Area Studies is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #85 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.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Area Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in Maryland ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 132 bachelor's degrees in area studies during the 2020-2021 academic year.
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 much a school focuses on area studies students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other area studies students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
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 area 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 area studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for area studies students working on their bachelor's degree.
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 Area Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in Maryland list to help you make the college 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.
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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Featured Area Studies Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
Explore societal similarities and differences as seen through cultural, biological, archaeological and linguistic lenses when you earn one of your degrees in anthropology from Southern New Hampshire University.
University of Maryland - College Park is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in area studies. UMCP is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of College Park.
Bachelor's recipients from the area studies degree program at University of Maryland - College Park make $6,598 more than the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
University of Maryland - Baltimore County is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in area studies. Located in the large suburb of Baltimore, UMBC is a public university with a large student population.
Soon after graduating, area studies bachelor's recipients usually earn an average of $22,885 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).
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