If you plan on getting your bachelor's degree in area studies, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #85 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
College Factual looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Area Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in Virginia ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 102 bachelor's degrees in area studies to qualified students.
Explore societal similarities and differences as seen through cultural, biological, archaeological and linguistic lenses when you earn one of your degrees in anthropology from Southern New Hampshire University.
Choosing a Great Area Studies School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The area studies bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality area studies program can vary widely even among the top schools. 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 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 bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor'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 much a school focuses on area studies students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other area studies students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor'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 area studies to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized area studies related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for area studies students working on their bachelor'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 Area Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in Virginia list to help you make the college decision.
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.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "ethnic-cultural-gender-studies//area-studies"
Explore societal similarities and differences as seen through cultural, biological, archaeological and linguistic lenses when you earn one of your degrees in anthropology from Southern New Hampshire University.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in area studies has to look into William & Mary. Located in the suburb of Williamsburg, William & Mary is a public school with a medium-sized student population.
Area Studies bachelor's degree recipients from William & Mary earn a boost of around $14,540 above the typical earnings of area studies majors.
It's hard to beat University of Richmond if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in area studies. URichmond is a small private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of University of Richmond.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the area studies program earn an average of $33,340 for their early career.
It is hard to beat Virginia Commonwealth University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in area studies. Located in the medium-sized city of Richmond, VCU is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the area studies program make an average of $35,557 in their early career salary.
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 area studies bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality area studies program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
