Special Education is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #8 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 3 schools in Oregon to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of special education. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 144 master's degrees in special education during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Choosing a Great Special Education School for Your Master's Degree
The special ed master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality special ed 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 master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of various 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 master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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 special education students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other special education students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
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 easy is it for special education to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized special education related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for special education students working on their master's degree.
The special ed 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 Special Education Master's Degree Schools in Oregon.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Special Education in Oregon
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in special education.
Western Oregon University is a good decision for individuals pursuing a master's degree in special education. Located in the fringe town of Monmouth, Western Oregon State College is a public university with a small student population.
Special Education master's degree recipients from Western Oregon University receive an earnings boost of approximately $4,595 over the average earnings of special education majors.
University of Oregon is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in special education. Located in the medium-sized city of Eugene, UO is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Soon after graduating, special ed master's recipients typically earn around $54,866 at the beginning of their careers.
Pacific University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in special education. Pacific is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Forest Grove.
Students who graduate with their master's from the special ed program state that they receive average early career wages of $53,398.
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).
The special ed master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality special ed program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
