Area Studies is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #115 most popular degree program in the country. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Area Studies Schools in Virginia ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 148 degrees in area studies annually.
Explore societal similarities and differences as seen through cultural, biological, archaeological and linguistic lenses when you earn one of your degrees in anthropology from Southern New Hampshire University.
The area studies program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Area Studies rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for area studies schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Area Studies Schools in Virginia list, to help you choose the best school for you.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
Explore societal similarities and differences as seen through cultural, biological, archaeological and linguistic lenses when you earn one of your degrees in anthropology from Southern New Hampshire University.
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the area studies degree levels they offer.
It is difficult to beat William & Mary if you want to pursue a degree in area studies. Located in the small suburb of Williamsburg, William & Mary is a public school with a medium-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #103 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means William & Mary is a great school overall.
There were about 52 area studies students who graduated with this degree at William & Mary in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the area studies degree program at William & Mary make $17,066 above the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
It's difficult to beat University of Richmond if you wish to pursue a degree in area studies. URichmond is a small private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of University of Richmond. This university ranks 6th out of 57 colleges for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were about 23 area studies students who graduated with this degree at URichmond in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the area studies program report average early career income of $33,340.
Explore societal similarities and differences as seen through cultural, biological, archaeological and linguistic lenses when you earn one of your degrees in anthropology from Southern New Hampshire University.
It's hard to beat Virginia Commonwealth University if you want to pursue a degree in area studies. Located in the city of Richmond, VCU is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 8th out of 57 colleges for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were about 42 area studies students who graduated with this degree at VCU in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the area studies program state that they receive average early career income of $35,557.
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).
Credit for the banner image above goes to Karl Udo Gerth.
The area studies program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Area Studies rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for area studies schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
