When it comes to popularity, animal behavior & ethology sits in the middle of the road, ranking #822 out of 1506 majors in the country. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 7 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for animal behavior & ethology students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 250 degrees in animal behavior & ethology annually.
Choosing a Great Animal Behavior & Ethology School
The animal behavior and ethology program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Animal Behavior & Ethology rankings. We derive our Best Overall Animal Behavior & Ethology School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
Animal Behavior & Ethology Rankings by Degree Level
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 Animal Behavior & Ethology Schools list to help you make the college decision.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for Animal Behavior & Ethology in the United States
The schools below may not offer all types of animal behavior and ethology degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.
It's hard to beat Bucknell University if you wish to pursue a degree in animal behavior & ethology. Located in the distant town of Lewisburg, Bucknell is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. A Best Colleges rank of #158 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Bucknell is a great university overall.
There were roughly 16 animal behavior & ethology students who graduated with this degree at Bucknell in the most recent year we have data available.
Every student who is interested in animal behavior & ethology has to check out Indiana University - Bloomington. IU Bloomington is a very large public university located in the small city of Bloomington. A Best Colleges rank of #30 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means IU Bloomington is a great university overall.
There were roughly 38 animal behavior & ethology students who graduated with this degree at IU Bloomington in the most recent year we have data available.
It is hard to beat Canisius College if you wish to pursue a degree in animal behavior & ethology. Located in the city of Buffalo, Canisius is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population. This college ranks 71st out of 136 schools for overall quality in the state of New York.
There were roughly 61 animal behavior & ethology students who graduated with this degree at Canisius in the most recent year we have data available.
It's hard to beat Eckerd College if you want to pursue a degree in animal behavior & ethology. Located in the city of Saint Petersburg, Eckerd is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population. This college ranks 52nd out of 70 colleges for overall quality in the state of Florida.
There were roughly 60 animal behavior & ethology students who graduated with this degree at Eckerd in the most recent year we have data available.
Carroll U is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Waukesha. This university ranks 15th out of 46 schools for overall quality in the state of Wisconsin.
There were roughly 22 animal behavior & ethology students who graduated with this degree at Carroll U in the most recent year we have data available.
Franklin and Marshall is a small private not-for-profit college located in the city of Lancaster. A Best Colleges rank of #334 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Franklin and Marshall is a great college overall.
There were about 13 animal behavior & ethology students who graduated with this degree at Franklin and Marshall in the most recent data year.
UNE is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized suburb of Biddeford. This university ranks 6th out of 19 colleges for overall quality in the state of Maine.
There were approximately 15 animal behavior & ethology students who graduated with this degree at UNE in the most recent data year.
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).
The animal behavior and ethology program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Animal Behavior & Ethology rankings. We derive our Best Overall Animal Behavior & Ethology School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
