2022 Best Value Colleges for Area Studies (Income $30-$48k) in Tennessee

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Best Value Area Studies Schools in Tennessee For Those Making $30-$48k” ranking - to help you make that decision.

Area Studies is the 106th most popular major in the country with 6,820 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. In 2017-2018, area studies graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $33,734 and had an average of $23,024 in loans still to pay off.

Across Tennessee, there were 53 area studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

This ranking identifies schools with high-quality area studies programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the area studies program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Area Studies Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Area Studies Schools in Tennessee For Those Making $30-$48k” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

One of our other unique offerings is College Combat. This tool lets you build your own customized comparisons utilizing the factors that are most important to you. 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 Value Area Studies Schools in Tennessee For Those Making $30-$48k

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Area Studies Schools in Tennessee For Those Making $30-$48k.

Top 1 Best Value Colleges for Area Studies (Income $30-$48k) in Tennessee

#1

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, Tennessee

#1 in overall quality

$6,017 Average Net Price

$67,244 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Vanderbilt University. It ranked #1 on our 2022 Best Value Area Studies Schools in Tennessee For Those Making $30-$48k list. Vanderbilt is a fairly large private not-for-profit school situated in Nashville, Tennessee. It awarded 24 ’s area studies degrees in 2019-2020.

Vanderbilt not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best Area Studies Schools in Tennessee” list. It costs about $6,017 for tennessee area studies students whose families make $30-$48k per year to attend Vanderbilt.

The impressive student-to-faculty ratio of 8 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. The low student loan default rate of 1.0% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 96%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.

Full Vanderbilt Area Studies Report

• Best Value Colleges for Area Studies (Income $30-$48k) in the Southeast Region
• Best Value Colleges for Area Studies (Income $30-$48k)

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to Karl Udo Gerth.

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