If you pursue a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #13 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual looked at 366 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Liberal Arts General Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 37,813 bachelor's degrees in liberal arts general studies during the <nil> academic year.
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Choosing a Great Liberal Arts General Studies School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The liberal arts bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality liberal arts program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
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 liberal arts general studies students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of liberal arts general studies students who choose to seek a bachelor'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 liberal arts general studies students go into to obtain their bachelor'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 liberal arts general studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for liberal arts general 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 Liberal Arts General Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools list to help you make the college decision.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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ADBLOCK #171
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Liberal Arts General Studies in the United States
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
New York University is a good choice for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies. Located in the city of New York, NYU is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
After graduating, liberal arts bachelor's recipients typically earn an average of $38,447 in their early careers.
Georgetown University is a wonderful option for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies. Located in the city of Washington, Georgetown is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Georgetown University receive $29,576 more than the average liberal arts graduate.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies has to look into Yale University. Located in the medium-sized city of New Haven, Yale is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the liberal arts general studies program at Yale University earn $23,990 above the standard college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Austin, UT Austin is a public university with a very large student population.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from The University of Texas at Austin receive $8,100 more than the standard liberal arts graduate.
Located in the large city of Chicago, DePaul is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Liberal Arts General Studies bachelor's degree recipients from DePaul University earn a boost of around $46,923 above the typical income of liberal arts general studies graduates.
Located in the medium-sized suburb of Norman, University of Oklahoma is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the liberal arts general studies degree program at University of Oklahoma Norman Campus make $8,583 above the average graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
ASU - Tempe is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Tempe.
Bachelor's recipients from the liberal arts general studies program at Arizona State University - Tempe earn $12,004 above the average college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
SMC is a small private not-for-profit college located in the large suburb of Moraga.
Liberal Arts General Studies bachelor's degree recipients from Saint Mary's College of California earn a boost of around $18,951 over the average income of liberal arts general studies graduates.
USF Tampa is a fairly large public university located in the city of Tampa.
Liberal Arts General Studies bachelor's degree recipients from University of South Florida - Main Campus get an earnings boost of around $8,087 over the typical earnings of liberal arts general studies majors.
GMU is a very large public university located in the large suburb of Fairfax.
Liberal Arts General Studies bachelor's degree recipients from George Mason University get an earnings boost of around $4,255 above the average earnings of liberal arts general studies majors.
Located in the medium-sized suburb of Manchester, SNHU is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Southern New Hampshire University receive $18,196 more than the typical liberal arts graduate.
NC State is a very large public university located in the large city of Raleigh.
Liberal Arts General Studies bachelor's degree recipients from North Carolina State University receive an earnings boost of approximately $4,518 over the typical earnings of liberal arts general studies graduates.
Located in the city of Philadelphia, Drexel is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the liberal arts general studies program at Drexel University earn $25,327 more than the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Iowa is a very large public university located in the city of Iowa City.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Iowa make $3,648 more than the standard liberal arts student.
UW - Green Bay is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Green Bay.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Wisconsin - Green Bay make $17,293 more than the typical liberal arts grad.
Located in the fringe town of Storrs, UCONN is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the liberal arts general studies program at University of Connecticut get $7,097 above the standard graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
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Remaining Award Winners
This list shows the remainder of the schools awarded a Best Liberal Arts General Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools badge.
Showing in this list means the college was ranked in the top 20% of the 366 different United States liberal arts general studies schools we analyzed.
Here are some additional great schools for Liberal Arts General Studies students that almost earned our Best Liberal Arts General Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools award.
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.