If you plan on majoring in bioethics/medical ethics, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #133 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
College Factual looked at 160 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Bioethics/Medical Ethics Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 4,980 degrees in bioethics/medical ethics to qualified students.
Your choice of bioethics/medical ethics school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Bioethics/Medical Ethics School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
The medical ethics school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Bioethics/Medical Ethics Schools.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for Bioethics/Medical Ethics in the United States
The schools below may not offer all types of medical ethics degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Every student who is interested in bioethics/medical ethics has to look into University of Pennsylvania. Located in the large city of Philadelphia, UPenn is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #4 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UPenn is a great university overall.
There were roughly 31 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at UPenn in the most recent data year.
Any student who is interested in bioethics/medical ethics needs to take a look at Duke University. Located in the city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #7 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Duke is a great university overall.
There were approximately 45 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at Duke in the most recent data year.
It is hard to beat Harvard University if you want to pursue a degree in bioethics/medical ethics. Harvard is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of Cambridge. A Best Colleges rank of #6 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Harvard is a great university overall.
There were roughly 45 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at Harvard in the most recent data year.
Any student pursuing a degree in bioethics/medical ethics has to check out Case Western Reserve University. Case Western is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Cleveland. This university ranks 1st out of 96 colleges for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were about 39 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at Case Western in the most recent data year. Graduates who receive their degree from the medical ethics program earn about $24,026 in their early career salary.
Located in the large city of New York, Columbia is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #14 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Columbia is a great university overall.
There were about 51 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at Columbia in the most recent data year.
Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston. A Best Colleges rank of #5 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Northwestern is a great university overall.
There were about 9 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at Northwestern in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the medium-sized city of Rochester, University of Rochester is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. This university ranks 8th out of 142 colleges for overall quality in the state of New York.
There were approximately 41 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at University of Rochester in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of New York, Teachers College is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. A Best Colleges rank of #12 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Teachers College is a great university overall.
There were about 8 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at Teachers College in the most recent year we have data available.
Creighton is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Omaha. This university ranks 1st out of 19 colleges for overall quality in the state of Nebraska.
There were about 8 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at Creighton in the most recent data year.
USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Los Angeles. A Best Colleges rank of #11 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means USC is a great university overall.
There were roughly 5 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large city of Pittsburgh, Duquesne is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population. This university ranks 14th out of 109 schools for overall quality in the state of Pennsylvania.
There were roughly 28 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at Duquesne in the most recent year we have data available.
URichmond is a small private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of University of Richmond. This university ranks 8th out of 63 schools for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were approximately 47 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at URichmond in the most recent year we have data available. Graduates who receive their degree from the medical ethics program make around $23,712 for their early career.
Johns Hopkins is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Baltimore. A Best Colleges rank of #23 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Johns Hopkins is a great university overall.
There were roughly 21 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at Johns Hopkins in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Chicago, Loyola Chicago is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. This university ranks 4th out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were about 52 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at Loyola Chicago in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Atlanta, Emory is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #28 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Emory is a great university overall.
There were about 8 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at Emory in the most recent year we have data available.
WGU is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Salt Lake City. This university ranks 2nd out of 13 schools for overall quality in the state of Utah.
There were about 1211 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at WGU in the most recent data year.
Baylor is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Waco. This university ranks 7th out of 115 schools for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were approximately 36 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at Baylor in the most recent year we have data available.
SLU is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Saint Louis. This university ranks 7th out of 48 colleges for overall quality in the state of Missouri.
There were about 16 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at SLU in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the rural area of Bismarck, UMary is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 3rd out of 12 colleges for overall quality in the state of North Dakota.
There were approximately 19 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at UMary in the most recent data year.
U-M is a fairly large public university located in the city of Ann Arbor. A Best Colleges rank of #29 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means U-M is a great university overall.
There were approximately 5 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at U-M in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Washington, Georgetown is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #15 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Georgetown is a great university overall.
There were about 6 bioethics/medical ethics students who graduated with this degree at Georgetown in the most recent year we have data available.
Rest of the Top Best Bioethics/Medical Ethics Schools
Additional Noteworthy Schools
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Bioethics/Medical Ethics Schools award.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
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).
Your choice of bioethics/medical ethics school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Bioethics/Medical Ethics School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
