2025 Best Liberal Arts General Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region

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 29 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Liberal Arts General Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 2,771 bachelor's degrees in liberal arts general studies to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

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

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 schools for liberal arts general studies students working on their bachelor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Liberal Arts General Studies Schools

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 Plains States Region 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.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Liberal Arts General Studies in the Plains States Region

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies.

10 Top Plains States Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Liberal Arts

1

University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA

191 Annual Graduates

$40,791 Median Starting Salary

$24,754 Median Student Debt

University of Iowa is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies. Located in the small city of Iowa City, Iowa is a public university with a very large student population.

Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the liberal arts program make an average of $40,791 for their early career.

More information about a bachelor’s in liberal arts general studies from University of Iowa

2

University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS

83 Annual Graduates

$42,527 Median Starting Salary

$31,949 Median Student Debt

It's difficult to beat University of Kansas if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies. Located in the city of Lawrence, KU is a public university with a very large student population.

Bachelor's recipients from the liberal arts general studies degree program at University of Kansas make $2,333 more than the typical graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

More information about a bachelor’s in liberal arts general studies from University of Kansas

3

Columbia College
Columbia, MO

223 Annual Graduates

$45,133 Median Starting Salary

Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies has to take a look at Columbia College. Located in the city of Columbia, Columbia College Missouri is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population.

Liberal Arts General Studies bachelor's degree recipients from Columbia College get an earnings boost of around $4,939 over the typical earnings of liberal arts general studies graduates.

More information about a bachelor’s in liberal arts general studies from Columbia College

4

University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IA

68 Annual Graduates

$40,009 Median Starting Salary

$14,300 Median Student Debt

Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies needs to take a look at University of Northern Iowa. UNI is a moderately-sized public university located in the city of Cedar Falls.

After graduation, liberal arts bachelor's recipients usually earn an average of $40,009 in their early careers.

More information about a bachelor’s in liberal arts general studies from University of Northern Iowa

5

University of Missouri - Columbia
Columbia, MO

121 Annual Graduates

$39,317 Median Starting Salary

$33,797 Median Student Debt

Located in the city of Columbia, Mizzou is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the liberal arts program earn about $39,317 for their early career.

More information about a bachelor’s in liberal arts general studies from University of Missouri - Columbia

6

University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, ND

105 Annual Graduates

$42,948 Median Starting Salary

UND is a fairly large public university located in the city of Grand Forks.

Bachelor's recipients from the liberal arts general studies degree program at University of North Dakota earn $2,754 more than the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.

More information about a bachelor’s in liberal arts general studies from University of North Dakota

7

University of Nebraska at Omaha
Omaha, NE

306 Annual Graduates

$40,892 Median Starting Salary

$12,396 Median Student Debt

UNOMAHA is a large public university located in the city of Omaha.

Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the liberal arts program earn about $40,892 for their early career.

More information about a bachelor’s in liberal arts general studies from University of Nebraska at Omaha

8

University of Missouri - Kansas City
Kansas City, MO

129 Annual Graduates

$39,992 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of Kansas City, UMKC is a public university with a large student population.

After graduation, liberal arts bachelor's recipients typically earn about $39,992 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a bachelor’s in liberal arts general studies from University of Missouri - Kansas City

9

Fort Hays State University
Hays, KS

141 Annual Graduates

$42,795 Median Starting Salary

$12,380 Median Student Debt

Located in the town of Hays, FHSU is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Fort Hays State University make $2,601 more than the average liberal arts grad.

More information about a bachelor’s in liberal arts general studies from Fort Hays State University

10

Iowa State University
Ames, IA

66 Annual Graduates

$36,532 Median Starting Salary

$20,500 Median Student Debt

Iowa State is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Ames.

After graduating, liberal arts bachelor's recipients generally make around $36,532 in their early careers.

More information about a bachelor’s in liberal arts general studies from Iowa State University

Best Liberal Arts General Studies Colleges by State

Explore the best liberal arts general studies colleges for a specific state in the Plains States Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Missouri	228	1,287
Minnesota	215	78
Iowa	197	476
Kansas	184	596
Nebraska	180	443
North Dakota	149	175
South Dakota	148	121

View All Rankings >

Liberal Arts General Studies Related Rankings by Major

One of 0 majors within the Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities area of study, Liberal Arts General Studies has other similar majors worth exploring.

Liberal Arts Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
General Studies	1,420
Liberal Arts	1,214
Individualized Studies	118
Humanities	19

Notes and References

• 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). More about our data sources and methodologies.