2023 Best International & Comparative Education Colleges for Veterans in the Southeast Region

With all of the options veterans have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Most Veteran Friendly in the Southeast Region for International and Comparative Education” ranking is part of that endeavor.

International & Comparative Education is the 724th most popular major in the country with 293 degrees awarded in 2020-2021.

Across the Southeast region, there were 54 international and comparative education graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Most Veteran Friendly in the Southeast Region for International and Comparative Education” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in international and comparative education. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality international and comparative education programs as well as strong veteran support.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the international and comparative education program at the school, veteran affordability, and veteran population. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Most Veteran Friendly in the Southeast Region for International and Comparative Education” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

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.

Most Veteran Friendly in the Southeast Region for International and Comparative Education

The following schools top our list of the Best “Most Veteran Friendly in the Southeast Region for International and Comparative Education”.

Top 2 Best International & Comparative Education Colleges for Veterans in the Southeast Region

1

Duke University
Durham, North Carolina

36 GI Bill® Students**

YES Student Veterans Organization

$18,387 Average GI Bill® Award

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Duke University. The school came in at #1 for the Most Veteran Friendly in the Southeast Region for International and Comparative Education. Duke is a fairly large school located in Durham, North Carolina that handed out 36 ’s international and comparative education degrees in 2020-2021.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Duke, the school also landed the #[COLLEGE_QUALITY_RANK_ALL_LEVELS] spot in our “[COLLEGE_QUALITY_NAME_ALL_LEVELS]” ranking.Among the 16,172 students enrolled at Duke University, 36 are GI Bill® students, according to our most recent data. Out of that number, 9 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average tuition and fees award for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients was $18,387. In addition to receiving other benefits, 8 students received scholarships through the Yellow Ribbon Program.

Since the school has a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 97%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

[Read full report on veteran student life at Duke]](/colleges/duke-university/student-life/veterans/)

2

Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee

13 GI Bill® Students**

$17,769 Average GI Bill® Award

$79,872 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Vanderbilt University. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Most Veteran Friendly in the Southeast Region for International and Comparative Education list. Vanderbilt is a fairly large school located in Nashville, Tennessee that handed out 12 ’s international and comparative education degrees in 2020-2021.

Vanderbilt also made our “[COLLEGE_QUALITY_NAME_ALL_LEVELS]” list, coming in at #[COLLEGE_QUALITY_RANK_ALL_LEVELS].Among the 13,537 students enrolled at Vanderbilt, 13 are GI Bill® students, according to our most recent data. Out of that number, 3 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average tuition and fees award for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients was $17,769. On top of their other funding sources, 0 students qualified for the Yellow Ribbon Program.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 8 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 96%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Full Vanderbilt Veteran Student Life Report

• Best International & Comparative Education Colleges for Veterans

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).
• Veteran-specific data can be found at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
• 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

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top schools only.
• **GI Bill® student total includes all chapters of the GI Bill® program (e.g., Post-9/11, Montgomery GI Bill, Reserve Education Assistance Program, and Veteran Readiness and Employment)
• 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 Rculatta.