Ranked #13 in popularity, liberal arts general studies is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in South Dakota to determine which ones were the best for liberal arts general studies students pursuing a bachelor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 129 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
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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 colleges for liberal arts general studies students working on their bachelor's degree.
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 South Dakota ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
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South Dakota State University is a good decision for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies. South Dakota State is a large public university located in the remote town of Brookings.
Those liberal arts general studies students who get their bachelor's degree from South Dakota State University make $3,367 more than the average liberal arts graduate.
University of South Dakota is a great option for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies. Located in the distant town of Vermillion, USD is a public university with a medium-sized student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the liberal arts program make around $35,907 for their early career.
Dakota State University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in liberal arts general studies. Dakota State is a small public university located in the distant town of Madison.
Soon after graduating, liberal arts bachelor's recipients typically make an average of $41,119 in their early careers.
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
