2021 Best Liberal Arts General Studies Colleges for Non-Traditional Students in the Southeast Region
80Colleges
10,007Bachelor's Degrees
$28,148Avg Cost*
Finding the Best Liberal Arts General Studies Schools for Non-Traditional Students
This year's Best Liberal Arts General Studies Colleges for Non-Traditional Students in the Southeast Region ranking looked at 80 colleges that offer a bachelor's in liberal arts. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality liberal arts general studies programs as well as strong support for students classified as non-traditional.
Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the liberal arts general studies program at the school, affordability, and non-traditional population. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.
The liberal arts school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Liberal Arts Schools for Non-Traditional Students.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
2021 Best Liberal Arts General Studies Schools for Non-Traditional Students in the Southeast Region
The colleges and universities below are the best for non-traditional students studying liberal arts.
Top 15% Best Liberal Arts General Studies Schools for Non-Traditional Students
George Mason University tops the 2021 list of our schools in the Southeast Region that are best for non-traditional liberal arts general studies students. GMU is a fairly large public school located in the suburb of Fairfax. GMU also made our Best Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in the Southeast Region list, coming in at #1.
The student loan default rate at GMU is lower than is typical, just 0.8% of students default in three years. Approximately 21,490 students take at least one class online at GMU. There are roughly 12,712 part time students in attendance at GMU.
University of South Florida - Main Campus comes in at #2 in this year's ranking. Located in the large city of Tampa, USF Tampa is a public school with a fairly large student population. In addition to being on our best for non-traditional students list, USF Tampa has also earned the #2 rank in our Best Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in the Southeast Region ranking.
About 1.2% of USF Tampa students default on their loans in three years, which is lower than average. Approximately 22,899 students take at least one class online at USF Tampa. 13,938 students are part time.
Longwood University landed the #3 spot in our 2021 best liberal arts general studies schools for non-traditional students. Longwood is a small public school located in the town of Farmville. In addition to being on our best for non-traditional students list, Longwood has also earned the #4 rank in our Best Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in the Southeast Region ranking.
The school has a low student loan default rate of 1.6%. 904 students at Longwood are exclusively online. There are roughly 1,338 part time students in attendance at Longwood.
Belmont University landed the #4 spot in our 2021 best liberal arts general studies schools for non-traditional students. Located in the city of Nashville, Belmont is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population. Belmont also took the #3 spot in our Best Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in the Southeast Region rankings.
The school has a low student loan default rate of 0.6%. There are approximately 3,251 students at Belmont that take at least one class online. About 677 of the students at Belmont are attending part time.
Florida International University landed the #5 spot in our 2021 best liberal arts general studies schools for non-traditional students. FIU is a fairly large public school located in the large suburb of Miami. FIU excels when it comes to major quality. It's ranked in the top 15% of all schools on our Best Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in the Southeast Region list.
About 2.0% of FIU students default on their loans in three years, which is lower than average. There are approximately 21,632 students at FIU that take at least one class online. 22,664 students are part time.
Our rankings recognize Middle Tennessee State University as the #6 school in this year's rankings. Located in the medium-sized city of Murfreesboro, Middle Tennessee State University is a public college with a fairly large student population.
The school has a low student loan default rate of 2.3%. There are approximately 7,472 students at Middle Tennessee State University that take at least one class online. There are roughly 5,576 part time students in attendance at Middle Tennessee State University.
Barry University comes in at #7 in this year's ranking. Located in the large suburb of Miami, Barry University is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.
About 2.0% of Barry University students default on their loans in three years, which is lower than average. There are approximately 1,337 students at Barry University that take at least one class online. 2,387 of Barry University students are attending part time.
William Peace University comes in at #8 in this year's ranking. Located in the city of Raleigh, WPU is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly small student population.
The student loan default rate at WPU is lower than is typical, just 3.7% of students default in three years. Approximately 123 students take at least one class online at WPU. 114 of WPU students are attending part time.
The #9 spot in this year's ranking belongs to University of Memphis. UofM is a very large public school located in the city of Memphis.
The school has a low student loan default rate of 3.5%. There are approximately 7,362 students at UofM that take at least one class online. 8,225 students are part time.
The #10 spot in this year's ranking belongs to Tennessee Technological University. Located in the remote town of Cookeville, Tennessee Tech University is a public school with a moderately-sized student population.
About 1.2% of Tennessee Tech University students default on their loans in three years, which is lower than average. There are approximately 6,609 students at Tennessee Tech University that take at least one class online. 1,966 of Tennessee Tech University students are attending part time.
Northern Kentucky University landed the #11 spot in our 2021 best liberal arts general studies schools for non-traditional students. NKU is a large public school located in the large suburb of Highland Heights.
The school has a low student loan default rate of 2.2%. 6,629 of NKU students are exclusively distance learners. 7,069 students are part time.
James Madison University comes in at #12 in this year's ranking. Located in the small city of Harrisonburg, JMU is a public school with a fairly large student population. JMU did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #7 on our Best Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in the Southeast Region list.
About 0.8% of JMU students default on their loans in three years, which is lower than average. Approximately 6,740 students take at least one class online at JMU. About 2,328 of the students at JMU are attending part time.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Liberal Arts General Studies Colleges for Non-Traditional Students in the Southeast Region award.
Non-Traditional Student Rankings in Majors Related to Liberal Arts
One of 0 majors within the Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities area of study, Liberal Arts General Studies has other similar majors worth exploring.
Notes and References
Footnotes
*Avg Cost is for the top 25 schools only.
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 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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