a bachelor's degree in international studies is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #69 out of 363 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 6 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best International Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 447 bachelor's degrees in international studies to qualified students.
Earn the degree that can help you drive business beyond borders with a specialized online international business degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
Choosing a Great International Studies School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The international studies bachelor'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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to international studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other international studies students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
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 easy is it for international 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 international studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for international studies students working on their bachelor'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 International Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "multi-interdisciplinary-studies//international-studies"
Earn the degree that can help you drive business beyond borders with a specialized online international business degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
It is difficult to beat University of Utah if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in international studies. U of U is a very large public university located in the city of Salt Lake City.
International Studies bachelor's degree recipients from University of Utah get an earnings boost of about $6,313 over the average earnings of international studies majors.
It's hard to beat University of Colorado Boulder if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in international studies. CU - Boulder is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Boulder.
Those international studies students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Colorado Boulder earn $3,322 more than the standard international studies grad.
Colorado State University - Fort Collins is a great choice for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in international studies. Colorado State is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Fort Collins.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the international studies program earn an average of $28,919 in their early career salary.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in international studies needs to look into University of Wyoming. UW is a fairly large public university located in the town of Laramie.
After graduation, international studies bachelor's recipients generally make about $29,132 at the beginning of their 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.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
The international studies bachelor'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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
