General Biology is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #31 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 13 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best General Biology Master's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 441 master's degrees in general biology to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great General Biology School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of general biology 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
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 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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on general biology students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of general biology 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 much debt general biology 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 general biology related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for general biology students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best General Biology Master's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Any student who is interested in a master's degree in general biology needs to take a look at Washington University in St Louis. Located in the suburb of Saint Louis, WUSTL is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
General Biology master's degree recipients from Washington University in St Louis get an earnings boost of about $15,443 over the average earnings of general biology majors.
It's difficult to beat Iowa State University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in general biology. Located in the city of Ames, Iowa State is a public university with a very large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the biology program report average early career earnings of $28,875.
UNK is a medium-sized public university located in the distant town of Kearney.
Master's recipients from the general biology degree program at University of Nebraska at Kearney get $20,787 above the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
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.
Your choice of general biology 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:
