Forestry is about average in terms of popularity for master's degrees programs. That is, it ranks #182 out of the 343 majors across the country that we analyze each year. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in the Far Western US Region to determine which ones were the best for forestry students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 49 master's degrees in forestry during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Choosing a Great Forestry School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of forestry for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
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 for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on forestry students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other forestry students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
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 much debt forestry students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized forestry related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for forestry students working on their master'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 Forestry Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Forestry in the Far Western US Region
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for forestry students seeking a a master's degree.
Top Far Western US Region Schools for a Master's in Forestry
Every student who is interested in a master's degree in forestry needs to take a look at Oregon State University. Oregon State is a very large public university located in the city of Corvallis.
Students who graduate with their master's from the forestry program state that they receive average early career wages of $47,934.
University of Washington - Seattle Campus is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in forestry. Located in the city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a very large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the forestry program report average early career wages of $47,213.
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).