Natural Resource Management is about average in terms of popularity for bachelor's degrees programs. That is, it ranks #149 out of the 363 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.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in North Carolina to determine which ones were the best for natural resource management students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 46 bachelor's degrees in natural resource management to qualified students.
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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 bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor'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 natural resource management students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of natural resource management students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
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 natural resource management to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized natural resource management related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for natural resource management students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Natural Resource Management Schools
The resource management school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Natural Resource Management Bachelor's Degree Schools in North Carolina.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
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Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in natural resource management needs to check out Western Carolina University. Located in the town of Cullowhee, WCU is a public university with a large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the resource management program state that they receive average early career earnings of $36,846.
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).
by our College Data Analytics Team
