Geography & Cartography is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #86 most popular bachelor's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 111 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Geography & Cartography Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 4,014 bachelor's degrees in geography & cartography to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Geography & Cartography School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of geography & cartography for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality geography program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on geography & cartography students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of geography & cartography students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt geography & cartography students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized geography & cartography related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for geography & cartography students working on their bachelor's degree.
The geography 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 Geography & Cartography Bachelor's Degree Schools.
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.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Geography & Cartography in the United States
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in geography & cartography. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
It's difficult to beat University of California - Los Angeles if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in geography & cartography. UCLA is a very large public university located in the city of Los Angeles.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the geography program make around $36,776 in their early career salary.
University of Wisconsin - Madison is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in geography & cartography. UW - Madison is a fairly large public university located in the city of Madison.
Geography & Cartography bachelor's degree recipients from University of Wisconsin - Madison get an earnings boost of around $4,622 over the average income of geography & cartography majors.
University of California - Santa Barbara is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in geography & cartography. UCSB is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized suburb of Santa Barbara.
After graduation, geography bachelor's recipients usually earn an average of $37,398 at the beginning of their careers.
Located in the large city of Washington, GWU is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the geography & cartography program at George Washington University earn $14,508 above the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of Columbus, Ohio State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those geography & cartography students who get their bachelor's degree from Ohio State University - Main Campus earn $6,414 more than the average geography student.
Located in the midsize city of Tempe, ASU - Tempe is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Geography & Cartography bachelor's degree recipients from Arizona State University - Tempe get an earnings boost of around $10,892 above the typical income of geography & cartography majors.
UW Seattle is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Seattle.
Geography & Cartography bachelor's degree recipients from University of Washington - Seattle Campus get an earnings boost of about $4,114 above the typical income of geography & cartography majors.
Texas A&M College Station is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of College Station.
Geography & Cartography bachelor's degree recipients from Texas A&M University - College Station earn a boost of around $15,829 over the average income of geography & cartography majors.
Located in the large suburb of College Park, UMCP is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Geography & Cartography bachelor's degree recipients from University of Maryland - College Park get an earnings boost of approximately $2,538 over the average income of geography & cartography graduates.
UIUC is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Champaign.
Bachelor's recipients from the geography & cartography major at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earn $3,839 more than the typical graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Rest of the Top Best Geography & Cartography Bachelor's Degree Schools
Honorable Mentions
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Geography & Cartography Bachelor's Degree Schools 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).