2024 Best General Education Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region

Ranked #12 in popularity, general education is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.

For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 63 schools in the Far Western US Region to determine which ones were the best for general education students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 6,237 master's degrees in general education during the 2020-2021 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great General Education School for Your Master's Degree

Your choice of general education for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality education 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 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 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 master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master'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 much a school focuses on general education students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of general education 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 general education 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 general education related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for general education students working on their master's degree.

More Ways to Rank General Education Schools

When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best General Education Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list to help you make the college decision.

 

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study General Education in the Far Western US Region

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in general education.

10 Top Far Western US Region Schools for a Master's in Education

1

Stanford University
Stanford, CA

51 Annual Graduates

$64,331 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat Stanford University if you want to pursue a master's degree in general education. Located in the large suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.

Master's recipients from the general education degree program at Stanford University make $7,375 more than the standard graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in general education from Stanford University

2

University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

189 Annual Graduates

$55,034 Median Starting Salary

University of California - Los Angeles is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in general education. UCLA is a fairly large public university located in the city of Los Angeles.

Soon after graduating, education master's recipients typically make around $55,034 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a master’s in general education from University of California - Los Angeles

3

Claremont Graduate University
Claremont, CA

29 Annual Graduates

Claremont Graduate University is a good choice for students pursuing a master's degree in general education. Claremont Graduate University is a small private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Claremont.More information about a master’s in general education from Claremont Graduate University

4

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

19 Annual Graduates

University of California - Berkeley is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in general education. Located in the midsize city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in general education from University of California - Berkeley

5

University of California - San Diego
La Jolla, CA

71 Annual Graduates

$54,702 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of La Jolla, UCSD is a public university with a fairly large student population.

After graduation, education master's recipients generally earn an average of $54,702 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a master’s in general education from University of California - San Diego

6

San Diego State University
San Diego, CA

139 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of San Diego, SDSU is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in general education from San Diego State University

7

National University
San Diego, CA

1,075 Annual Graduates

$58,901 Median Starting Salary

National University is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of San Diego.

After graduating, education master's recipients generally make about $58,901 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a master’s in general education from National University

8

Whitworth University
Spokane, WA

21 Annual Graduates

$80,204 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large suburb of Spokane, Whitworth is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.

Master's recipients from the general education degree program at Whitworth University earn $23,248 more than the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.

More information about a master’s in general education from Whitworth University

9

University of Portland
Portland, OR

85 Annual Graduates

$49,241 Median Starting Salary

University of Portland is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Portland.

Master's graduates who receive their degree from the education program make about $49,241 in their early career salary.

More information about a master’s in general education from University of Portland

10

Saint Mary's College of California
Moraga, CA

9 Annual Graduates

Located in the suburb of Moraga, SMC is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.More information about a master’s in general education from Saint Mary’s College of California

Honorable Mentions

Here are some additional great schools for General Education students in the Far Western US Region that almost earned our Best General Education Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region award.

Rank	College	Location
10	Azusa Pacific University	Azusa, CA
11	California State University - Sacramento	Sacramento, CA
12	University of California - Davis	Davis, CA
13	Northcentral University	San Diego, CA
14	Central Washington University	Ellensburg, WA
15	Eastern Washington University	Cheney, WA

Best General Education Colleges by State

Explore the best general education colleges for a specific state in the Far Western US Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
California	253	5,449
Washington	183	399
Oregon	158	343
Nevada	105	20
Hawaii	85	0
Alaska	52	26

View All Rankings >

General Education Related Rankings by Major

General Education is one of 14 different types of Education programs to choose from.

Education Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
General Education	6,237

Most Popular Majors Related to Education

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Teacher Education Grade Specific	3,876
Student Counseling	2,331
Educational Administration	2,320
Special Education	1,816
Curriculum & Instruction	1,004
Teacher Education Subject Specific	827
Instructional Media Design	445
Teaching English or French	333
Other Education	167
Educational Assessment	131

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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to KOKUYO. More about our data sources and methodologies.