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2024 Best Communication & Media Studies Doctor's Degree Schools

67 Colleges in the United States
425 Doctor's Degrees
$56,176 Avg Early-Career Salary
Communication & Media Studies is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #56 most popular doctor's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

In 2024, College Factual analyzed 67 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Communication & Media Studies Doctor's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 425 doctor's degrees in communication & media studies during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

Choosing a Great Communication & Media Studies School for Your Doctor's Degree

Best Communication & Media Studies Doctor's Degree Schools Your choice of communication & media studies for getting your doctor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality communications program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their doctor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their doctor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for communication & media studies students working on their doctor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Communication & Media Studies Schools

Rankings by Location Check Out Other Locales
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When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Communication & Media Studies Doctor's Degree Schools list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Communication & Media Studies in the United States

Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for communication & media studies students seeking a a doctor's degree. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.

10 Top Schools for a Doctorate in Communications

1
UPenn crest
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
10 Annual Graduates

Every student who is interested in a doctor's degree in communication & media studies needs 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.More information about a doctorate in communication & media studies from University of Pennsylvania

2
18 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat University of Southern California if you wish to pursue a doctor's degree in communication & media studies. USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Los Angeles.More information about a doctorate in communication & media studies from University of Southern California

3
3 Annual Graduates

Northwestern University is a wonderful choice for individuals pursuing a doctor's degree in communication & media studies. Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston.More information about a doctorate in communication & media studies from Northwestern University

4

Every student who is interested in a doctor's degree in communication & media studies needs to look into University of Wisconsin - Madison. Located in the city of Madison, UW - Madison is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Doctorate recipients from the communication & media studies degree program at University of Wisconsin - Madison make $8,246 above the average college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.

More information about a doctorate in communication & media studies from University of Wisconsin - Madison

5

UNC Chapel Hill is a very large public university located in the small city of Chapel Hill.

Those communication & media studies students who get their doctor's degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earn $7,485 more than the typical communications graduate.

More information about a doctorate in communication & media studies from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

6
4 Annual Graduates

Cornell is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Ithaca.More information about a doctorate in communication & media studies from Cornell University

7
5 Annual Graduates

U-M is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Ann Arbor.More information about a doctorate in communication & media studies from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

8
4 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Austin, UT Austin is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in communication & media studies from The University of Texas at Austin

9
5 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of New York, Columbia is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in communication & media studies from Columbia University in the City of New York

10
Stanford crest
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
2 Annual Graduates

Stanford is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Stanford.More information about a doctorate in communication & media studies from Stanford University

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 Communication & Media Studies Doctor's Degree Schools award.

Rank College Location
11 University of Georgia Athens, GA
12 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL
13 Purdue University - Main Campus West Lafayette, IN
14 Michigan State University East Lansing, MI
15 University of Maryland - College Park College Park, MD
16 University of California - Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA

Communication & Media Studies by Region

View the Best Communication & Media Studies Doctor's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

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One of 5 majors within the Communication & Journalism area of study, Communication & Media Studies has other similar majors worth exploring.

Communications Concentrations

Major Annual Graduates
Speech Communication 218
Communication & Media Studies 123
Other Communication & Media Studies 48
Communications 36

Related Major Annual Graduates
Radio, Television & Digital Communication 63
Public Relations & Advertising 19
Journalism 16
Communication & Journalism (Other) 10

Notes and References

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