If you plan on getting your bachelor's degree in animal science, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #64 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 78 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Animal Science Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 7,109 bachelor's degrees in animal science during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Choosing a Great Animal Science School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of animal science for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality animal science program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to animal science students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of animal science students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
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 easy is it for animal science 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 animal science related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for animal science students working on their bachelor'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 Animal Science Bachelor's Degree Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Animal Science in the United States
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in animal science. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Texas A&M University - College Station is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in animal science. Located in the midsize city of College Station, Texas A&M College Station is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the animal science program state that they receive average early career income of $35,582.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in animal science has to check out Iowa State University. Located in the city of Ames, Iowa State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Animal Science bachelor's degree recipients from Iowa State University receive an earnings boost of around $5,675 over the average income of animal science majors.
Cornell University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in animal science. Cornell is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Ithaca.
Animal Science bachelor's degree recipients from Cornell University receive an earnings boost of about $2,312 over the typical income of animal science graduates.
It is hard to beat University of California - Davis if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in animal science. Located in the suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the animal science program report average early career income of $32,309.
Located in the city of East Lansing, Michigan State is a public university with a very large student population.
Animal Science bachelor's degree recipients from Michigan State University get an earnings boost of around $7,400 over the typical income of animal science majors.
South Dakota State is a fairly large public university located in the town of Brookings.
Bachelor's recipients from the animal science program at South Dakota State University earn $10,952 more than the standard college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
K -State is a large public university located in the city of Manhattan.
Bachelor's recipients from the animal science major at Kansas State University get $4,976 above the typical college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the large city of Madison, UW - Madison is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Animal Science bachelor's degree recipients from University of Wisconsin - Madison earn a boost of approximately $10,462 over the typical income of animal science graduates.
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).