Plant Sciences is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #131 most popular bachelor's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 56 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Plant Sciences Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,996 bachelor's degrees in plant sciences to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Plant Sciences School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The plant sciences bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
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 plant sciences students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of plant sciences 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 plant sciences 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 plant sciences related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for plant sciences 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 Plant Sciences 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 Plant Sciences in the United States
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in plant sciences. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in plant sciences needs to look into Iowa State University. Iowa State is a very large public university located in the small city of Ames.
Those plant sciences students who get their bachelor's degree from Iowa State University earn $6,683 more than the typical plant sciences grad.
It is difficult to beat Cornell University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in plant sciences. Located in the small city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Soon after graduating, plant sciences bachelor's recipients usually earn around $32,236 in their early careers.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in plant sciences has to check out Texas A&M University - College Station. Texas A&M College Station is a very large public university located in the midsize city of College Station.
Plant Sciences bachelor's degree recipients from Texas A&M University - College Station get an earnings boost of approximately $2,453 over the typical earnings of plant sciences majors.
California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo is a good option for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in plant sciences. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a very large public university located in the small suburb of San Luis Obispo.
Plant Sciences bachelor's degree recipients from California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo get an earnings boost of around $20,419 over the average earnings of plant sciences graduates.
Located in the city of Lincoln, UNL is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Plant Sciences bachelor's degree recipients from University of Nebraska - Lincoln earn a boost of approximately $5,006 above the average earnings of plant sciences majors.
Located in the town of Brookings, South Dakota State is a public university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the plant sciences major at South Dakota State University earn $16,077 above the standard college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
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).