Ranked #12 in popularity, general education is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 3 schools in Virginia to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of general education. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 576 master's degrees in general education during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great General Education School for Your Master's Degree
The education master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to general education students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other general education students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for general education to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized general education related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for general education students working on their master's degree.
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 Education Master's Degree Schools in Virginia list to help you make the college decision.
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Any student who is interested in a master's degree in general education needs to look into Virginia Commonwealth University. Located in the city of Richmond, VCU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Soon after graduating, education master's recipients typically earn about $51,723 in their early careers.
Any student who is interested in a master's degree in general education has to check out Shenandoah University. Shenandoah is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Winchester.
Master's recipients from the general education program at Shenandoah University earn $11,582 above the average graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
It's difficult to beat Radford University if you want to pursue a master's degree in general education. Radford is a medium-sized public university located in the fringe town of Radford.
Students who graduate with their master's from the education program state that they receive average early career wages of $48,802.
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 education master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
