undergradly.
Major · Liberal Arts & Sciences

A flexible starting point for students who haven't committed to a direction yet

General Studies is one of higher education's most common holding patterns — and one of its most useful transfer platforms. Over 103,000 degrees are awarded annually across more than 1,020 colleges, the large majority at community colleges. It asks students to sample broadly rather than specialize early.

Schools offering
1,020
Annual completions
103,103
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$47k

About this major

General Studies occupies a specific niche in American higher education: it is the official major for students who haven't chosen one yet, or who are using their current enrollment to satisfy transfer requirements before arriving at a four-year institution. The CIP definition is unusually candid — it describes the program as "undifferentiated" instruction in general arts, general science, or unstructured studies, and its listed examples are "Undeclared Major" and "Undecided." That is the degree as designed.

The curriculum, where it exists as a curriculum at all, tends to emphasize breadth: composition, introductory-level social sciences, natural science distribution requirements, and electives. Some programs are structured around articulation agreements with four-year colleges, effectively functioning as the first two years of a bachelor's degree in a major you'll name later. Others give students nearly complete freedom to take whatever interests them. Both models produce the same credential.

Scale here is notable. More than 103,000 General Studies degrees are awarded annually — one of the highest completion counts of any major — across more than 1,020 institutions. The top-producing schools are almost exclusively community colleges: Dallas College, Tarrant County College, Austin Community College, Houston Community College. That distribution reflects the major's primary use case: a low-cost, accessible entry point to higher education for students who are still figuring out their direction. The one career formally associated with this CIP code, postsecondary teacher, requires a doctoral degree and is not a path General Studies itself opens.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Postsecondary teachers, all other $78k +1.8% Doctoral or professional degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$47k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$43k

Bachelor's

$54k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if your immediate priority is completing an associate's degree before transferring to a four-year program where you'll declare a more specific major — General Studies is well-suited to that sequence, and many community college articulation agreements are built around it. You may also fit here if you're genuinely undecided and need time and exposure to different disciplines before committing, and if the cost of a semester spent exploring is lower than the cost of choosing the wrong track too early. The degree's flexibility is real and sometimes genuinely useful.

Think twice if you expect this credential to function as a defined professional qualification on its own — it doesn't, and the earnings data reflects that: median five-year earnings run about $46,703, below most career-focused associates and bachelor's programs. Think twice also if you're considering this as a four-year terminal degree rather than a stepping stone, since the bachelor's/associate's earnings gap here is only about $10,387, significantly smaller than the premium you'd gain from a more targeted four-year program. And if the appeal is mainly avoiding a decision, know that you'll eventually have to make that decision — and the labor market will be more forgiving the earlier you make it.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for General Studies

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Dallas College Dallas, TX 5,426 0 5,426
Tarrant County College District Fort Worth, TX 4,283 0 4,283
Austin Community College District Austin, TX 2,263 0 2,263
Southern New Hampshire University Manchester, NH 496 1,524 2,020
Northwest Vista College San Antonio, TX 1,953 0 1,953
Southern Utah University Cedar City, UT 1,730 150 1,880
San Antonio College San Antonio, TX 1,681 0 1,681
Houston Community College Houston, TX 1,623 0 1,623
American Public University System Charles Town, WV 1,444 71 1,515
Weber State University Ogden, UT 1,484 0 1,484
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Liberal Arts and Sciences/Liberal Studies

255,855 completions/yr

Humanities/Humanistic Studies

21,472 completions/yr

Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities, Other

19,655 completions/yr

Art/Art Studies, General

13,626 completions/yr

Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies, General

8,996 completions/yr

Family Resource Management Studies, General

577 completions/yr

Advanced Legal Research/Studies, General

88 completions/yr

Philosophy and Religious Studies, General

84 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What do General Studies majors actually study day-to-day?
General Studies has no fixed curriculum — that's the point. Students typically select from a mix of college-level coursework in writing, social sciences, natural sciences, and mathematics without committing to a concentration. Some programs are structured around transfer requirements; others are genuinely open-ended. The CIP definition describes it as 'undifferentiated' instruction in the general arts, general science, or unstructured studies, and the examples it lists are blunt: 'Undeclared Major' and 'Undecided.' The experience varies considerably by institution, but the through-line is breadth over depth.
Is General Studies a useful credential, or is it mainly a placeholder?
Both, depending on how you use it. As an associate's degree from a community college, it frequently functions as a transfer platform into a four-year institution where you'll declare a different major. The top-producing schools in this field — Dallas College, Tarrant County College, Austin Community College, Houston Community College — are all community colleges, which signals how the degree is typically used. As a terminal credential, the median five-year earnings run about $46,703, which is on the lower end of associate-level outcomes. Students who transfer and complete a bachelor's in another field can expect earnings tied to that field, not to General Studies.
What kinds of jobs do General Studies graduates end up in?
There is no single destination for General Studies completers — the degree intentionally doesn't route graduates toward a specific occupation the way nursing or accounting does. The one career formally linked to this CIP code is postsecondary teacher, but that role requires a doctoral or professional degree and is not a realistic path from an associate's or bachelor's in General Studies. In practice, graduates move into a wide range of entry-level roles across retail, administrative work, customer service, and public sector positions, or they transfer into focused programs. The degree signals general college-level competency, not specialized expertise.
Does getting a bachelor's in General Studies pay off significantly more than an associate's?
The gap is modest compared to career-focused majors. Bachelor's completers in this field report median five-year earnings of about $53,599, versus $43,212 for associate's completers — a difference of roughly $10,387. By comparison, the bachelor's/associate's gap in fields like Computer Science or Nursing tends to run $40,000 or more. That narrower gap reflects the reality that General Studies doesn't unlock a credential-gated occupation at the bachelor's level either. If you're investing in a four-year degree, the earnings data suggests you'll get a better return by pursuing it in a more targeted major.
Is General Studies the right choice, or should I pick a related major?
If you're drawn to the humanities and social sciences but want more structure, Liberal Arts and Sciences/Liberal Studies has over 255,855 total completions and usually has a defined core curriculum that reads better on a resume. Humanities/Humanistic Studies (21,472 completions) is more focused still. General Studies makes the most sense if your immediate priority is completing transfer requirements at low cost before declaring a major — it is the right tool for that specific job. It is less useful if you want a degree that names a discipline, because it doesn't name one.
What's a realistic earnings picture if I complete a General Studies degree?
Median five-year earnings across all degree levels run about $46,703 for General Studies completers. At the bachelor's level specifically, the median is around $53,599. These figures sit below the median earnings for most career-focused bachelor's degrees and below the national median earnings for bachelor's degree holders overall. The data doesn't track ten-year earnings for this major, which is a limitation — students who transfer and complete a different program will have their long-term earnings attributed to that later degree, not to General Studies. That transfer path is likely where most of the better financial outcomes lie.