Forestry is about average in terms of popularity for master's degrees programs. That is, it ranks #182 out of the 343 majors across the country that we analyze each year. 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 10 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of forestry. Combined, these schools handed out 329 master's degrees in forestry to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Forestry School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of forestry 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. 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 much a school focuses on forestry students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other forestry students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
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 forestry 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 forestry related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for forestry 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 Forestry Master's Degree Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in forestry needs to check out Virginia Tech. Located in the small city of Blacksburg, Virginia Tech is a public school with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in forestry from Virginia Tech
It's difficult to beat University of Florida if you want to pursue a master's degree in forestry. Located in the midsize city of Gainesville, UF is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's recipients from the forestry major at University of Florida earn $8,349 more than the standard college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Any student who is interested in a master's degree in forestry has to take a look at University of Georgia. Located in the medium-sized city of Athens, UGA is a public university with a very large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the forestry program state that they receive average early career income of $46,160.
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).