2023 Best Value Colleges for Religious Studies in District of Columbia (With Aid)

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Religion Schools in District of Columbia For Those Getting Aid” ranking is part of that endeavor.

In 2020-2021, 9,470 people earned their degree in religious studies, making the major the 90th most popular in the United States. 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 District of Columbia, there were 68 religious studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $46,613 and $27,000 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Religion Schools in District of Columbia For Those Getting Aid” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree in religious studies. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great religious studies programs and cost less that schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the religious studies program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

More Ways to Rank Religious Studies Schools

The religion 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 “Best Value Religion Schools in District of Columbia For Those Getting Aid”.

One of our other unique offerings is College Combat. This tool lets you build your own customized comparisons utilizing the factors that are most important to you. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

Best Value Religion Schools in District of Columbia For Those Getting Aid

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Religion Schools in District of Columbia For Those Getting Aid.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Religious Studies in District of Columbia (With Aid)

1

Catholic University of America
Washington, District of Columbia

#1 in overall quality

$34,684 Average Net Price

$55,014 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Religion Schools in District of Columbia For Those Getting Aid that were part of this year’s ranking, Catholic University of America landed the #1 spot on the list. Washington, District of Columbia is the setting for this medium-sized institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out ’s religion degrees to 20 students in 2020-2021.

In addition to being on our district of columbia religion students with aid list, CUA has also earned the #1 rank in our “Best Religious Studies Schools in District of Columbia” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Catholic University of America is $34,684 for District of Columbia Religion students with aid.

With a freshman retention rate of 86%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 2.4% 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%.

Read full report on Religious Studies at Catholic University of America

2

George Washington University
Washington, District of Columbia

#2 in overall quality

$32,563 Average Net Price

$65,148 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Religion Schools in District of Columbia For Those Getting Aid that were part of this year’s ranking, George Washington University landed the #2 spot on the list. George Washington University is a large private not-for-profit school situated in Washington, District of Columbia. It awarded 25 ’s religion degrees in 2020-2021.

GWU not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #2 on our “Best Religious Studies Schools in District of Columbia” list. It costs about $32,563 for district of columbia religion students with aid per year to attend GWU.

With a freshman retention rate of 88%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full GWU Religious Studies Report

• Best Value Colleges for Religious Studies in the Middle Atlantic Region (With Aid)
• Best Value Colleges for Religious Studies (With Aid)

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.