SUMMARY
Choosing to study Ecology and Evolutionary Biology is not only a valuable choice, but usually a mandatory first step for undergraduates intending to begin a career as a wildlife biologist, an ecology veterinarian, or an evolutionary biologist. Interestingly, ecology and evolutionary biology is an uncommon degree coming in at the 275th most popular degree. In the last year, there were 529 ecology and evolutionary biology graduates. In-state tuition for ecology and evolutionary biology at private institutions is, on average, 3.5 times more expensive than their public equivalents.
With only 20 schools having programs for ecology and evolutionary biology you might have limited options as to the institutions you can choose from. If you are hoping to immerse yourself with other ecology and evolutionary biology undergraduates, consider looking at schools in Colorado which have the most undergrads admitted to ecology and evolutionary biology annually. More generally, the top region to major in ecology and evolutionary biology is in the Rocky Mountains region with University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado College, and Brigham Young University-Provo best representing the region. Interestingly, our pick of the top conference to major in ecology and evolutionary biology is the Pacific-12 Conference with University of Arizona representing the conference. From our comprehensive list on the best colleges, our belief is that the best university for ecology and evolutionary biology is Princeton University.
The overall best school does not have to be the 'best' school for you. There are many more facets to think about when deciding on college. External stuff like campus amenities, transportation services, and food might definitely alter your decision on where to go to school. At Authority, we have evaluated the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you are interested in which ecology and evolutionary biology college has the superior college campus, the answer is Princeton University. If you are mostly interested in which school boasts the best campus, we have an entire list dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through professor reviews, student reviews, government databases, and more so we can evaluate every major in an unbiased and informative way. You can find our comprehensive list for the colleges with the best student life here and from that list, our choice of the college with the best student life for ecology and evolutionary biology is University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Curious why? Keep scrolling to learn more about our top choices. Some of our picks might shock you.
If cost is a significant factor in your decisions, you might be cautious about Colorado College. Colorado College is our most expensive college for ecology and evolutionary biology, at least for out of state students. We have a page for the most expensive schools that might put the cost at Colorado College into perspective. Additionally, you could care to know that ecology and evolutionary biology is the 67th most expensive program in America, with an average bill of $44,100. On a broader scale, the most expensive state for ecology and evolutionary biology in the country is Maine demonstrated with a cost of $54,870 at the main university in the state Colby College. Even more broadly, the most costly region for ecology and evolutionary biology is unfortunately unavailable due to missing data.
Our cheapest region for ecology and evolutionary biology is the Plains region which is represented by Minnesota State University Moorhead with a cost of $15,264. In better news, the most affordable school for ecology and evolutionary biology is Brigham Young University-Provo. Authority.org's entire list of the most affordable colleges can be explored here.
In-state attendees can expect to pay about $13,400 for a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology. That cost balloons dramatically to an average of $35,700 for the out-of-state public-school undergrad. On that note, our pick for the university with the best value for ecology and evolutionary biology: Princeton University. Here you will find our comprehensive list on the universities we believe to be the best value overall. Do know, this idea is based on the assumption that you are an out-of-state student. A discussion of value changes when it comes to in-state tuition, but we do not know in which states any one student has residency.
Earnings for ecology and evolutionary biology majors vary a lot, but two-years after leaving college students will often earn around $44,000. There is a lot of variation in earnings potential; top earners can rake in up to $79,800. Even straight out of college, the minimum earning jobs within the ecology and evolutionary biology field earn $23,900, which could be worse. The top earning grads from ecology and evolutionary biology come from Princeton University and if you want to find the universities with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.
The overall diversity of ecology and evolutionary biology is solid, coming in the 56th percentile of all majors. The university with the highest composite diversity for ecology and evolutionary biology is Princeton University and here you can find our comprehensive list of the colleges with the most diversity. The financial diversity of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major is only in the 75th percentile compared to all other majors. Racial diversity is even further below average in the 44th percentile. White undergraduates compose the largest proportion, 64%, of scholars studying ecology and evolutionary biology. Additionally, 64% of undergraduates pursuing an ecology and evolutionary biology degree are women.
The median rating of ecology and evolutionary biology professors is 4.4 stars, a score which is 10% above the median for all majors; which is a fairly good score. If you are searching for the most popular ecology and evolutionary biology instructor nationally, consider looking up Hidetoshi Urakawa at Florida Gulf Coast University. It may come as a shock, but the top ranked instructors for ecology and evolutionary biology by student are found at Florida Gulf Coast University. If we consider data other than simply rankings it becomes clear that the college possessing comprehensively the best professors for ecology and evolutionary biology is Princeton University. One will find an explanation of our ever evolving ranking methodology for the best overall professors here, as well as some of the top professors in the country.
Finally, the hardest college to get into for ecology and evolutionary biology is Princeton University. While we do not necessarily see the value in it, we do have a general list of the hardest colleges to get into. Although, we do hope you understand that approaching higher education through a lens primarily shaped by superlatives might cause issues. We hope you explore our more nuanced pages on individual colleges and explore a couple of Authority's helpful background articles on essential details to look out for as your college search develops.