General Studies major

General Studies: courses, careers, and where to study

General Studies is an undifferentiated degree that lets a student combine coursework across departments, most often used to finish or transfer a degree already in progress.

General Studies is defined federally as an undifferentiated program: general arts, general science, or unstructured study. That is a real distinction from Liberal Arts, which the same federal taxonomy defines as a structured combination of fields. General Studies is deliberately the more flexible of the two, and the flexibility is what it is for.

In practice it is most often a completion or transfer degree. Students who have accumulated credits across several departments, changed direction, returned after time away, or are transferring between institutions use it to assemble a coherent credential from work already done. Many adult-completion and online programs are built on it for exactly this reason.

The trade-off is directness. Because the degree is undifferentiated, it does not signal a specific field to an employer or a graduate program, and it is the student who has to explain what the coursework adds up to. That is very manageable when the credits were chosen deliberately and much harder when they were not. If you are considering it, ask the institution which concentrations or emphases can be attached to it, since a named emphasis usually does the explaining for you.

Academic classification (CIP)

In the federal Classification of Instructional Programs, General Studies maps to CIP 24.0102, General Studies, within the LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES, GENERAL STUDIES AND HUMANITIES family. The official definition:

An undifferentiated program that includes instruction in the general arts, general science, or unstructured studies.

Source: U.S. Department of Education (NCES), Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) 2020. View on nces.ed.gov

What credential General Studies is awarded as

Of the 127,429 General Studies credentials U.S. colleges reported conferring in 2023-24:

  • Certificate19%24,542
  • Associate71%90,103
  • Bachelor's10%12,552
  • Graduate<1%232

This is one of the fields where the answer genuinely depends on where you study: across the 48 states reporting it, certificates run from 0% of credentials in the 10th-percentile state to 54% in the 90th. Check the mix in your state before assuming which credential a program leads to. See the full study.

Credentials conferred in 2023-24, U.S. Department of Education IPEDS completions. A certificate is a different credential from a degree, not a lesser one, and this counts what was awarded rather than what a college currently offers.

What you'll study

  • Coursework spanning several departments rather than one major sequence
  • A general-education core comparable to other bachelor's and associate degrees
  • Writing, communication and quantitative reasoning requirements
  • Whatever concentration or emphasis the institution allows you to attach
  • How to assemble prior and transfer credit into a completed credential

Typical careers

  • Completing a degree already in progress
  • Administrative, operations and coordination roles
  • Roles where the employer requires a degree without specifying a field
  • Military and public-sector advancement requiring a completed degree
  • Further study, where the graduate program accepts any bachelor's field

Related occupations

Occupations the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk associates with General Studies, with what each one pays and how many openings it is projected to average each year. Ordered by projected annual openings, largest first. Linked titles open the full CampusPin career page.

Occupations associated with General Studiesby the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, with median annual wage, projected annual openings, projected employment change, and the education most entrants typically hold.
OccupationMedian payOpenings / yrProjected changeMost entrants hold
Postsecondary Teachers, All Other$78,49013,500+1.8%Doctoral or professional degree

Crosswalk: U.S. Department of Education (NCES), CIP 2020 to SOC 2018. Pay, openings and projections: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2024 wages, Employment Projections). 1 of these 1 occupations report a median wage.

“Most entrants hold” is what BLS observes about people already working in the occupation. It is not a legal requirement, not an admission rule, and not a guarantee of entry. Studying General Studies does not guarantee any specific occupation, and many of these roles are entered from several different fields. Projected openings are a projection, not jobs promised.

The federal crosswalk associates only one occupation with General Studies. That is a statement about the field, not about its graduates: a breadth degree is not tied to a particular job, so the crosswalk has little to map. Graduates of this field work across many occupations, and what follows the degree depends far more on the skills and experience built alongside it.

Before you commit to a General Studies major

CampusPin does not rank programs. Use these prompts to pressure-test whether a specific General Studies program fits your goals, they are decision questions, not claims about any school.

Ask the General Studies department

  • Which concentrations or specializations are offered, and which faculty lead them?
  • What does the typical course sequence look like, and how much is required vs. elective?
  • What labs, studios, clinical placements, or research opportunities are available to undergraduates?
  • Is there a capstone, thesis, internship, or co-op requirement?

Ask current students & check the curriculum

  • How heavy is the workload, and how accessible is the faculty?
  • What internships or co-ops did you do, and where do recent graduates end up?
  • Does the required curriculum actually match the careers listed above?
  • How easy is it to add a minor, double major, or switch tracks later?
Accreditation & licensure: General Studies is covered by institutional accreditation rather than a field-specific accreditor. Because the degree is undifferentiated, confirm two things directly with the institution: exactly how much prior and transfer credit it will accept, and whether you can attach a named concentration, which is usually what makes the credential legible to an employer or graduate program.
Degree level & graduate study: Many General Studiescareers are open with a bachelor's degree, but some, such as research, advanced-practice, or licensure-track roles, require a master's or doctorate. Check the typical entry-level education on each linked career page above before assuming a bachelor's is enough.

Find a General Studies program

CampusPin lists U.S. universities and community colleges by state, tuition, school size, acceptance rate, and campus setting, no account required.

Colleges that awarded the most General Studies credentials

Largest by credentials conferred in 2023-24. This measures the size of the graduating class, not quality, and it is not a ranking.

Based on credentials this institution reported conferring in the federal IPEDS completions collection for 2023-24. It confirms the field was awarded that year, not that the program currently accepts students, and it covers only the fields CampusPin tracks. Confirm current offerings with the institution.

Search General Studies schools

Where General Studies credentials were awarded

39 states have a distinct enough set of General Studies colleges to be worth its own page.

Search General Studies schools by state

Related majors

Put this major in context

The salary above is an occupation-wide median from federal data, not a starting wage or a guarantee. These CampusPin guides and reports help you read it well, see where a General Studies degree can lead, and weigh it against cost and program quality.

Explore Education & Library careers

Median pay, job outlook, and the occupations this field covers.

How one major leads to many careers

Why a single General Studies degree can open more than one path, and how to read the occupations above.

Why a median wage is not a starting salary

How to read a BLS median, and why early-career pay usually sits below it.

When accreditation and licensure matter

How program accreditation and state licensure can shape a General Studies path before you enroll.

Does a pricier college pay off?

How college cost lines up with graduation and earnings, an association, not a ranking.

Does picking a major narrow your college list?

Across the federal completions data, most fields barely change which colleges are on the table. Which ones genuinely do.

Certificate or degree?

What credential a field is usually awarded as is mostly set by the field itself, not by the state, with a short list of exceptions.

How this guide is sourced

This is an editorial guide from the CampusPin Editorial Team. Career and wage figures are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, occupation-wide medians across all experience levels, not starting wages, and link to each career page. Program availability comes from CampusPin's free institution search; CampusPin does not assert that any specific school offers this exact major until that program data is verified. Last reviewed 2026-06-15. How CampusPin sources data · Report a correction.