Ranked #8 in popularity, special education is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual reviewed 20 schools in the Far Western US Region to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of special education. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,693 master's degrees in special education during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Special Education School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of special education for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
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.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
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 special education students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of special education students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
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 much debt special 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 special education related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for special education students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Special Education Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in special education has to take a look at California State University - Los Angeles. Cal State LA is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Los Angeles.
Special Education master's degree recipients from California State University - Los Angeles get an earnings boost of around $16,044 above the typical income of special education graduates.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in special education has to look into National University. Located in the large city of San Diego, National University is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Those special education students who get their master's degree from National University make $2,733 more than the average special ed graduate.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in special education has to check out University of Washington - Seattle Campus. Located in the large city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a very large student population.
Special Education master's degree recipients from University of Washington - Seattle Campus receive an earnings boost of around $5,610 over the average earnings of special education graduates.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in special education has to look into Point Loma Nazarene University. PLNU is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of San Diego.
Special Education master's degree recipients from Point Loma Nazarene University receive an earnings boost of around $5,488 above the typical earnings of special education graduates.
Fresno State is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Fresno.
Special Education master's degree recipients from California State University - Fresno earn a boost of approximately $3,848 above the typical earnings of special education graduates.
UH Manoa is a large public university located in the city of Honolulu.
Master's recipients from the special education degree program at University of Hawaii at Manoa earn $3,316 more than the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
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 special education for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
