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.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in Minnesota to determine which ones were the best for general education students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,182 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
Your choice of general education for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality education program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on general education students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of general education students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt general education students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
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 colleges for general education students working on their master's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best General Education Master's Degree Schools in Minnesota list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Hamline University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in general education. Hamline is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Saint Paul.
Those general education students who get their master's degree from Hamline University make $11,922 more than the standard education grad.
Winona State University is a wonderful option for students interested in a master's degree in general education. Located in the town of Winona, Winona State is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the education program state that they receive average early career income of $52,019.
Southwest Minnesota State University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in general education. Located in the remote town of Marshall, Southwest Minnesota State University is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the education program make around $55,867 in the first couple years of their career.
Bethel University Minnesota is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a master's degree in general education. Bethel University Minnesota is a small private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Saint Paul.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the education program earn an average of $57,694 for their early career.
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).
Your choice of general education for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality education program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
