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.
College Factual looked at 4 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Communication & Media Studies Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 57 doctor's degrees in communication & media studies during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology
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:
- Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to communication & media studies students as compared to other majors.
- Major Demand - How many other communication & media studies students want to attend this school to pursue a doctor's degree.
- Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
- Student Debt - How much debt communication & media studies students go into to obtain their doctor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
- Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized communication & media studies related body.
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.
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 in the Southwest Region list to help you make the college decision.
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