly state for gerontology in the nation is North Carolina demonstrated by a tuition of $31,732 at the main university in the state Barton College. Even more broadly, the most costly region for gerontology is the Far West region which is best demonstrated with San Diego State University with a cost of $17,622, University of Southern California with a cost of $57,256, and Western Oregon University with a cost of $25,830.

Our cheapest region for gerontology is the Mid East region which is represented by University of Maryland Global Campus with a cost of $11,976, CUNY York College with a cost of $14,880, and California University of Pennsylvania with a cost of $11,574. More optimistically, the most affordable school for gerontology is California University of Pennsylvania. Authority.org's comprehensive list of the most affordable schools can be explored here.

In-state attendees can anticipate paying about $9,100 for a degree in gerontology. The price grows dramatically to an average of $20,500 for the out-of-state public-school student. As such, you might be interested in our choice for the college representing the best value for gerontology: University of Southern California. Through this link you will see our comprehensive list on the schools we see as being the best value&nbspoverall. Do know, this discussion is based on being an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when in-state tuition is 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 gerontology majors range widely, but within two years leaving college graduates will typically earn around $59,000. There is much variation in earnings; top earners can bring in up to $100,500. Straight out of university, the lowest earning positions within the gerontology field earn $33,900, which isn't that bad. The top earning grads for gerontology attended University of Southern California&nbspand if you are looking for colleges with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.

The general diversity of gerontology ranks high, being within the 84th percentile of all majors. The college with the most composite diversity for gerontology is University of Maryland Global Campus&nbspand here you can find our general list for the colleges which have the most diversity. The financial diversity of the Gerontology major sits only in the 97th percentile of all majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, in the 98th percentile. White collegians compose the largest proportion at 43% of those majoring in gerontology. Additionally, 83% of students pursuing a gerontology degree are women.

The median score for gerontology professors is 4.4 stars, a score which is 10% above the average across every major; this is a pretty good score. If you are interested in the most popular gerontology instructor in the nation, consider looking up Mario Garrett at San Diego State University. It may surprise you, but the highest ranked professors of gerontology by student come from University of South Florida-Main Campus. If we incorporate data other than simply rankings it becomes clear that the college possessing comprehensively the best professors for gerontology is University of Southern California. One will find an explanation of our ever evolving ranking methodology for the best overall professors here, along with many of the top professors nationwide.

Finally, the hardest college to get into for gerontology is University of Southern California. While we think of this list more as a novelty, we have a comprehensive list for the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, we hope you understand that considering college from context primarily built on superlatives could cause problems. We encourage you to read our other pages on different colleges and read some of our insightful background pages on beneficial details to look for as your university search continues.