2024 Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Schools in Alabama

With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Schools in Alabama” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

In 2020-2021, 30,503 people earned their degree in natural resources & conservation, making the major the 25th most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, natural resources & conservation graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $35,158 and had an average of $23,267 in loans still to pay off.

Across Alabama, there were 387 natural resources & conservation graduates with average earnings and debt of $40,049 and $24,473 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Schools in Alabama” ranking analyzed 2 colleges that offered a degree in natural resources & conservation. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great natural resources & conservation programs and cost less that schools of similar quality.

To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as the cost to attend the school after aid is awarded and overall quality of the natural resources & conservation program at the school. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

When choosing the right school for you, it’s important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we’ve created a number of major-specific rankings, including this “Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Schools in Alabama” list to help you make the college decision.

We’ve created a tool called College Combat that lets you create your own customized comparisons based on the factors that matter the most to you. Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Schools in Alabama

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Schools in Alabama.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Natural Resources & Conservation in Alabama

1

Auburn University
Auburn, Alabama

#1 in overall quality

$24,018 Average Net Price

$49,769 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Auburn University. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Schools in Alabama. Auburn is located in Auburn, Alabama and, has a large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 161 ’s natural resources & conservation degrees to qualified students.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Auburn, the school also landed the #1 spot in our “Best Natural Resources & Conservation Schools in Alabama” ranking. It costs about $24,018 for Alabama Natural Resources & Conservation students per year to attend Auburn.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 2.6%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 93%.

Full Auburn Natural Resources & Conservation Report

2

Columbia Southern University
Orange Beach, Alabama

#2 in overall quality

$11,241 Average Net Price

$55,041 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Columbia Southern University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Natural Resources & Conservation Schools in Alabama. Columbia Southern University is located in Orange Beach, Alabama and, has a fairly large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 106 ’s natural resources & conservation degrees to qualified students.

Columbia Southern University also made our “Best Natural Resources & Conservation Schools in Alabama” list, coming in at #2. The estimated yearly cost for Columbia Southern University is $11,241 for Alabama Natural Resources & Conservation students.

Read full report on Natural Resources & Conservation at Columbia Southern University

• Best Value Colleges for Natural Resources & Conservation in the Southeast Region
• Best Value Colleges for Natural Resources & Conservation

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to Lynn Betts.