2025 Best Philosophy Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region

If you plan on getting your bachelor's degree in philosophy, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #61 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in the Plains States Region to determine which ones were the best for philosophy students pursuing a bachelor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 440 bachelor's degrees in philosophy during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Philosophy School for Your Bachelor's Degree

The philosophy bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality philosophy 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

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 consider 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.

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

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 philosophy students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of philosophy students who choose to seek a bachelor'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 philosophy 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 philosophy related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for philosophy students working on their bachelor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Philosophy Schools

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Philosophy Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.

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.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Philosophy in the Plains States Region

Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for philosophy students seeking a a bachelor's degree.

Top Plains States Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Philosophy

1

University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA

22 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat University of Iowa if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in philosophy. Located in the small city of Iowa City, Iowa is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a bachelor’s in philosophy from University of Iowa

2

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN

26 Annual Graduates

$31,652 Median Starting Salary

It's difficult to beat University of Minnesota - Twin Cities if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in philosophy. UMN Twin Cities is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Minneapolis.

Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the philosophy program make around $31,652 in the first couple years of working.

More information about a bachelor’s in philosophy from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

3

University of St Thomas Minnesota
Saint Paul, MN

23 Annual Graduates

University of St Thomas Minnesota is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in philosophy. UST MN is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Saint Paul.More information about a bachelor’s in philosophy from University of St Thomas Minnesota

4

Missouri State University - Springfield
Springfield, MO

10 Annual Graduates

Missouri State University - Springfield is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in philosophy. Missouri State is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Springfield.More information about a bachelor’s in philosophy from Missouri State University - Springfield

Best Philosophy Colleges by State

Explore the best philosophy colleges for a specific state in the Plains States Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Missouri	228	128
Minnesota	215	173
Iowa	197	108
Kansas	184	60
Nebraska	180	37
North Dakota	149	26
South Dakota	148	10

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Philosophy

Philosophy is one of 3 different types of Philosophy & Religious Studies programs to choose from.

Philosophy Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Philosophy	429
Other Philosophy	11

Majors Similar to Philosophy

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Religious Studies	231
General Philosophy & Religious Studies	15
Other Philosophy & Religious Studies	9

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.