2022 Best Value Area Studies Schools for a Master’s in the Southwest Region

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Area Studies Schools for a Master’s in the Southwest Region” ranking is part of that endeavor.

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 the Southwest region, there were 301 area studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $30,500 and $25,548 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 70 area studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $53,078 and $37,227 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Area Studies Schools for a Master’s in the Southwest Region” ranking analyzed 2 colleges that offered a degree in area studies. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent area studies programs, but they also cost less that 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. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 for a Master’s in the Southwest Region” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

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. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Best Value Area Studies Schools for a Master’s in the Southwest Region

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Area Studies Schools for a Master’s in the Southwest Region.

Top 2 Best Value Master’s Degree Colleges for Area Studies in the Southwest Region

#1

The University of Texas at Austin

Austin, Texas

#1 in overall quality

$22,886 Avg Grad Tuition & Fees

$44,189 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend The University of Texas at Austin. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Area Studies Schools for a Master’s in the Southwest Region. Austin, Texas is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out masters’s area studies degrees to 23 students in 2019-2020.

In addition to being on our southwest region master’s degree area studies students list, UT Austin has also earned the #1 rank in our “Best Area Studies Master’s Degree Schools in the Southwest Region” ranking. Average graduate tuition and fees at The University of Texas at Austin are $22,886, but you may pay more or less depending on your major.

Read full report on Area Studies at UT Austin

#2

University of Arizona

Tucson, Arizona

#2 in overall quality

$33,399 Avg Grad Tuition & Fees

$32,569 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Arizona. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Area Studies Schools for a Master’s in the Southwest Region list. University of Arizona is a large school located in Tucson, Arizona that handed out 17 masters’s area studies degrees in 2019-2020.

In addition to being on our southwest region master’s degree area studies students list, University of Arizona has also earned the #2 rank in our “Best Area Studies Master’s Degree Schools in the Southwest Region” ranking. Average graduate tuition and fees at University of Arizona are $33,399, but some majors have different tuition rates.

Read more about Area Studies at University of Arizona

• Best Value Master’s Degree Colleges for Area Studies

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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