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.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 40 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Liberal Arts General Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 5,225 bachelor's degrees in liberal arts general studies during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Liberal Arts General Studies School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of liberal arts general studies for getting your bachelor'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
The overall quality of a bachelor'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 consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to liberal arts general studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other liberal arts general studies students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
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 easy is it for liberal arts general 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 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.
More Ways to Rank Liberal Arts General Studies Schools
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Liberal Arts General Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that 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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Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies has to check out The University of Texas at Austin. UT Austin is a very large public university located in the large city of Austin.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from The University of Texas at Austin make $7,003 more than the average liberal arts grad.
University of Oklahoma Norman Campus is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies. University of Oklahoma is a very large public university located in the midsize suburb of Norman.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Oklahoma Norman Campus earn $7,486 more than the typical liberal arts student.
Arizona State University - Tempe is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies. Located in the city of Tempe, ASU - Tempe is a public university with a very large student population.
Liberal Arts General Studies bachelor's degree recipients from Arizona State University - Tempe earn a boost of about $10,907 above the average earnings of liberal arts general studies graduates.
Located in the city of Houston, UST is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from University of St. Thomas receive $14,947 more than the typical liberal arts grad.
NAU is a very large public university located in the small city of Flagstaff.
Bachelor's recipients from the liberal arts general studies program at Northern Arizona University make $5,512 above the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the large city of Lubbock, Texas Tech is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Texas Tech University receive $2,360 more than the standard liberal arts student.
ASU - Skysong is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Scottsdale.
Bachelor's recipients from the liberal arts general studies program at Arizona State University - Skysong get $10,907 more than the average college graduate in this field 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.