2025 Best Natural Resources Conservation Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region

Natural Resources Conservation is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #58 most popular doctor's degree program in the country. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in the Southeast Region to determine which ones were the best for natural resources conservation students pursuing a doctor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 75 doctor's degrees in natural resources conservation during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of doctorate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their doctor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

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 natural resources conservation students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other natural resources conservation students want to attend this school to pursue a doctor's degree.
• 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 much debt natural resources conservation students go into to obtain their doctor'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 natural resources conservation related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for natural resources conservation students working on their doctor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

The conservation school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Natural Resources Conservation Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Natural Resources Conservation in the Southeast Region

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in natural resources conservation.

Top Southeast Region Schools for a Doctorate in Conservation

1

Mississippi State University
Mississippi State, MS

13 Annual Graduates

Mississippi State University is a great decision for individuals interested in a doctor's degree in natural resources conservation. Mississippi State is a fairly large public university located in the remote town of Mississippi State.More information about a doctorate in natural resources conservation from Mississippi State University

2

George Mason University
Fairfax, VA

13 Annual Graduates

George Mason University is a wonderful choice for individuals interested in a doctor's degree in natural resources conservation. Located in the suburb of Fairfax, GMU is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in natural resources conservation from George Mason University

Best Natural Resources Conservation Colleges by State

Explore the best natural resources conservation colleges for a specific state in the Southeast Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	138	5
Virginia	127	12
North Carolina	115	21
Mississippi	113	10
Louisiana	103	4
Tennessee	102	4
Arkansas	58	2

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Conservation

Natural Resources Conservation is one of 5 different types of Natural Resources & Conservation programs to choose from.

Conservation Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Environmental Science	47
Natural Resources/Conservation, General	21
Environmental Studies	7

Majors Similar to Conservation

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Forestry	51
Wildlife Management	13
Fisheries Sciences	11
Natural Resource Management	2

Notes and References

• 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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Lynn Betts. More about our data sources and methodologies.