2025 Best Area Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region

If you plan on getting your bachelor's degree in area studies, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #85 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.

College Factual looked at 15 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Area Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 764 bachelor's degrees in area studies to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Area Studies School for Your Bachelor's Degree

Your choice of area studies for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to area studies students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of area studies students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
• 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 much debt area studies students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized area studies related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for area studies students working on their bachelor's degree.

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 Best Area Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Area Studies in the Middle Atlantic Region

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in area studies.

10 Top Middle Atlantic Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Area Studies

1

Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY

64 Annual Graduates

$41,479 Median Starting Salary

Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in area studies has to take a look at Columbia University in the City of New York. Columbia is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York.

Area Studies bachelor's degree recipients from Columbia University in the City of New York receive an earnings boost of approximately $7,213 over the typical earnings of area studies majors.

More information about a bachelor’s in area studies from Columbia University in the City of New York

2

Georgetown University
Washington, DC

25 Annual Graduates

It's difficult to beat Georgetown University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in area studies. Georgetown is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Washington.More information about a bachelor’s in area studies from Georgetown University

3

Cornell University
Ithaca, NY

37 Annual Graduates

$43,831 Median Starting Salary

It's difficult to beat Cornell University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in area studies. Located in the small city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

Area Studies bachelor's degree recipients from Cornell University receive an earnings boost of about $9,565 above the typical income of area studies graduates.

More information about a bachelor’s in area studies from Cornell University

4

Fordham University
Bronx, NY

57 Annual Graduates

$40,811 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat Fordham University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in area studies. Fordham U is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Bronx.

Area Studies bachelor's degree recipients from Fordham University get an earnings boost of about $6,545 over the average earnings of area studies graduates.

More information about a bachelor’s in area studies from Fordham University

5

Barnard College
New York, NY

23 Annual Graduates

$34,142 Median Starting Salary

Barnard is a small private not-for-profit college located in the city of New York.

Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the area studies program make around $34,142 in their early career salary.

More information about a bachelor’s in area studies from Barnard College

6

George Washington University
Washington, DC

30 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Washington, GWU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a bachelor’s in area studies from George Washington University

7

Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Geneva, NY

19 Annual Graduates

$39,939 Median Starting Salary

Located in the distant town of Geneva, The Colleges is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

Those area studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges receive $5,673 more than the typical area studies graduate.

More information about a bachelor’s in area studies from Hobart and William Smith Colleges

8

New York University
New York, NY

23 Annual Graduates

NYU is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of New York.More information about a bachelor’s in area studies from New York University

9

American University
Washington, DC

26 Annual Graduates

$43,671 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of Washington, The American University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

Those area studies students who get their bachelor's degree from American University make $9,405 more than the standard area studies student.

More information about a bachelor’s in area studies from American University

10

University of Maryland Global Campus
Adelphi, MD

49 Annual Graduates

$48,650 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large suburb of Adelphi, UMGC is a public university with a very large student population.

Bachelor's recipients from the area studies degree program at University of Maryland Global Campus make $14,384 above the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

More information about a bachelor’s in area studies from University of Maryland Global Campus

Best Area Studies Colleges by State

Explore the best area studies schools for a specific state in the Middle Atlantic Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
New York	275	513
Pennsylvania	274	184
Maryland	207	132
New Jersey	193	46
Delaware	130	6
District of Columbia	126	87

View All Rankings >

Area Studies Related Rankings by Major

One of 2 majors within the Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies area of study, Area Studies has other similar majors worth exploring.

Area Studies Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
American U.S. Studies	250
Asian Studies	156
East Asian Studies	99
Latin American Studies	48
African Studies	32
Near & Middle Eastern Studies	31
Italian Studies	25
Western European Studies	18
French Studies	17
German Studies	15

Most Popular Majors Related to Area Studies

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Ethnic Studies	712
Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies (Other)	1

Notes and References

• 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. More about our data sources and methodologies.