Liberal arts colleges are a great option for students seeking a well-rounded education in an intimate campus setting. The best liberal arts colleges in Missouri offer a diverse selection of degree programs with opportunities for a highly individualized educational experience.
Tuition costs in Missouri fall below the national average, allowing students access to many affordable options. For example, at Missouri State University, the second largest public school, tuition fees are around $7,000. Students of actor John Goodman’s alma mater can major in fields like religious studies, history, and business, and even have the option of earning an associate degree in arts or a bachelor’s in business at the university’s sister school in China. Missouri also offers more than 40 private schools.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
Tuition and student populations vary greatly among these schools, but students who attend these higher education institutes also have the option to attend classes at other campuses. For example, Saint Louis University, a college with Jesuit roots, has campuses in both St. Louis and Madrid, Spain. Additionally, Missouri offers special loan forgiveness programs for nurses and other health professionals, including dentists, psychiatrists, and primary care physicians, who work in designated, high-need areas.
When you aren’t exploring one of its 6,000 caves, chowing down on some barbecue, or taking in a live jazz performance, Missouri can serve as the perfect place to begin a road trip. The Show Me State is bordered by eight other U.S. states, making it ideal for students love travelling and planning weekend getaways. During the week days, students can continue on their road to success by pursuing their degree at one of Missouri’s 72 higher education institutes.
See where Missouri’s many roads can take you while earning your degree at one this state’s top learning institutions.
Related: Differences between research universities and teaching colleges
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why, at the undergraduate level, we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we call “Concentrated Influence”. Concentrated Influence takes the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers (including faculty and alums) and divides it by the school’s total number of undergraduates.
Using concentrated influence gives small and mid-sized schools an opportunity to shine by taking away the size advantage of larger universities. A small school with proportionately more influential faculty than a large school, whose influence in absolute terms may be bigger, will nonetheless score higher in a concentrated influence ranking. Our approach highlights undergraduate schools that truly rank for excellence, regardless of size.
If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
Find out more about our ranking methodology here.
A liberal arts college is a school that puts a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree. We’ve identified a total of 28 liberal arts colleges and universities in Missouri, the top 20 satisfy our criteria. The list below of the best liberal arts schools in the state satisfies the following four conditions:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
97%
Graduation
60%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1110/22
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Westminster College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$29K
Acceptance
53%
Graduation
55%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1130/24
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Webster University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$23K
Acceptance
64%
Graduation
59%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1120/22
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Stephens College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
60%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/25
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Drury University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
36%
Graduation
67%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1190/24
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William Jewell College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
93%
Graduation
51%
Student body
9K
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Southeast Missouri State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$25K
Acceptance
95%
Graduation
55%
Student body
2K
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Evangel University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$40K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
73%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1169/24
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Rockhurst University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$28K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
66%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1045/20
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Fontbonne University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
72%
Graduation
75%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1250/27
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Truman State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$26K
Acceptance
95%
Graduation
44%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1015/22
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Central Methodist University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$25K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
48%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1027/22
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Southwest Baptist University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
80%
Graduation
54%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1119/22
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Northwest Missouri State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
64%
Graduation
51%
Student body
9K
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University of Central Missouri’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$20K
Acceptance
14%
Graduation
60%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1084/23
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College of the Ozarks’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$21K
Acceptance
42%
Graduation
51%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1082/21
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Avila University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$23K
Acceptance
61%
Graduation
54%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1075/21
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Cottey College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$24K
Acceptance
65%
Graduation
43%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1020/21
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Hannibal–LaGrange University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$28K
Acceptance
98%
Graduation
46%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
995/20
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Culver–Stockton College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Graduation
66%
Student body
2K
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Ranken Technical College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Photo By: Westminster College - The Photo Database, CC BY-SA 3.0
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