When it comes to popularity, a master's degree in animal science sits in the middle of the road, ranking #163 out of 343 majors in the country. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 18 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for animal science students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 484 master's degrees in animal science to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Animal Science School for Your Master's Degree
The animal science master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality animal science program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to animal science students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of animal science students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for animal science to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
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 schools for animal science students working on their master's degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Animal Science Master's Degree Schools list to help you make the college decision.
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in animal science. Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the animal science program state that they receive average early career income of $55,258.
Texas A&M University - College Station is a good choice for individuals interested in a master's degree in animal science. Located in the medium-sized city of College Station, Texas A&M College Station is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the animal science program make an average of $61,394 in the first couple years of their career.
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).
The animal science master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality animal science program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
