Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Animal Sciences

Schools ranked by payback period — how quickly you recoup your investment through higher earnings.

50

Schools Ranked

$29,733

Avg. Earnings

7 yrs

Best Payback

6,222

Graduates

How we calculate value: Payback = (4 years of net price) / (major earnings - $35k baseline). A 2-year payback means you recoup your investment in 2 years through higher earnings vs. not attending college.

#	School	Net Price/yr	Major Earnings	Payback
1	Northwest Missouri State University Maryville, MO · Public	$12,127	$41,937	7 yrs
2	South Dakota State University Brookings, SD · Public	$18,826	$41,441	11.7 yrs
3	Colorado State University-Fort Collins Fort Collins, CO · Public	$15,086	$39,585	13.2 yrs
4	Iowa State University Ames, IA · Public	$14,641	$38,289	17.8 yrs
5	Dordt University Sioux Center, IA · Private	$23,412	$39,369	21.4 yrs
6	North Dakota State University-Main Campus Fargo, ND · Public	$16,071	$37,856	22.5 yrs
7	University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI · Public	$10,364	$36,488	27.9 yrs
8	University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE · Public	$15,394	$35,594	103.7 yrs
9	University of Wisconsin-Platteville Platteville, WI · Public	$13,699	$35,416	131.7 yrs
10	West Texas A & M University Canyon, TX · Public	$14,196	$35,420	135.2 yrs
11	Michigan State University East Lansing, MI · Public	$20,557	$35,546	150.6 yrs
12	University of Georgia Athens, GA · Public	$15,037	$29,882	N/A
13	University of Massachusetts-Amherst Amherst, MA · Public	$16,667	$23,649	N/A
14	University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD · Public	$17,360	$31,042	N/A
15	University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR · Public	$16,256	$34,793	N/A
16	Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX · Public	$15,248	$34,704	N/A
17	Stephen F Austin State University Nacogdoches, TX · Public	$13,192	$28,236	N/A
18	California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA · Public	$17,340	$32,711	N/A
19	Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ · Public	$20,927	$20,687	N/A
20	Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN · Public	$8,450	$32,925	N/A
21	Oklahoma State University-Main Campus Stillwater, OK · Public	$14,127	$28,753	N/A
22	University of Kentucky Lexington, KY · Public	$16,708	$28,236	N/A
23	California State University-Fresno Fresno, CA · Public	$8,030	$28,598	N/A
24	North Carolina State University at Raleigh Raleigh, NC · Public	$14,424	$22,534	N/A
25	Auburn University Auburn, AL · Public	$23,468	$33,459	N/A
26	California State Polytechnic University-Pomona Pomona, CA · Public	$15,958	$31,081	N/A
27	Cornell University Ithaca, NY · Private	$9,785	$29,685	N/A
28	Mississippi State University Mississippi State, MS · Public	$18,449	$28,960	N/A
29	West Virginia University Morgantown, WV · Public	$13,077	$30,771	N/A
30	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN · Public	$12,911	$31,042	N/A
31	Texas State University San Marcos, TX · Public	$12,996	$27,552	N/A
32	Kansas State University Manhattan, KS · Public	$16,868	$33,192	N/A
33	University of Maine Orono, ME · Public	$14,886	$28,236	N/A
34	Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH · Public	$13,273	$32,687	N/A
35	SUNY College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill Cobleskill, NY · Public	$18,262	$29,866	N/A
36	University of Rhode Island Kingston, RI · Public	$18,131	$26,276	N/A
37	University of Delaware Newark, DE · Public	$17,260	$30,409	N/A
38	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA · Public	$27,137	$28,598	N/A
39	The University of Tennessee-Knoxville Knoxville, TN · Public	$22,476	$27,024	N/A
40	Sam Houston State University Huntsville, TX · Public	$14,927	$32,498	N/A
41	Delaware Valley University Doylestown, PA · Private	$26,766	$32,976	N/A
42	University of Wyoming Laramie, WY · Public	$9,394	$27,488	N/A
43	University of Wisconsin-River Falls River Falls, WI · Public	$14,528	$33,708	N/A
44	California State University-Chico Chico, CA · Public	$16,738	$29,374	N/A
45	University of Vermont Burlington, VT · Public	$17,585	$27,729	N/A
46	University of California-Davis Davis, CA · Public	$14,193	$28,676	N/A
47	North Carolina A & T State University Greensboro, NC · Public	$12,647	$22,667	N/A
48	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL · Public	$11,505	$24,112	N/A
49	University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO · Public	$13,715	$33,281	N/A
50	Clemson University Clemson, SC · Public	$20,797	$25,774	N/A

Top Earners in Animal Sciences

See schools ranked by earnings alone, without considering cost.

Best Value Rankings

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Payback uses earnings by major from the College Scorecard's field-of-study file, last updated June 2026, against net price from the June 2026 release. Scorecard publishes the two separately, so they are different vintages.