2023 Best Value Religion Schools in the Plains States Region For Those Making $30-$48k

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Religion Schools in the Plains States Region For Those Making $30-$48k” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

Religious Studies is the 90th most popular major in the country with 9,470 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, religious studies graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $34,289 and had an average of $24,431 in loans still to pay off.

Across the Plains States region, there were 374 religious studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $30,550 and $23,250 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Religion Schools in the Plains States Region For Those Making $30-$48k” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree in religious studies. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality religious studies programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as the cost to attend the school after aid is awarded and overall quality of the religious studies program at the school. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Religious Studies Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Religion Schools in the Plains States Region For Those Making $30-$48k” 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 Religion Schools in the Plains States Region For Those Making $30-$48k

The colleges and universities below are the best for plains states region religion students whose families make $30-$48k.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Religious Studies (Income $30-$48k) in the Plains States Region

1

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, Minnesota

#2 in overall quality

$8,609 Average Net Price

$50,445 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Best Value Religion Schools in the Plains States Region For Those Making $30-$48k list. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities is a large school located in Minneapolis, Minnesota that handed out 4 ’s religion degrees in 2020-2021.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at UMN Twin Cities, the school also landed the #2 spot in our “Best Religious Studies Schools in the Plains States Region” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for UMN Twin Cities is $8,609 for Plains States Region Religion students whose families make $30-$48k.

With a freshman retention rate of 93%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.7% 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%.

Read full report on Religious Studies at University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

2

University of St Thomas Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota

#1 in overall quality

$27,782 Average Net Price

$56,351 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of St Thomas Minnesota. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Religion Schools in the Plains States Region For Those Making $30-$48k list. This medium-sized school is located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and it awarded 45 ’s religion degrees in 2020-2021.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at UST MN, the school also landed the #1 spot in our “Best Religious Studies Schools in the Plains States Region” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for UST MN is $27,782 for plains states region religion students whose families make $30-$48k.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 87%. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.4%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full UST MN Religious Studies Report

• Best Value Colleges for Religious Studies (Income $30-$48k)

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 Sowlos.