2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Wildlife Major in the Plains States Region

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual has developed its “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Wildlife Major in the Plains States Region” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

In 2020-2021, 2,449 people earned their degree in wildlife management, making the major the 186th most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, wildlife management graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $26,447 and had an average of $23,043 in loans still to pay off.

Across the Plains States region, there were 161 wildlife management graduates with average earnings and debt of $28,674 and $23,031 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 7 wildlife management graduates with average earnings and debt of $55,401 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Wildlife Major in the Plains States Region” ranking analyzed 2 colleges that offered a degree in wildlife management. That schools that top this list have a program in wildlife management in which the largest percentage of students at the school are enrolled.

For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we’ve developed a number of rankings, including this “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Wildlife Major in the Plains States Region” list, to help you choose the best school for you.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Wildlife Major in the Plains States Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for plains states region master’s degree wildlife students.

Top 2 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Wildlife Management in the Plains States Region

1

South Dakota State University
Brookings, South Dakota

Top 25% overall quality in Plains States

Out of the 2 schools in the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Wildlife Major in the Plains States Region that were part of this year’s ranking, South Dakota State University landed the #1 spot on the list. Brookings, South Dakota is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out masters’s wildlife degrees to 3 students in 2020-2021.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 2.7% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Full South Dakota State Wildlife Management Report

2

Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa

#6 overall quality in Plains States

Out of the 2 schools in the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Wildlife Major in the Plains States Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Iowa State University landed the #2 spot on the list. Iowa State University is a large school located in Ames, Iowa that handed out 4 masters’s wildlife degrees in 2020-2021.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 2.4%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 89%.

Read full report on Wildlife Management at Iowa State

• Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Wildlife Management

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

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate 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 Nicholas A. Tonelli.