2024 Best General Studies Schools in the Great Lakes Region
83Colleges in the Great Lakes Region
11,380General Studies Degrees Awarded
If you pursue a degree in general studies, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #5 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 83 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for general studies students pursuing a degree. Combined, these schools handed out 11,380 degrees in general studies to qualified students.
Your choice of general studies school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall General Studies School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
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 Studies Schools in the Great Lakes Region list to help you make the college decision.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for General Studies in the Great Lakes Region
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the general studies degree levels they offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
12 Top Great Lakes Region Schools in General Studies
It is difficult to beat University of Chicago if you wish to pursue a degree in general studies. UChicago is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Chicago. A Best Colleges rank of #2 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UChicago is a great university overall.
There were roughly 12 general studies students who graduated with this degree at UChicago in the most recent year we have data available.
DePaul University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in general studies. DePaul is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago. A Best Colleges rank of #203 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means DePaul is a great university overall.
There were roughly 93 general studies students who graduated with this degree at DePaul in the most recent year we have data available.
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a degree in general studies. Located in the city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #29 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means U-M is a great university overall.
There were about 65 general studies students who graduated with this degree at U-M in the most recent year we have data available.
College of Lake County is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in general studies. Located in the large suburb of Grayslake, College of Lake County is a public college with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #247 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means College of Lake County is a great college overall.
There were roughly 29 general studies students who graduated with this degree at College of Lake County in the most recent data year.
Macomb Community College is a large public college located in the city of Warren. A Best Colleges rank of #377 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Macomb Community College is a great college overall.
There were roughly 1053 general studies students who graduated with this degree at Macomb Community College in the most recent data year.
Located in the large suburb of Palatine, Harper College is a public college with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #512 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Harper College is a great college overall.
There were roughly 99 general studies students who graduated with this degree at Harper College in the most recent data year.
Located in the town of Adrian, Siena Heights University is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 21st out of 57 colleges for overall quality in the state of Michigan.
There were roughly 28 general studies students who graduated with this degree at Siena Heights University in the most recent data year.
IWU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the rural area of Marion. A Best Colleges rank of #291 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means IWU is a great university overall.
There were approximately 138 general studies students who graduated with this degree at IWU in the most recent data year.
Harold Washington College is a moderately-sized public college located in the city of Chicago. This college ranks 34th out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were about 151 general studies students who graduated with this degree at Harold Washington College in the most recent year we have data available.
Illinois State is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Normal. A Best Colleges rank of #231 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Illinois State is a great university overall.
There were about 111 general studies students who graduated with this degree at Illinois State in the most recent data year.
Waubonsee is a moderately-sized public college located in the rural area of Sugar Grove. This college ranks 45th out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 56 general studies students who graduated with this degree at Waubonsee in the most recent year we have data available.
Olive-Harvey College is a small public college located in the large city of Chicago. A Best Colleges rank of #679 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Olive-Harvey College is a great college overall.
There were approximately 30 general studies students who graduated with this degree at Olive-Harvey College in the most recent data year.
Here are some additional great schools for General Studies students in the Great Lakes Region that almost earned our Best General Studies Schools in the Great Lakes Region award.
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).