Religious Studies is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #72 most popular bachelor's degree program in the country. 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 3 schools in the Plains States Region to determine which ones were the best for religious studies students pursuing a bachelor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 231 bachelor's degrees in religious studies during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Religious Studies School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of religious 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. 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 many resources a school devotes to religious studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of religious 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 easy is it for religious 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 religious studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for religious 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 Religious Studies 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.
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University of St Thomas Minnesota is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in religious studies. Located in the city of Saint Paul, UST MN is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.
After graduation, religion bachelor's recipients usually earn about $27,496 in their early careers.
St Olaf College is a good option for students interested in a bachelor's degree in religious studies. St. Olaf is a small private not-for-profit college located in the distant town of Northfield.
Bachelor's recipients from the religious studies program at St Olaf College earn $8,430 above the average college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Missouri State University - Springfield is a wonderful choice for students interested in a bachelor's degree in religious studies. Located in the midsize city of Springfield, Missouri State is a public university with a very large student population.
Soon after graduation, religion bachelor's recipients usually earn about $22,133 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.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Your choice of religious 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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
