by our College Data Analytics Team
[Agricultural Economics](/majors/agriculture-ag-operations/agricultural-economics-business/agricultural-economics/) degree programs vary widely in price and payoff across the country. The schools below stand out for delivering a strong agricultural economics education at a price that pays off.
College Factual analyzed 1 schools to build this 2026 ranking of the best value agricultural economics schools.
What’s on this page:
Below are the schools that deliver the strongest value in agricultural economics, balancing cost against outcomes.
For return on investment in agricultural economics, no school beat Cornell University this year. Cornell University is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Ithaca. The average in-state cost of tuition and fees is $69,314. Typical student debt for agricultural economics graduates is $13,258. Early-career agricultural economics graduates make about $92,163. That is a strong return on a $13,258 median debt. Roughly 9% of applicants are accepted.
The ranking above is published by College Factual (MF_RANKING_2025), 2026 edition. The methodology weighs the cost of a degree against the earnings graduates go on to achieve, drawn primarily from the U.S. Department of Education (IPEDS and College Scorecard).
Ranking method: College Major Best Value · 1 school evaluated.
*Averages shown above reflect the top 1 ranked schools only.
More about our data sources and methodologies.