Liberal Arts General Studies is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #13 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 16 schools in the Rocky Mountains Region to determine which ones were the best for liberal arts general studies students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 966 bachelor's degrees in liberal arts general studies to qualified students.
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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. 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 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 complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges 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 in the Rocky Mountains Region 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.
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It's hard to beat Utah State University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies. Located in the city of Logan, USU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the liberal arts program report average early career wages of $31,049.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies has to look into Colorado State University - Fort Collins. Colorado State is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Fort Collins.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the liberal arts program earn an average of $34,540 in their early career salary.
It is difficult to beat Montana State University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies. Located in the city of Bozeman, MSU Bozeman is a public university with a large student population.
After graduation, liberal arts bachelor's recipients typically make around $30,380 in the first five years of their career.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies needs to look into Utah Valley University. Located in the small city of Orem, UVU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Utah Valley University receive $9,108 more than the standard liberal arts grad.
WSU is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Ogden.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Weber State University earn $4,606 more than the standard liberal arts grad.
Located in the small city of Grand Junction, Colorado Mesa is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the liberal arts general studies degree program at Colorado Mesa University make $6,878 more than the typical graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Adams State is a small public university located in the remote town of Alamosa.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Adams State University make $4,288 more than the typical liberal arts grad.
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.
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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
