2023 Most Veteran Friendly in the Rocky Mountains Region for Geography for a Master’s

Veterans have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Most Veteran Friendly in the Rocky Mountains Region for Geography for a Master’s” ranking - to help you make that decision.

In 2020-2021, 4,954 people earned their degree in geography, making the major the 159th most popular in the United States.

Across the Rocky Mountains region, there were 413 geography graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Most Veteran Friendly in the Rocky Mountains Region for Geography for a Master’s” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree in geography. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality geography programs as well as strong veteran support.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the geography program at the school, veteran affordability, and veteran population. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

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 “Most Veteran Friendly in the Rocky Mountains Region for Geography for a Master’s” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

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. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Most Veteran Friendly in the Rocky Mountains Region for Geography for a Master’s

The following schools top our list of the Best “Most Veteran Friendly in the Rocky Mountains Region for Geography for a Master’s”.

Top 2 Best Geography Master’s Degree Colleges for Veterans in the Rocky Mountains Region

1

University of Colorado Boulder
Boulder, Colorado

1,379 GI Bill® Students**

#1 in overall quality

YES Student Veterans Organization

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Colorado Boulder. The school came in at #1 for the Most Veteran Friendly in the Rocky Mountains Region for Geography for a Master’s. University of Colorado Boulder is a large public school situated in Boulder, Colorado. It awarded 8 masters’s geography degrees in 2020-2021.

CU - Boulder not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best Geography Master’s Degree Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region” list.According to our most recent data, University of Colorado Boulder supports 37,437 students, and 1,379 of those are GI Bill® students, of which 968 are Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average Post-9/11 GI Bill® award for tuition and fees at the school was $12,889. To help with additional expenses, 46 students qualified for the Yellow Ribbon Program. University of Colorado Boulder does offer credit for military training for eligible students.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 85%.

Full CU - Boulder Veteran Student Life Report

2

The University of Montana
Missoula, Montana

1 GI Bill® Students**

#2 in overall quality

YES Student Veterans Organization

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend The University of Montana. The school came in at #2 for the Most Veteran Friendly in the Rocky Mountains Region for Geography for a Master’s. This fairly large school is located in Missoula, Montana, and it awarded 4 masters’s geography degrees in 2020-2021.

UM not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #2 on our “Best Geography Master’s Degree Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region” list.Our most recent data shows that 1 of the 9,808 students enrolled at The University of Montana were GI Bill® students, of which 0 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average tuition and fees award for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients was $0. On top of their other funding sources, 0 students qualified for the Yellow Ribbon Program. Students may be able to receive credit for their military training, depending on their background.

Full The University of Montana Veteran Student Life Report

• Best Geography Master’s Degree Colleges for Veterans

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).
• Veteran-specific data can be found at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
• 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.
• **GI Bill® student total includes all chapters of the GI Bill® program (e.g., Post-9/11, Montgomery GI Bill, Reserve Education Assistance Program, and Veteran Readiness and Employment)
• 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 Couleur.