Where can your student actually get into biology?

• 1395 colleges nationwide offer a bachelor's biology program: 1389 awarded the degree in 2022-23 (federal IPEDS completions); 6 more carry program earnings in federal outcome data but no 2022-23 degree count under these program codes.
• Largest programs by graduates in 2022-23: University of South Florida (1,257), University of California-San Diego (1,189), University of California-Los Angeles (1,083).
• 72 of them are in California, the one state whose public systems (the University of California and the CSU) publish an admit rate into the major.
• Hardest reported gate into the program (only the UC and the CSU publish one): University of California-Los Angeles — Biology, Fall 2025: 9,026 applied, 993 admitted (11%).
• Highest reported admit rate into the program: California State University-Monterey Bay — 98.2% (2,091 applied, 2,054 admitted, Fall 2025).
• Highest median earnings four years after the degree: Carlow University, $134,677.
• Lowest average net price with aid: San Diego Christian College, $992 per year.

Every California public campus that reports a biology number reports it for first-year applicants, so this is not a major where a freshman has to enter as a pre-major and apply into the program later. A college with no row here is not an easier one; it means the system publishes no separate biology figure for it, and the campus rate is all that is public. Admits are not enrollees. At most UC programs students are admitted to the campus, not the major. This page as JSON → · California only (72 colleges, with the UC and CSU gates) →

Every college, one row each

Colleges with a reported gate into the program come first, hardest first; the rest are sorted by earnings, then by graduates. Degree awarded is the program the college conferred bachelor's degrees in during 2022-23, with the number of graduates (federal IPEDS completions). Program admit rate is the college system's own number for this major (UC Information Center, CSU Chancellor's Office). Net price is the average paid by aid recipients; full price is the cost of attendance. Earnings are federal College Scorecard medians four years after the degree.