Oakland, CA (population: 412,612) has two biology schools within its city limits. Mills College, the highest ranked school in the city with a biology program, has a total student population of 1,501. It is the 303rd highest ranked school in the USA and the 23rd highest in the state of California (#1 is University of California-Los Angeles). To learn more about biology programs in Oakland, ratemyprofessors.com has reviews of biology professors at Mills College such as Barbara Bowman, Richard Cone, Lisa Urry, Helen Walter, and Jared Young.
Biology students from Oakland schools who go on to become biologists, marine biologists, wildlife biologists, molecular biologists, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 29,630 people working as biological scientists alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $69,430. Also, Zoologists and wildlife biologists make on average $60,670 per year and there are about 17,460 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Oakland-Fremont-Hayward Metropolitan area alone, there are ** employed zoologists and wildlife biologists earning an average salary of $85,740. Biological scientists in this area earn $87,450/yr and there are 140 employed.
Oakland lies in Alameda county, which is one of the 57 counties in California. Overall, the Oakland-Fremont-Hayward Metropolitan area has 990,570 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 1% unemployment rate, $26/hr average worker wage, and a $54,590 average annual salary. Thus, about 0 out of every 1000 jobs in Oakland are held by biological scientists, and **/1000 are held by zoologists and wildlife biologists.
Of the 2 biology schools in Oakland, none have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Mills College comes out as the most expensive ($23,982/yr) for biology students, with Holy Names University as the lowest, reported at only $18,227/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Oakland |
| Alameda | CA | 71,628 | 3 | 11.6549 | 62 | 2.2 miles |
| San Leandro | CA | 78,904 | 1 | 29.9223 | 11 | 5.6 miles |
| Berkeley | CA | 102,237 | 13 | 2.98519 | 59 | 7.4 miles |
| Castro Valley | CA | 65,952 | 0 | - | 0 | 9.7 miles |
| Hayward | CA | 145,517 | 6 | 17.5402 | 239 | 11.7 miles |
| San Francisco | CA | 817,411 | 21 | 17.5697 | 455 | 12.6 miles |
| Walnut Creek | CA | 64,055 | 0 | - | 0 | 13.3 miles |
| South San Francisco | CA | 64,345 | 0 | - | 0 | 13.3 miles |
| San Mateo | CA | 93,990 | 1 | 15.1982 | 101 | 15.3 miles |
| Union City | CA | 76,462 | 1 | 13.7752 | 0 | 16.1 miles |
| Dublin | CA | 46,208 | 3 | 13.8145 | 117 | 17.3 miles |
| Concord | CA | 122,338 | 7 | 21.1076 | 136 | 18.3 miles |
| Fremont | CA | 207,431 | 5 | 26.457 | 262 | 20.5 miles |
| Vallejo | CA | 114,029 | 1 | 31.5233 | 11 | 23.6 miles |
| Pittsburg | CA | 67,613 | 2 | 20.7913 | 157 | 25.0 miles |
| Antioch | CA | 102,439 | 2 | 25.0238 | 14 | 27.5 miles |
| Sunnyvale | CA | 135,564 | 4 | 17.5213 | 21 | 28.3 miles |
| Milpitas | CA | 69,900 | 1 | 18.2292 | 19 | 29.7 miles |
| Santa Clara | CA | 112,889 | 4 | 29.9373 | 188 | 30.9 miles |
| Fairfield | CA | 104,184 | 9 | 23.8893 | 386 | 34.6 miles |
| Napa | CA | 75,759 | 1 | 15.1485 | 56 | 36.9 miles |
| San Jose | CA | 977,893 | 9 | 20.6572 | 297 | 38.3 miles |
| Stockton | CA | 291,422 | 7 | 28.794 | 278 | 51.6 miles |
| Santa Cruz | CA | 57,690 | 2 | 37.6705 | 80 | 56.2 miles |
| Salida | CA | - | 2 | 26.0837 | 19 | 62.2 miles |
| Laguna | CA | 60,976 | 0 | - | 0 | 62.6 miles |
| West Sacramento | CA | 50,542 | 1 | 29.8049 | 4 | 65.7 miles |
| Woodland | CA | 56,758 | 0 | - | 0 | 67.5 miles |
| Modesto | CA | 203,882 | 4 | 24.9737 | 137 | 67.7 miles |
| Sacramento | CA | 475,452 | 20 | 22.3687 | 626 | 68.7 miles |