Zoology isn't the most popular master's program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #183 in popularity 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 2 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for zoology students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 67 master's degrees in zoology during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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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
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 zoology students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other zoology 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 easy is it for zoology 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 zoology related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for zoology students working on their master's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Zoology Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Every student who is interested in a master's degree in zoology has to check out Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Located in the distant town of Carbondale, SIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the zoology program report average early career income of $44,661.
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.
by our College Data Analytics Team
