Education authority site · General studies degrees
A general studies degree has no major, so students struggle to compare one program with another. We built GeneralStudiesPrograms.com to rank the field level by level. The publication covers 3,136 programs at 2,018 colleges, ranks 676 of them across four degree levels, and scores every program on federal records with a published method.
The Problem
Most degree rankings compare programs inside a named subject. General studies has no subject to compare, so the useful questions are practical ones: what the program costs, whether the college gets students through, and whether the credits will count somewhere else. We built the ranking around those questions and kept each degree level on its own list.
The scoring needed to stay honest about what federal data can say. Associate and bachelor's programs are scored on graduation rate, in-state tuition and fees, and degrees awarded. Master's and doctoral programs are scored on degrees awarded alone, and the methodology page explains why. Every program is scored out of 100 with the same model, and no score is adjusted by hand.
The Research Tools
A student choosing a degree level needs one list. A student choosing a place needs the programs, costs, and jobs in their own state.
Associate degrees
The associate ranking orders 429 programs and shows the 25 that score highest. It opens with the top score and explains the degree in plain terms. The page then covers transfer, because for most people who choose this degree it decides whether the two years were worth it.
Explore the associate degree rankingState discovery
The state index links to 51 associate degree pages and 46 bachelor's degree pages, 97 in all. Each page ranks that state's programs on the same federal figures as the national lists. State pages also cover how credit transfers there, what it costs, and what the jobs pay.
Browse the state rankingsWho Uses the Research
Link earning starts with the person who would need the resource. The architecture makes that path explicit instead of publishing content first and hunting for a reason to promote it later.
| Primary Evidence | Published Resource | Who Uses It |
|---|---|---|
| NCES IPEDS program, tuition, and graduation records | National, level, online, and state rankings | Students comparing general studies degrees by cost and completion |
| BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 | 11 career guides and matching salary pages | Students asking what a degree in any field qualifies them to do |
Explore the Site
Open the live rankings and the methodology behind them.
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We define the data scope, build a scoring method readers can check, and organize the site so each question has its own page.
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