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Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Plains States Region

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2023 Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Plains States Region

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

59 Colleges
$9,921 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$61,137 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Education Graduate Certificate School for You

In 2020-2021, 199,724 education students received a degree or certificate, making the major the #3 most popular in the country.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. 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, Grad Degree Search has developed this Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. Our analysis looked at 59 schools in the Plains States Region to see which graduate certificate programs offered the best value experiences for education students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

2023 Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Plains States Region

Check out the education graduate certificate programs at these schools if you want to get the best value for your educational dollar.

Top 10 Best Education Graduate Certificate Schools

#1

Northwestern College

Orange City, IA

Our analysis found Northwestern College to be the best value school for education students who want to pursue a graduate certificate in the Plains States Region . Located in the distant town of Orange City, NWC is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at NWC are $6,360 per year.

NWC excels when it comes to quality. It’s ranked in the top 10% of all schools on our Best Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Plains States Region list.

Read full report on Education at Northwestern College

#2

Valley City State University

Valley City, ND

A rank of #2 on this year’s list means Valley City State University is a great value for education students working on their graduate certificate. Valley City State University is a small public school located in the town of Valley City.

Valley City State University graduate students pay an average of $7,723 in tuition and fees each year.

Valley City State University also took the #5 spot in our Best Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Plains States Region rankings.

Read full report on Education at Valley City State University

The excellent graduate certificate programs at Mayville State University helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value education schools in the Plains States Region . Located in the remote area of Mayville, Mayville State University is a public school with a small student population.

Mayville State University graduate students pay an average of $7,465 in tuition and fees each year.

In addition to its great value ranking, Mayville State University is in the top 20% of all schools on our Best Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Plains States Region list.

Read full report on Education at Mayville State University

The excellent graduate certificate programs at Minnesota State University - Mankato helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best value education schools in the Plains States Region . Minnesota State Mankato is a large public school located in the city of Mankato.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Minnesota State Mankato are $9,308 a year.

On top of its placing in our value ranking, Minnesota State Mankato also did well on our Best Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Plains States Region list. It’s in the top 10% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.

Read full report on Education at Minnesota State University - Mankato

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Northwest Missouri State University. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Plains States Region list. Northwest is a moderately-sized public school located in the town of Maryville.

Northwest graduate students pay an average of $7,064 in tuition and fees each year.

Full Education at Northwest Missouri State University Report

With a ranking of #6, Minot State University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for education students working on their graduate certificate. MSU is a small public school located in the town of Minot.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at MSU are $10,263 per year.

Read full report on Education at Minot State University

Bemidji 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 #7 on the list. Bemidji State University is a small public school located in the remote town of Bemidji.

Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Bemidji State University are $9,586 per year.

Read full report on Education at Bemidji State University

#8

Wayne State College

Wayne, NE

Wayne State College ranked #8 on this year’s Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Plains States Region list. Located in the distant town of Wayne, WSC is a public college with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at WSC are $9,597 a year.

Read full report on Education at Wayne State College

With a ranking of #9, Concordia University, Nebraska did quite well on this year’s best value schools for education students working on their graduate certificate. Located in the town of Seward, Concordia University, Nebraska is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Concordia University, Nebraska are $8,650 a year.

Read More…

#10

Doane University

Crete, NE

Doane University came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Education Graduate Certificate Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. Doane Crete is a small private not-for-profit school located in the town of Crete.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Doane Crete are $8,586 a year.

Full Education at Doane University Report

Best Education Colleges by State

Explore the best education colleges for a specific state in the Plains States region.

State Degrees Awarded
Kansas 2,994
Missouri 4,657
Minnesota 6,976
Iowa 1,401
North Dakota 619
Nebraska 2,838
South Dakota 453

Education Majors to Study

Major Annual Graduates
Educational Administration 45,458
Teacher Education Grade Specific 34,451
Special Education 25,158
General Education 21,189
Teacher Education Subject Specific 20,616
Curriculum & Instruction 19,784
Student Counseling 13,840
Instructional Media Design 8,387
Teaching English or French 4,743
Other Education 2,513
Multilingual Education 1,672
Educational Assessment 1,215
Education Philosophy 421
International Education 257
Teaching Assistants 20

Related Major Annual Graduates
Psychology 42,013
Social Sciences 22,292
Communication & Journalism 12,242
Library Science 5,929
History 4,391

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 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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