Bang for Your Buck: Bluefield College

Bluefield College is a small, Christian liberal arts college quietly nestled in southern Virginia. It is situated several miles away from the West Virginia border and less than two hours away from the North Carolina border.

Undergraduate Enrollment: 948

Tuition: $24,800

General Education Requirements: All students must complete at least one course in composition, literature, American history, economics, mathematics, science, theology, Western Civilization, fine arts, and public speaking.

Academic and Financial Highlights:

• Bluefield’s literature requirement includes British, American, and world literature courses. Students discuss notable authors such as Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Jonathan Swift, and William Shakespeare. Serious literature courses require students to analyze complex themes and ideas, and fundamentally improve their critical thinking skills.
   
• Bluefield has relatively low tuition compared to other colleges with similar undergraduate populations. Bennington College, for example, has 775 undergraduates but a tuition price of $51,920 per year. Wabash College has 864 undergraduates with a tuition rate of $42,250 per year.

ACTA’s Assessment: Bluefield offers every student a robust and coherent liberal arts education that ACTA recognizes as essential for success in the 21^st century.
 

Bang for Your Buck highlights affordable and academically rigorous colleges and universities across the nation. In an age when student debt accounts for more than $1.5 trillion, acquiring a useful set of skills at a reasonable price has never been more important for students entering an extremely competitive job market. Each week, ACTA recognizes a high-ranking institution from our What Will They Learn?^® project for its commitment to low tuition rates and serious academic study.