Interdisciplinary Studies is about average in terms of popularity for master's degrees programs. That is, it ranks #181 out of the 343 majors across the country that we analyze each year. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in the Southeast Region to determine which ones were the best for interdisciplinary studies students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 100 master's degrees in interdisciplinary studies to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Interdisciplinary Studies School for Your Master's Degree
The interdisciplinary studies master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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 master'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 consider a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination 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 master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master'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 interdisciplinary studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of interdisciplinary studies students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
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 much debt interdisciplinary studies students go into to obtain their master'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 interdisciplinary studies related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for interdisciplinary studies students working on their master's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Interdisciplinary Studies Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Virginia Commonwealth University is a great decision for students pursuing a master's degree in interdisciplinary studies. VCU is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Richmond.
Those interdisciplinary studies students who get their master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University make $19,663 more than the standard interdisciplinary studies graduate.
Any student who is interested in a master's degree in interdisciplinary studies needs to look into University of North Alabama. Located in the city of Florence, UNA is a public university with a large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the interdisciplinary studies program report average early career earnings of $43,840.
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).
The interdisciplinary studies master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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:
