2022 Best Value Liberal Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in Oregon

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Liberal Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in Oregon” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

With 559,661 degrees handed out in 2019-2020, liberal arts general studies is the 1st most popular major in the United States. In 2017-2018, liberal arts general studies graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $26,786 and had an average of $16,538 in loans still to pay off.

Across Oregon, there were 8,448 liberal arts general studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $23,817 and $14,887 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 286 liberal arts general studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Liberal Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in Oregon” ranking, we looked at 3 colleges that offer a degree in liberal arts general studies. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent liberal arts general studies programs, but they also cost less that schools of similar quality.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the liberal arts general studies program at the school and the cost to attend the school once aid has been awarded. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Liberal Arts General Studies Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Liberal Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in Oregon” 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 Liberal Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in Oregon

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Liberal Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in Oregon.

Top 3 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in Oregon

#1

Oregon State University

Corvallis, Oregon

#1 in overall quality

$20,016 Average Net Price

$30,499 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Oregon State University. It ranked #1 on our 2022 Best Value Liberal Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in Oregon list. Corvallis, Oregon is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s liberal arts degrees to 63 students in 2019-2020.

Oregon State not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best Liberal Arts General Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Oregon” list. It costs about $20,016 for Oregon Bachelor’s Degree Liberal Arts students per year to attend Oregon State.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 85%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The low student loan default rate of 3.4% 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%.

Full Oregon State University Liberal Arts General Studies Report

#2

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

#2 in overall quality

$13,040 Average Net Price

$27,334 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Liberal Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in Oregon that were part of this year’s ranking, Portland State University landed the #2 spot on the list. Portland State University is a large public school situated in Portland, Oregon. It awarded 186 bachelors’s liberal arts degrees in 2019-2020.

Portland State University also made our “Best Liberal Arts General Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Oregon” list, coming in at #2. The estimated yearly cost for Portland State University is $13,040 for oregon bachelor’s degree liberal arts students.

Read full report on Liberal Arts General Studies at Portland State University

#3

Eastern Oregon University

La Grande, Oregon

#3 in overall quality

$14,300 Average Net Price

$31,042 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Eastern Oregon University. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Liberal Arts Schools for a Bachelor’s in Oregon. EOU is a small public school situated in La Grande, Oregon. It awarded 12 bachelors’s liberal arts degrees in 2019-2020.

EOU did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our “Best Liberal Arts General Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Oregon” list. The estimated yearly cost for Eastern Oregon University is $14,300 for oregon bachelor’s degree liberal arts students.

Full EOU Liberal Arts General Studies Report

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in the Far Western US Region
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Liberal Arts General 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.

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