Source: IPEDS, as of September 29, 2026. Cost is resident tuition plus required fees, 2023-24.
Bachelor's Degrees in Kentucky
9
Meet the Ranking Threshold
6
Median Resident Tuition and Fees
$11,436
With a Fully Online Option
5
General Studies Bachelor's Degrees in Kentucky
General studies bachelor's degrees in Kentucky outnumber the state's general studies associate degrees, nine programs against seven, and six of the nine meet the ranking threshold. Four of the ranked six are public regional universities, Murray State, Western Kentucky, Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky, and two are private, the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg and Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia. The three others are the University of Louisville's online bachelor's with 9 degrees a year, Brescia University in Owensboro with 8 and Kentucky Wesleyan College with 2.
Murray State University's Bachelor of Integrated Studies has the top score at 71.8, on a 61% graduation rate and $9,708 in resident tuition and required fees, with 111 degrees a year. Western Kentucky's Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies scores 63.9 with 137 degrees a year at $11,436 and a 56% graduation rate, and the University of the Cumberlands scores 61.5 on 266 degrees a year, the most at this level in the state, at $9,875 with 50%.
Morehead State (61.1) and Eastern Kentucky (58.2) graduate 52% and 50% at $9,838 and $10,130, so the four public universities sit within a few points of each other on completion and between $9,708 and $11,436 on price. Lindsey Wilson College is the outlier at 22.6: $27,274 in tuition and fees, a 44% graduation rate and 13 degrees a year.
The 6 Best General Studies Bachelor's Degrees in Kentucky
The best general studies bachelor's degrees in Kentucky are ranked below by their national score, from the national bachelor's degree ranking. The number on each card is the program's place in Kentucky. Each needed at least 10 graduates in the latest year to be ranked.
1
Murray State University
Bachelor of Integrated Studies (BIS)
Kentucky
71.8- Public
- College graduation rate
- 61%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $9,708 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 111
About the Program
Two routes run through the Bachelor of Integrated Studies (BIS). You can follow an integrated studies pathway, which has a more set curriculum but is available by distance learning, or you can design an interdisciplinary plan that combines two or more areas of interest. Listed fields of study and pathways include General Studies, Health Care Administration, and Health and Exercise Studies, so you're choosing a subject as well as a route.
Getting in requires college credit already on your record. You must have earned at least 60 credit hours with a minimum 2.2 GPA, and the degree is aimed at adults, non-traditional students and military members with previous college credit. The bar is higher if you're a current Murray State student switching in, because you need 60 earned hours, a minimum 2.5 GPA and contact with an integrated studies advisor.
Finishing takes 120 total hours with 30 earned at Murray State, so transfer credit can't cover the whole degree. You also need 39 upper-division hours and a 2.5 GPA in your field of study, which sits above the 2.0 required overall. Significant life and work experience may earn credit through a portfolio process. Courses start at five different times a year, and regional campus options include Ft. Campbell, Hopkinsville, Paducah, Madisonville and Henderson.
Graduates of Integrated Studies hold jobs the college lists as bank president, child care director, college professor (with a Ph.D.) and executive assistant to president. Those titles sit in different fields, which fits a degree built from previous credit and a field of study you choose, so the degree doesn't point to a single occupation.
2
Western Kentucky University
Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies
Kentucky
63.9- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 56%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $11,436 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 137
About the Program
Building the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies is your job. You select complementary courses from different disciplines and shape them into a course of study that suits your interests. The rules then stop you from quietly rebuilding a single major, because no more than 24 semester hours can come from one academic discipline and no more than 30 from courses run by the Gordon Ford College of Business. All of it is fully online.
You complete a concentration of at least 36 semester hours, chosen from Arts, Business, Education, Health, Humanities, Organization and Communication of Ideas, Social and Behavioral, Science, Social Justice and Equity Studies, Sustainability, and Technology. Those hours include a capstone course, which you choose from two options, so the capstone counts inside the 36 hours and not in addition to them.
If none of the listed concentrations fits, you can ask for a broad concentration of your own, but it takes a written request based on specific objectives and approval from a BIS advisor, the Director, and the Dean of the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences. So treat it as a proposal you have to argue, and start early. Pairing the major with a minor has its own rule: 54 hours total between the two, with 48 hours unduplicated.
Upper-level credit is the requirement to check against your transcript first. You need 42 hours of upper-level credits, including 12 upper-level hours in the concentration, inside a degree of at least 120 unduplicated semester hours. That matters if you're bringing a lot of lower-level credit, because those hours can't fill the 42. Since the degree is fully online, you can take those upper-level courses without coming to campus.
3
University of the Cumberlands
Bachelor's Degree in General Studies
Kentucky
61.5- Private nonprofit
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 50%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $9,875 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 266
About the Program
Four required courses form the 12-hour core of the Bachelor's Degree in General Studies, and they're practical ones: Personal Finance, Business Communications, Strategies for General Studies and a Capstone. So alongside your chosen subjects, everyone on the degree covers money and workplace communication. Around that core you add two specialized areas and then strategic electives, which fill whatever hours remain.
Each of your two emphasis areas is 15 credit hours, and in each one 9 or more hours must be at the 300 or 400 level, so you can't build either emphasis from introductory courses alone. Options include Media Studies, drawn from COMM, JOUR or IDC courses, and Christian Studies, drawn from MSMN courses. If you'd prefer a minor, you can complete one emphasis area and one minor in place of the second area.
Language study is the difference between the two versions of the degree. A Bachelor of Arts in General Studies requires the same courses as the Bachelor of Science plus one foreign language sequence through the intermediate level, but foreign language courses are offered on campus, not online. So if you're studying online, choosing the Bachelor of Arts means getting to campus for that sequence.
Credit you already hold can go toward the total. A bachelor's here requires a minimum of 120 hours, and transfer and prior learning credits may be counted toward it. Because the core is 12 hours and the two specialized areas are 30 hours together, any hours they don't cover are filled by strategic electives.
4
Morehead State University
Kentucky
61.1- Public
- College graduation rate
- 52%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $9,838 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 126
About the Program
Some 8,791 students attend Morehead State University, a public university in Morehead, Kentucky. It conferred 126 bachelor's degrees in the latest reported year, which is more than 84% of the bachelor's programs ranked at this level. A 52% graduation rate puts the college at the 56th percentile, though that figure counts every student who started there and not this degree alone. Tuition and fees run $9,838 a year in state against $14,706 out of state, so on price it sits at the 49th percentile. About 77% of applicants are admitted, so an application is not a formality. Its strongest mark is the number of degrees it awards, at the 84th percentile.
5
Eastern Kentucky University
Kentucky
58.2- Public
- College graduation rate
- 50%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $10,130 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 155
About the Program
Eastern Kentucky University is a public university in Richmond, Kentucky that enrolls 15,673 students. It conferred 155 bachelor's degrees in the latest reported year, which is more than 89% of the bachelor's programs ranked at this level. Its college-wide graduation rate is 50%, the 50th percentile, because the federal record tracks completion by institution. Residents pay $10,130 a year in tuition and fees, while out-of-state students pay $20,820. About 78% of applicants are admitted, so an application is not a formality. Strongest of its measures is the number of degrees it awards, which lands at the 89th percentile.
6
Lindsey Wilson College
Kentucky
22.6- Private nonprofit
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 44%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $27,274 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 13
About the Program
Based in Columbia, Kentucky, Lindsey Wilson College is a private nonprofit college with 4,193 students on its rolls. During the most recent year on record it awarded 13 bachelor's degrees, a count at the 9th percentile for size. Across the whole college, 44% of students finish, which is a higher rate than 35% of the institutions behind this list. Residents and nonresidents are both charged $27,274 a year in tuition and fees. Distance students can complete the whole degree online, so where you live matters less here. Strongest of its measures is the graduation rate of its college, which lands at the 35th percentile.
Other General Studies Bachelor's Degrees in Kentucky
The other general studies bachelor's degrees in Kentucky awarded fewer than 10 degrees in the latest year or did not report a figure the ranking uses, so they are listed here without a score. That says something about size and nothing on its own about quality.
| College | Degrees Awarded | Graduation Rate | Tuition and Fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Louisville, Louisville | 9 | 61% | $12,828 |
| Brescia University, Owensboro | 8 | 54% | $30,450 |
| Kentucky Wesleyan College, Owensboro | 2 | 47% | $33,393 |
Source: IPEDS, as of September 29, 2026. Graduation rate is the college's, for first-time, full-time students.
How Much Does a General Studies Bachelor's Degree Cost in Kentucky?
A general studies bachelor's degree in Kentucky costs $11,436 a year in resident tuition and required fees at the median of the nine programs, Western Kentucky University's 2023-24 rate, and the range runs from $9,708 at Murray State University to $33,393 at Kentucky Wesleyan College. The public universities fill the bottom of the range: Murray State at $9,708, Morehead State at $9,838, Eastern Kentucky at $10,130, Western Kentucky at $11,436 and the University of Louisville at $12,828. The University of the Cumberlands, though private, prices with them at $9,875. The other three private colleges are a different tier: Lindsey Wilson at $27,274, Brescia at $30,450 and Kentucky Wesleyan at $33,393.
Kentucky residents can put the College Access Program Grant toward any of these degrees. It's need-based, it requires you to be enrolled at least half-time in a program at least two years long, and for 2026-27 it pays up to $5,300 at a four-year institution. At Murray State's $9,708 that is more than half the year's tuition and fees for a student who qualifies for the maximum, and the half-time rule means a working adult finishing a Bachelor of Integrated Studies part time can hold it.
How Does Credit Transfer Into a General Studies Bachelor's Degree in Kentucky?
Credit transfers into a general studies bachelor's degree in Kentucky under rules that bind the public university on the receiving end. The Council on Postsecondary Education's General Education Transfer Policy directs universities to recognize a completed AA or AS transfer degree by admitting the student at junior standing and accepting the corresponding general education credits, and the guarantee behind it, KRS 164.2951, applies upon admission to a public university. That binds Murray State, Western Kentucky, Morehead State, Eastern Kentucky and Louisville. The four private colleges aren't covered, so ask each how it treats a Kentucky AA or AS.
The general education block the universities must accept is at least 30 unduplicated semester credit hours, and the guarantee covers those courses whether earned individually or within multi-course blocks. Two more rules help: a university that accepts D grades from its own students must accept D grades from transfers, and a student who arrives Core Certified, with all categories done, has the general education component of the bachelor's treated as met.
What the policy doesn't settle is the rest of your transcript. Murray State's Bachelor of Integrated Studies and Western Kentucky's Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies are structured degrees, so ask how many of your elective and major credits they absorb and how many credits you must take in residence before the degree is theirs to award.
What Do Jobs With a General Studies Bachelor's Degree Pay in Kentucky?
Jobs open to a general studies bachelor's degree in Kentucky pay the state medians below, from the May 2025 federal wage survey, with the national median beside each for comparison. Each row links to the salary guide for that job.
How to Choose a General Studies Bachelor's Degree Program in Kentucky
How to choose a general studies bachelor's degree program in Kentucky is less about price than it looks, because four of the six ranked programs cost between $9,708 and $11,436 and graduate between 50% and 61%, so the real differences are format and what the degree is called. Murray State's Bachelor of Integrated Studies and Western Kentucky's Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies are structured degrees with their own names, while Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky award a general studies bachelor's under the plain title. Western Kentucky, the University of the Cumberlands and Lindsey Wilson College are fully online, and the Cumberlands awards 266 degrees a year at $9,875.
What you bring in matters more at this level than where you start. Kentucky's general education policy certifies transfer students as Category Certified, Core Certified or Fully Certified depending on how much of the 30-hour core they completed. So before you apply to Murray State or Eastern Kentucky, get your certification status from your previous college, ask how many of your elective and major credits the integrated or interdisciplinary degree will absorb, and ask the online programs how they price part-time study by the credit hour.
If you're starting with an associate degree, the general studies associate degrees in Kentucky have their own page.