When it comes to popularity, a master's degree in plant sciences sits in the middle of the road, ranking #143 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.
College Factual reviewed 6 schools in the Southeast Region to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of plant sciences. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 165 master's degrees in plant sciences during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Plant Sciences School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of plant sciences for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality plant sciences 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 plant sciences students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of plant sciences 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 plant sciences 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 plant sciences related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for plant sciences 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 Plant Sciences Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region list to help you make the college decision.
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It is difficult to beat University of Florida if you wish to pursue a master's degree in plant sciences. Located in the midsize city of Gainesville, UF is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those plant sciences students who get their master's degree from University of Florida make $9,767 more than the standard plant sciences grad.
University of Georgia is a wonderful decision for individuals interested in a master's degree in plant sciences. Located in the medium-sized city of Athens, UGA is a public university with a very large student population.
Soon after graduation, plant sciences master's recipients typically earn an average of $54,601 at the beginning of their careers.
Auburn University is a great option for students pursuing a master's degree in plant sciences. Auburn is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Auburn.
Students who graduate with their master's from the plant sciences program report average early career earnings of $50,611.
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).