2021 Best Liberal Arts General Studies Colleges for Non-Traditional Students in the Southeast Region
80Colleges
10,007Bachelor's Degrees
$28,148Avg Cost*
Finding the Best Liberal Arts General Studies Schools for Non-Traditional Students
This year's Best Liberal Arts General Studies Colleges for Non-Traditional Students in the Southeast Region ranking looked at 80 colleges that offer a bachelor's in liberal arts. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality liberal arts general studies programs as well as strong support for students classified as non-traditional.
Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the liberal arts general studies program at the school, affordability, and non-traditional population. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.
The liberal arts 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 Liberal Arts Schools for Non-Traditional Students.
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.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
2021 Best Liberal Arts General Studies Schools for Non-Traditional Students in the Southeast Region
The colleges and universities below are the best for non-traditional students studying liberal arts.
Top 15% Best Liberal Arts General Studies Schools for Non-Traditional Students
George Mason University tops the 2021 list of our schools in the Southeast Region that are best for non-traditional liberal arts general studies students. GMU is a fairly large public school located in the suburb of Fairfax. GMU also made our Best Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in the Southeast Region list, coming in at #1.
About 0.8% of GMU students default on their loans in three years, which is lower than average. There are approximately 21,490 students at GMU that take at least one class online. 12,712 students are part time.
University of South Florida - Main Campus comes in at #2 in this year's ranking. Located in the city of Tampa, USF Tampa is a public college with a fairly large student population. In addition to being on our best for non-traditional students list, USF Tampa has also earned the #2 rank in our Best Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in the Southeast Region ranking.
The student loan default rate at USF Tampa is lower than is typical, just 1.2% of students default in three years. There are approximately 22,899 students at USF Tampa that take at least one class online. 13,938 of USF Tampa students are attending part time.
Longwood University landed the #3 spot in our 2021 best liberal arts general studies schools for non-traditional students. Longwood is a small public school located in the town of Farmville. In addition to being on our best for non-traditional students list, Longwood has also earned the #4 rank in our Best Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in the Southeast Region ranking.
The student loan default rate at Longwood is lower than is typical, just 1.6% of students default in three years. 904 students at Longwood are exclusively online. 1,338 of Longwood students are attending part time.
Belmont University landed the #4 spot in our 2021 best liberal arts general studies schools for non-traditional students. Located in the large city of Nashville, Belmont is a private not-for-profit college with a moderately-sized student population. Belmont also took the #3 spot in our Best Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in the Southeast Region rankings.
The school has a low student loan default rate of 0.6%. There are approximately 3,251 students at Belmont that take at least one class online. 677 students are part time.
Florida International University landed the #5 spot in our 2021 best liberal arts general studies schools for non-traditional students. FIU is a very large public school located in the large suburb of Miami. FIU excels when it comes to major quality. It's ranked in the top 15% of all schools on our Best Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in the Southeast Region list.
The school has a low student loan default rate of 2.0%. Approximately 21,632 students take at least one class online at FIU. There are roughly 22,664 part time students in attendance at FIU.
Our rankings recognize Middle Tennessee State University as the #6 school in this year's rankings. Located in the city of Murfreesboro, Middle Tennessee State University is a public school with a very large student population.
The student loan default rate at Middle Tennessee State University is lower than is typical, just 2.3% of students default in three years. There are approximately 7,472 students at Middle Tennessee State University that take at least one class online. There are roughly 5,576 part time students in attendance at Middle Tennessee State University.
Barry University comes in at #7 in this year's ranking. Located in the large suburb of Miami, Barry University is a private not-for-profit school with a moderately-sized student population.
About 2.0% of Barry University students default on their loans in three years, which is lower than average. Approximately 1,337 students take at least one class online at Barry University. About 2,387 of the students at Barry University are attending part time.
William Peace University comes in at #8 in this year's ranking. Located in the city of Raleigh, WPU is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
About 3.7% of WPU students default on their loans in three years, which is lower than average. Approximately 123 students take at least one class online at WPU. 114 of WPU students are attending part time.
The #9 spot in this year's ranking belongs to University of Memphis. UofM is a very large public school located in the large city of Memphis.
The school has a low student loan default rate of 3.5%. Approximately 7,362 students take at least one class online at UofM. 8,225 of UofM students are attending part time.
The #10 spot in this year's ranking belongs to Tennessee Technological University. Located in the remote town of Cookeville, Tennessee Tech University is a public school with a medium-sized student population.
The student loan default rate at Tennessee Tech University is lower than is typical, just 1.2% of students default in three years. Approximately 6,609 students take at least one class online at Tennessee Tech University. 1,966 of Tennessee Tech University students are attending part time.
Northern Kentucky University landed the #11 spot in our 2021 best liberal arts general studies schools for non-traditional students. NKU is a large public school located in the large suburb of Highland Heights.
The school has a low student loan default rate of 2.2%. 6,629 of NKU students are exclusively distance learners. 7,069 students are part time.
James Madison University comes in at #12 in this year's ranking. Located in the city of Harrisonburg, JMU is a public college with a fairly large student population. JMU did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #7 on our Best Colleges for Liberal Arts General Studies in the Southeast Region list.
About 0.8% of JMU students default on their loans in three years, which is lower than average. There are approximately 6,740 students at JMU that take at least one class online. There are roughly 2,328 part time students in attendance at JMU.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Liberal Arts General Studies Colleges for Non-Traditional Students in the Southeast Region award.
Non-Traditional Student Rankings in Majors Related to Liberal Arts
One of 0 majors within the Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities area of study, Liberal Arts General Studies has other similar majors worth exploring.
Notes and References
Footnotes
*Avg Cost is for the top 25 schools only.
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 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).
