Best Value Colleges for Applied Horticulture and Horticultural Business Services
Schools ranked by payback period — how quickly you recoup your investment through higher earnings.
12
Schools Ranked
$37,661
Avg. Earnings
5.1 yrs
Best Payback
405
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 | Major Earnings | Payback |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Tifton, GA · Public | $42,123 | 5.1 yrs |
| 2 | Pennsylvania State University-World Campus University Park, PA · Public | $44,689 | 7.9 yrs |
| 3 | Brigham Young University Provo, UT · Private | $41,205 | 8.2 yrs |
| 4 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA · Public | $44,689 | 11.2 yrs |
| 5 | Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX · Public | $41,193 | 11.3 yrs |
| 6 | Colorado State University-Fort Collins Fort Collins, CO · Public | $39,909 | 12.3 yrs |
| 7 | South Dakota State University Brookings, SD · Public | $37,568 | 29.3 yrs |
| 8 | University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE · Public | $33,993 | N/A |
| 9 | University of Rhode Island Kingston, RI · Public | $33,993 | N/A |
| 10 | Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Carbondale, IL · Public | $29,685 | N/A |
| 11 | Brigham Young University-Idaho Rexburg, ID · Private | $31,038 | N/A |
| 12 | University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR · Public | $31,848 | N/A |
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.