General Agriculture is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #157 most popular degree program in the country. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
College Factual looked at 62 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best General Agriculture Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 3,151 degrees in general agriculture annually.
Your choice of general agriculture school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall General Agriculture School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
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 General Agriculture Schools list to help you make the college decision.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
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Best Schools for General Agriculture in the United States
The schools below may not offer all types of agriculture degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
It is hard to beat Cornell University if you wish to pursue a degree in general agriculture. Located in the small city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #9 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Cornell is a great university overall.
There were about 98 general agriculture students who graduated with this degree at Cornell in the most recent year we have data available. Those general agriculture students who get their degree from Cornell University earn $11,287 more than the standard agriculture graduate.
Illinois State University is a good option for students interested in a degree in general agriculture. Illinois State is a very large public university located in the medium-sized suburb of Normal. This university ranks 8th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 125 general agriculture students who graduated with this degree at Illinois State in the most recent data year. General Agriculture degree recipients from Illinois State University earn a boost of around $5,117 above the typical earnings of general agriculture graduates.
University of Maryland - College Park is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in general agriculture. Located in the suburb of College Park, UMCP is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #37 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UMCP is a great university overall.
There were roughly 40 general agriculture students who graduated with this degree at UMCP in the most recent data year.
It's difficult to beat South Dakota State University if you wish to pursue a degree in general agriculture. Located in the remote town of Brookings, South Dakota State is a public university with a large student population. This university ranks 3rd out of 13 schools for overall quality in the state of South Dakota.
There were approximately 69 general agriculture students who graduated with this degree at South Dakota State in the most recent year we have data available. Those general agriculture students who get their degree from South Dakota State University receive $7,603 more than the standard agriculture student.
Located in the small city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #65 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Purdue is a great university overall.
There were about 22 general agriculture students who graduated with this degree at Purdue in the most recent data year.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a very large public university located in the small suburb of San Luis Obispo. A Best Colleges rank of #165 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a great university overall.
There were about 43 general agriculture students who graduated with this degree at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the most recent data year. General Agriculture degree recipients from California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo receive an earnings boost of about $22,608 over the average income of general agriculture graduates.
Texas A&M College Station is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of College Station. A Best Colleges rank of #42 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Texas A&M College Station is a great university overall.
There were roughly 31 general agriculture students who graduated with this degree at Texas A&M College Station in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the general agriculture major at Texas A&M University - College Station get $17,447 above the typical college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Virginia Tech is a fairly large public school located in the city of Blacksburg. A Best Colleges rank of #58 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Virginia Tech is a great school overall.
There were roughly 34 general agriculture students who graduated with this degree at Virginia Tech in the most recent data year. Those general agriculture students who get their degree from Virginia Tech earn $9,452 more than the typical agriculture graduate.
Located in the large city of Raleigh, NC State is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #122 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means NC State is a great university overall.
There were approximately 34 general agriculture students who graduated with this degree at NC State in the most recent data year. Students who receive their degree from the agriculture program earn about $39,802 in the first couple years of their career.
Chico State is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Chico. This university ranks 64th out of 161 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were roughly 48 general agriculture students who graduated with this degree at Chico State in the most recent data year.
Wazzu is a fairly large public university located in the distant town of Pullman. This university ranks 3rd out of 50 colleges for overall quality in the state of Washington.
There were roughly 35 general agriculture students who graduated with this degree at Wazzu in the most recent year we have data available. Those general agriculture students who get their degree from Washington State University receive $43,730 more than the average agriculture grad.
UGA is a very large public university located in the city of Athens. A Best Colleges rank of #69 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UGA is a great university overall.
There were about 15 general agriculture students who graduated with this degree at UGA in the most recent year we have data available.
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).
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