Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Forestry

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

28

Schools Ranked

$39,854

Avg. Earnings

1.8 yrs

Best Payback

1,158

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	North Carolina State University at Raleigh Raleigh, NC · Public	$14,424	$66,941	1.8 yrs
2	Oregon State University-Cascades Campus Bend, OR · Public	$20,523	$52,107	4.8 yrs
3	Oregon State University Corvallis, OR · Public	$21,716	$52,107	5.1 yrs
4	Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI · Public	$11,794	$43,240	5.7 yrs
5	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN · Public	$12,911	$43,798	5.9 yrs
6	University of Georgia Athens, GA · Public	$15,037	$43,798	6.8 yrs
7	Mississippi State University Mississippi State, MS · Public	$18,449	$44,170	8 yrs
8	Stephen F Austin State University Nacogdoches, TX · Public	$13,192	$39,909	10.7 yrs
9	California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA · Public	$17,340	$40,768	12 yrs
10	University of Nevada-Reno Reno, NV · Public	$15,106	$39,927	12.3 yrs
11	Auburn University Auburn, AL · Public	$23,468	$40,461	17.2 yrs
12	California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt Arcata, CA · Public	$16,716	$38,289	20.3 yrs
13	University of Idaho Moscow, ID · Public	$13,998	$37,748	20.4 yrs
14	Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Tifton, GA · Public	$9,086	$36,668	21.8 yrs
15	Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ · Public	$14,142	$37,568	22 yrs
16	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA · Public	$18,372	$38,289	22.3 yrs
17	Paul Smiths College of Arts and Science Paul Smiths, NY · Private	$20,778	$38,289	25.3 yrs
18	Pennsylvania State University-Penn State DuBois DuBois, PA · Public	$15,229	$36,674	36.4 yrs
19	Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Carbondale, IL · Public	$14,499	$36,094	53 yrs
20	University of Kentucky Lexington, KY · Public	$16,708	$36,141	58.6 yrs
21	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA · Public	$27,137	$36,674	64.8 yrs
22	The University of Montana Missoula, MT · Public	$15,281	$35,823	74.3 yrs
23	University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Stevens Point, WI · Public	$13,560	$35,670	81 yrs
24	West Virginia University Morgantown, WV · Public	$13,077	$33,459	N/A
25	Colorado State University-Fort Collins Fort Collins, CO · Public	$15,086	$31,133	N/A
26	Iowa State University Ames, IA · Public	$14,641	$34,348	N/A
27	University of Florida Gainesville, FL · Public	$8,394	$30,771	N/A
28	Clemson University Clemson, SC · Public	$20,797	$35,060	N/A

Top Earners in Forestry

See schools ranked by earnings alone, without considering cost.

Best Value Rankings

Explore best value colleges across all majors and categories.

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.