2024 Best Colleges for Liberal Arts and Sciences

SUMMARY

A degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences is not only a valuable choice, but commonly an essential first step for undergraduates aspiring to begin a career as a library archivist, a liberal arts writer, or an associate professor. In fact, liberal arts and sciences is fairly popular coming in at the 25th most popular degree. In the last year, there were 24,981 liberal arts and sciences diplomas received. In-state tuition for liberal arts and sciences at private schools is, on average, 3.8 times more spendy than their public equivalents.

There are 637 institutions that offer liberal arts and sciences. This number of universities is fairly average in terms of the number of institutions which offer each degree. If you are hoping to surround yourself with other liberal arts and sciences students, consider looking at institutions in California which have the most students admitted to liberal arts and sciences annually. less precisely, the best region to study liberal arts and sciences is in the Far West region with California State University-Fresno, California State University-Northridge, and The Evergreen State College best representing the region. Interestingly, our selection for the top conference to major in liberal arts and sciences is the California Collegiate Athletic Association with California State University-Stanislaus, California State University-San Bernardino, and California State University-Los Angeles representing the conference. That said, our choice for the best school for liberal arts and sciences is Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You might also want to check out our list of the best colleges.

The overall 'best' school might not actually be the best school for every student. There are a bunch more perspectives to consider when deciding on institution. External stuff such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food could refashion your choice on which college to attend. Here at authority.org, we have examined the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you want to know which liberal arts and sciences school is home to the top campus, the answer is New York University. If, for example, you are primarily interested in which university boasts the top campus, we have a whole list dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through professor reviews, government databases, student reviews, and more to compare every major in an unbiased and informative way. Here you can explore our well researched list for the schools with the best student life&nbspand our choice for the school with the best student life for liberal arts and sciences is Georgetown University. Curious why? Keep scrolling to discover more about Authority's top recommendations. Some of our picks will probably surprise you.

If price is a primary factor in your decisions, you might be cautious about Columbia University in the City of New York. Columbia University in the City of New York&nbspis the most expensive university for liberal arts and sciences, at least regarding out of state students. We do have an entire list of the most expensive&nbspschools that could put the cost at Columbia University in the City of New York&nbspinto perspective. You could also be interested to know that liberal arts and sciences is the 52nd most expensive program in America, with an average bill of $48,600. On a broader scale, the most expensive state for liberal arts and sciences in the country is District of Columbia with tuition and fees at the main school, Georgetown University, of $55,440. Even more broadly, the most expensive region of the country for liberal arts and sciences is the Mid East region which is best demonstrated with Columbia University in the City of New York with a cost of $57,763, St Lawrence University with a cost of $56,360, and Union College with a cost of $56,853.

Our cheapest region for liberal arts and sciences is the Southwest region which is represented by Eastern New Mexico University-Main Campus with a cost of $5,994, Paul Quinn College with a cost of $6,195, and Texas College with a cost of $8,208. More optimistically, the most affordable university for liberal arts and sciences is California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo. Our comprehensive list of the most affordable schools can be explored here.

In-state attendees can anticipate paying in the neighborhood of $9,600 for a degree in liberal arts and sciences. That price swells significantly to a median of $21,200 for an out-of-state public-school student. Our selection for the university with the best value for liberal arts and sciences: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Through this link you can find our comprehensive list of the universities we see as being the best value&nbspoverall. Do know, this idea is predicated on being an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when in-state tuition costs are considered, but as we do not know what state(s) you might qualify for in-state tuition, we are approaching this discussion through out-of-state tuition costs.

Earnings for liberal arts and sciences students vary widely, but within two years graduation students will typically earn around $40,100. While there is a lot of variation in pay; highest paid earners can rake in up to $76,200. Even straight out of university, the lowest end positions within the liberal arts and sciences field make $21,000, which is an alright wage. The top earning graduates for liberal arts and sciences graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology&nbspand if you are looking for schools with all of the highest earning graduates, Authority has that too.

The overall diversity of liberal arts and sciences ranks pretty high, falling within the 84th percentile of majors nationally. The college with the most composite diversity for liberal arts and sciences is Massachusetts Institute of Technology&nbspand here you can find our general list for the schools which have the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of the Liberal Arts and Sciences major only stands within the 45th percentile compared to all other majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, in the 85th percentile. White students make up the largest proportion, 49%, of students majoring in liberal arts and sciences. Additionally, 69% of students seeking a liberal arts and sciences degree are women.

The median score of liberal arts and sciences professors is 4.1 stars, a score which is 2% above the median for all majors; this is a good score. If you want the most popular liberal arts and sciences instructor nationally, consider looking up Teodros Kiros at Berklee College of Music. It may come as a shock, but the best ranked instructors of liberal arts and sciences from student rankings come from New York University. As we incorporate data beyond just rankings we find that the college possessing the overall best professors for liberal arts and sciences is Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You can find an explanation of our ever evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, as well as many of the best examples of professors nationwide.

Finally, the most difficult college to get into for liberal arts and sciences is Columbia University in the City of New York. While we do not necessarily see the value in it, we have a detailed page for the hardest colleges to get into. But, we do hope you believe that considering college from context only formed from superlatives can create issues. We encourage you to look at some of our other pages on different schools and peruse a few of our insightful background articles on useful things to think about as your school search continues.