Best Colleges for Biology: Ranked by Graduate Salary, Not Prestige
We rank by what graduates actually earn — not by reputation surveys.
Top Schools for Biology — Ranked by Graduate Salary
These schools produce the highest-earning Biology graduates, based on federal earnings data. We rank by salary outcomes, not prestige.
| # | School | Biology Salary | Acceptance Rate | Degrees/Year | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brown University Providence, RI |
$65,100 | 5.2% | 224 | Reach |
| 2 | Caltech Pasadena, CA |
$65,100 | 3.1% | 14 | Reach |
| 3 | Columbia University New York, NY |
$65,100 | 4.2% | 169 | Reach |
| 4 | Cornell University Ithaca, NY |
$65,100 | 8.2% | 445 | Reach |
| 5 | Dartmouth College Hanover, NH |
$65,100 | 6.2% | 108 | Reach |
| 6 | Duke University Durham, NC |
$65,100 | 6.8% | 271 | Reach |
| 7 | Harvard University Cambridge, MA |
$65,100 | 3.5% | 229 | Reach |
| 8 | Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD |
$65,100 | 7.6% | 330 | Reach |
| 9 | MIT Cambridge, MA |
$65,100 | 4.7% | 47 | Reach |
| 10 | New York University (NYU) New York, NY |
$65,100 | 9.4% | 245 | Reach |
| 11 | Northwestern University Evanston, IL |
$65,100 | 7.1% | 222 | Reach |
| 12 | Princeton University Princeton, NJ |
$65,100 | 4.5% | 115 | Reach |
| 13 | Stanford University Stanford, CA |
$65,100 | 3.9% | 55 | Reach |
| 14 | UCLA Los Angeles, CA |
$65,100 | 9.0% | 1,423 | Reach |
| 15 | University of Chicago Chicago, IL |
$65,100 | 4.8% | 174 | Reach |
| 16 | University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA |
$65,100 | 5.9% | 293 | Reach |
| 17 | Yale University New Haven, CT |
$65,100 | 4.5% | 169 | Reach |
| 18 | Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA |
$60,900 | 11.4% | 55 | Reach |
| 19 | Georgetown University Washington, DC |
$60,900 | 13.1% | 111 | Reach |
| 20 | Tufts University Medford, MA |
$60,900 | 10.1% | 175 | Reach |
| 21 | UC Berkeley Berkeley, CA |
$60,900 | 11.7% | 920 | Reach |
| 22 | USC Los Angeles, CA |
$60,900 | 10.0% | 217 | Reach |
| 23 | Georgia Tech Atlanta, GA |
$56,700 | 16.5% | 256 | Match |
| 24 | University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI |
$56,700 | 17.9% | 745 | Match |
| 25 | University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC |
$56,700 | 18.7% | 670 | Match |
| 26 | University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA |
$56,700 | 16.9% | 257 | Match |
| 27 | Texas A&M University Austin, TX |
$52,500 | 29.1% | 1,155 | Match |
| 28 | UC Irvine Irvine, CA |
$52,500 | 25.6% | 919 | Match |
| 29 | UC San Diego La Jolla, CA |
$52,500 | 24.5% | 1,629 | Match |
| 30 | UC Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA |
$52,500 | 27.8% | 723 | Match |
Data source: IPEDS, College Scorecard.