2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies Major in Virginia

With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. Our mission at College Factual is to arm you with as much information as we can to help you make that decision. Our “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies Major in Virginia” ranking is one tool we have developed to help in this regard.

In 2021-2022, 15,615 people earned their degree in area, ethnic, culture, & gender studies, making the major the 30th most popular in the United States. In , area, ethnic, culture, & gender studies graduates who were awarded their degree in , earned an average of $31,881 and had an average of $21,702 in loans still to pay off.

Across Virginia, there were 237 area, ethnic, culture, & gender studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $28,884 and $19,448 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 12 area, ethnic, culture, & gender studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $59,140 and $42,203 respectively.

For this year’s “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies Major in Virginia” ranking, we looked at 3 colleges that offer a degree in area, ethnic, culture, & gender studies. That schools that top this list have a program in area, ethnic, culture, & gender studies in which the largest percentage of students at the school are enrolled.

Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

When choosing the right school for you, it’s important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we’ve created a number of major-specific rankings, including this “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies Major in Virginia” list to help you make the college decision.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. Test it out by comparing your favorite schools against others you are considering, or bookmark the tool so you can experiment with it later.

Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies Major in Virginia

The following schools top our list of the Best “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies Major in Virginia”.

Top 3 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies in Virginia

1

William & Mary
Williamsburg, Virginia

#4 overall quality in Virginia

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend William & Mary. The school came in at #1 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies Major in Virginia. William & Mary is a medium-sized school located in Williamsburg, Virginia that handed out 3 masters’s area, ethnic, culture, & gender studies degrees in 2021-2022.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 93%. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 0.2%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies at William & Mary

2

University of Virginia - Main Campus
Charlottesville, Virginia

#1 overall quality in Virginia

Out of the 3 schools in the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies Major in Virginia that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Virginia - Main Campus landed the #2 spot on the list. University of Virginia - Main Campus is a large public school situated in Charlottesville, Virginia. It awarded 6 masters’s area, ethnic, culture, & gender studies degrees in 2021-2022.

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 low undergrad student loan default rate of 0.5% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Read full report on Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies at University of Virginia - Main Campus

3

George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia

#5 overall quality in Virginia

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend George Mason University. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies Major in Virginia list. GMU is a public institution located in Fairfax, Virginia. The school has a large population, and it awarded 3 masters’s degrees in 2021-2022.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 0.8% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Full GMU Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies Report

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).
• 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.
• 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 G. Mützel.