Bachelor's degree · Area, ethnic, cultural and gender studies · CIP 05.01
Area Studies: earnings and debt by college
The College Scorecard lists 324 colleges that award bachelor's degrees in Area Studies, together awarding 3,430 of these degrees in the most recent year. At the median institution, graduates who received federal aid earn $41,711 one year after finishing and $67,530 five years after finishing (two separate graduating classes). The median institution's graduates leave with $18,500 in federal student loans.
Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
Compare Area Studies programs on one chart
Pick any two measures. Hover a dot to see the college; click it to open the college's page.
Each dot is one institution's program; branch campuses share their institution's figures and appear as one dot. Dashed lines mark the median for all colleges. Showing 33 of 319; programs missing either value are left out (the Scorecard withholds figures for small programs).
Colleges with a bachelor's in Area Studies
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill · Public | NC | 164 | $38,868 | $69,024 | $13,354 |
| University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle · Public | WA | 142 | $43,984 | $67,465 | $12,952 |
| Wesleyan University Middletown · Private nonprofit | CT | 84 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Brown University Providence · Private nonprofit | RI | 72 | $47,927 | $59,822 | $12,375 |
| Columbia University in the City of New York New York · Private nonprofit | NY | 63 | $56,970 | $80,537 | $16,500 |
| University of California-Berkeley Berkeley · Public | CA | 60 | $56,036 | $73,279 | $15,616 |
| University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia · Public | MO | 55 | $54,399 | $79,688 | $20,000 |
| Brigham Young University Provo · Private nonprofit | UT | 53 | $40,724 | $70,547 | $15,720 |
| The University of Texas at Austin Austin · Public | TX | 53 | $39,942 | $55,503 | $17,250 |
| Bowdoin College Brunswick · Private nonprofit | ME | 50 | $52,347 | $78,196 | $15,500 |
| University of Maryland Global Campus Adelphi · Public | MD | 49 | n/a | $69,502 | $20,000 |
| Yale University New Haven · Private nonprofit | CT | 46 | $67,764 | $78,215 | n/a |
| University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor · Public | MI | 45 | n/a | $71,543 | $15,132 |
| William & Mary Williamsburg · Public | VA | 44 | $46,605 | $76,098 | $18,500 |
| Fordham University Bronx · Private nonprofit | NY | 42 | $50,891 | $79,922 | $23,250 |
| Florida International University Miami · Public | FL | 41 | $30,134 | n/a | $25,922 |
| University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles · Public | CA | 40 | $42,259 | $56,867 | $10,924 |
| Brandeis University Waltham · Private nonprofit | MA | 37 | $46,124 | $70,590 | $17,000 |
| California State University-Long Beach Long Beach · Public | CA | 36 | $33,986 | $55,788 | $19,375 |
| Oberlin College Oberlin · Private nonprofit | OH | 36 | n/a | $57,339 | $24,125 |
| Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond · Public | VA | 36 | $40,946 | $56,242 | $20,000 |
| Duke University Durham · Private nonprofit | NC | 35 | $45,694 | n/a | $10,000 |
| University of Arizona Tucson · Public | AZ | 33 | $27,841 | $52,486 | $15,416 |
| Dickinson College Carlisle · Private nonprofit | PA | 32 | $41,604 | $70,286 | $23,250 |
| California State University-Fullerton Fullerton · Public | CA | 30 | $32,943 | $58,397 | n/a |
| University of Notre Dame Notre Dame · Private nonprofit | IN | 30 | $48,594 | n/a | n/a |
| Utah State University Logan · Public | UT | 30 | n/a | $67,595 | $18,500 |
| Harvard University Cambridge · Private nonprofit | MA | 29 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Smith College Northampton · Private nonprofit | MA | 29 | $37,005 | $51,013 | $10,000 |
| Barnard College New York · Private nonprofit | NY | 28 | $63,702 | $79,456 | $15,500 |
| Emory University Atlanta · Private nonprofit | GA | 28 | $38,202 | $81,039 | $12,000 |
| University of South Carolina-Columbia Columbia · Public | SC | 28 | n/a | n/a | $19,482 |
| Cornell University Ithaca · Private nonprofit | NY | 27 | $45,914 | n/a | n/a |
| New York University New York · Private nonprofit | NY | 27 | $36,735 | $74,817 | n/a |
| Vanderbilt University Nashville · Private nonprofit | TN | 27 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Dartmouth College Hanover · Private nonprofit | NH | 26 | $65,279 | $111,937 | n/a |
| Furman University Greenville · Private nonprofit | SC | 25 | $25,975 | n/a | $27,000 |
| Kennesaw State University Kennesaw · Public | GA | 25 | n/a | n/a | $31,000 |
| University of California-San Diego La Jolla · Public | CA | 25 | $22,043 | n/a | n/a |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison · Public | WI | 25 | $39,304 | $58,165 | $17,200 |
| Miami University-Oxford Oxford · Public | OH | 24 | $42,873 | $80,936 | $19,642 |
| Wellesley College Wellesley · Private nonprofit | MA | 24 | $54,577 | $76,800 | n/a |
| Connecticut College New London · Private nonprofit | CT | 20 | $34,723 | $74,879 | $20,500 |
| University of Chicago Chicago · Private nonprofit | IL | 20 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Washington University in St Louis St. Louis · Private nonprofit | MO | 20 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Colgate University Hamilton · Private nonprofit | NY | 19 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| George Washington University Washington · Private nonprofit | DC | 19 | $46,273 | $77,310 | $25,038 |
| University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu · Public | HI | 18 | n/a | $43,021 | n/a |
| Colby College Waterville · Private nonprofit | ME | 17 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Williams College Williamstown · Private nonprofit | MA | 17 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Quick facts: Area Studies
- How many colleges offer a bachelor's degree in Area Studies?
- The College Scorecard lists 324 colleges that award bachelor's degrees in Area Studies.
- How much do Area Studies graduates earn?
- Across institutions, the median of graduates' median earnings is $41,711 one year after graduation (52 institutions reporting) and $67,530 five years after graduation (68 institutions reporting). These figures cover graduates who received federal aid and are working and not enrolled in school. Branch campuses share their institution's figures, so each institution counts once.
- Where do Area Studies graduates earn the most five years after graduation?
- By reported median earnings five years after graduation: Dartmouth College ($111,937), University of the Pacific ($83,824), Middlebury College ($82,144), University of San Francisco ($81,523), and The University of Alabama ($81,401).
- How much student debt do Area Studies graduates have?
- The median institution's Area Studies graduates leave with $18,500 in federal student loans (39 institutions reporting). Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Which colleges award the most Area Studies degrees?
- By bachelor's degrees awarded in the most recent year: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (164), University of Washington-Seattle Campus (142), Wesleyan University (84), Brown University (72), and Columbia University in the City of New York (63).
Related majors in area, ethnic, cultural and gender studies
How these numbers work
Figures cover bachelor's degree programs in Area Studies (CIP code 05.01), as reported in the College Scorecard. Earnings are medians for graduates who received federal aid, measured one and five years after they finished, among those working and not enrolled in school; the one-year and five-year figures describe different graduating classes. Debt is the median federal loan balance at graduation. The Scorecard withholds figures for programs with few graduates, so many smaller programs show n/a. Summary figures are medians across institutions: the Scorecard reports program earnings and debt for a whole institution, so branch campuses share one figure and count once. All figures are from the Scorecard's most recent field-of-study release. More on the data.