2023 Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region
Identifying Quality Schools at More Affordable Prices
Finding the Best Education Graduate Certificate School for You
With 327,871 degrees and certificates handed out in 2020-2021, education is the #4 most popular major in the United States.
When it comes to higher education, there are a lot of options for students. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.
To help you arm yourself with the information you need to make your decision, Course Advisor has developed this Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. This report analyzed 22 schools in the Southwest Region to see which ones offered the best value graduate certificate programs for education students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.
This ranking is not just a list of inexpensive schools. We also consider each school's quality, since we believe a low-quality school may not be a 'bargain' at any price. More specifically, we discount our quality score by the published tuition and fees charged by a school. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The value is determined by how much quality your dollar buys.
For nationwide and regional rankings, we use out-of-state tuition and fees in our calculations. Average in-state tuition and fees are used for our statewide rankings.
Top 10 Best Education Graduate Certificate Schools
Our 2023 rankings named Arizona State University - Skysong the best value school in the Southwest Region for education students working on their graduate certificate. Located in the medium-sized city of Scottsdale, ASU - Skysong is a public school with a fairly large student population.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at ASU - Skysong are $9,982 a year.
ASU - Skysong did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our Best Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region list.
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A rank of #2 on this year’s list means Northeastern State University is a great value for education students working on their graduate certificate. NSU is a medium-sized public school located in the town of Tahlequah.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at NSU are $10,911 per year.
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Out of the 22 schools in the Southwest Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Grand Canyon University landed the # 3 spot on the list. Grand Canyon University is a fairly large private for-profit school located in the city of Phoenix.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Grand Canyon University are $11,538 per year.
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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend New Mexico Highlands University. The school came in at #4 on this year’s Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region list. Located in the remote town of Las Vegas, New Mexico Highlands University is a public school with a small student population.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at New Mexico Highlands University are $11,154 a year.
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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Texas A&M University - Kingsville. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region list. Texas A&M Kingsville is a moderately-sized public school located in the town of Kingsville.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Texas A&M Kingsville are $14,344 a year.
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Sam Houston State University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for education students to get a graduate certificate. It came in at #6 on the list. Located in the town of Huntsville, SHSU is a public school with a fairly large student population.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at SHSU are $16,009 a year.
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Lamar University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for education students to get a graduate certificate. It came in at #7 on the list. Located in the midsize city of Beaumont, Lamar University is a public college with a fairly large student population.
Lamar University graduate students pay an average of $15,755 in tuition and fees each year.
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Texas Tech University ranked #8 on this year’s Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region list. Located in the large city of Lubbock, Texas Tech is a public college with a fairly large student population.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Texas Tech are $17,698 a year.
On top of its placing in our value ranking, Texas Tech also did well on our Best Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.
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With a ranking of #8, Texas A&M University - College Station did quite well on this year’s best value schools for education students working on their graduate certificate. Texas A&M College Station is a fairly large public school located in the city of College Station.
Texas A&M College Station graduate students pay an average of $24,106 in tuition and fees each year.
In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, Texas A&M College Station is ranked #1 for overall quality for education in the Southwest Region .
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University of North Texas came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. UNT is a very large public school located in the midsize city of Denton.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at UNT are $15,600 a year.
Read full report on Education at University of North Texas
Request InformationBest Education Colleges by State
Explore the best education schools for a specific state in the Southwest region.
| State | Degrees Awarded |
|---|---|
| Arizona | 16,265 |
| Texas | 17,614 |
| New Mexico | 1,831 |
| Oklahoma | 3,171 |
More Education Rankings in the Southwest Region
Education Related Majors for Education
Education Majors to Study
| Major | Annual Graduates |
|---|---|
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 110,226 |
| Educational Administration | 46,469 |
| Teacher Education Subject Specific | 43,297 |
| Special Education | 36,792 |
| General Education | 29,810 |
| Curriculum & Instruction | 19,832 |
| Student Counseling | 13,858 |
| Instructional Media Design | 8,695 |
| Teaching English or French | 5,791 |
| Other Education | 4,858 |
| Teaching Assistants | 2,751 |
| Educational Assessment | 2,552 |
| Multilingual Education | 1,910 |
| Education Philosophy | 737 |
| International Education | 293 |
Most Popular Related Majors
| Related Major | Annual Graduates |
|---|---|
| Social Sciences | 205,984 |
| Psychology | 195,678 |
| Communication & Journalism | 120,571 |
| Family, Consumer & Human Sciences | 55,820 |
| History | 32,731 |
Notes and References
*These averages are for the top 22 schools only.
- 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).
- Credit for the banner image above goes to Horadrim.
More about our data sources and methodologies.
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