2025 Best Animal Science Master's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region

Animal Science is about average in terms of popularity for master's degrees programs. That is, it ranks #163 out of the 343 majors across the country that we analyze each year. So, you may have to do some digging around to find quality schools that offer the degree program. This list can help with that.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Animal Science Master's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 71 master's degrees in animal science during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Animal Science School for Your Master's Degree

Your choice of animal science for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on animal science students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other animal science students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How much debt animal science students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized animal science related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for animal science students working on their master's degree.

More Ways to Rank Animal Science Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Animal Science Master's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Animal Science in the Plains States Region

Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for animal science students seeking a a master's degree.

Top Plains States Region Schools for a Master's in Animal Science

1

South Dakota State University
Brookings, SD

13 Annual Graduates

South Dakota State University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in animal science. Located in the remote town of Brookings, South Dakota State is a public university with a large student population.More information about a master’s in animal science from South Dakota State University

2

Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS

17 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in animal science needs to look into Kansas State University. Located in the small city of Manhattan, K -State is a public university with a large student population.More information about a master’s in animal science from Kansas State University

3

University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Lincoln, NE

17 Annual Graduates

It's difficult to beat University of Nebraska - Lincoln if you wish to pursue a master's degree in animal science. Located in the large city of Lincoln, UNL is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in animal science from University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Best Animal Science Colleges by State

Explore the best animal science colleges for a specific state in the Plains States Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Missouri	193	7
Minnesota	174	7
Iowa	154	7
Kansas	149	17
Nebraska	123	10
North Dakota	115	4
South Dakota	89	14

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Animal Science

One of 18 majors within the Agriculture & Agriculture Operations area of study, Animal Science has other similar majors worth exploring.

Animal Science Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Animal Sciences, General	67
Dairy Science	2
Livestock Management	2

Majors Similar to Animal Science

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Plant Sciences	123
Food Science Technology	74
General Agriculture	60
Agricultural Economics & Business	40
Agricultural Public Services	30
Soil Sciences	14
Veterinary Biomedical and Clinical Sciences	14
Agricultural Production	7
International Agriculture	1

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Billy Hathorn. More about our data sources and methodologies.