Communication & Media Studies is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #44 most popular master's degree program in the country. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
College Factual reviewed 228 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of communication and media studies. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 4,407 master's degrees in communication and media studies during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Choosing a Great Communication & Media Studies School for Your Master's Degree
The communications master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on communication and media studies students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of communication and media studies students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt communication and media studies students go into to obtain their master'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 and media studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for communication and media studies students working on their master's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Communication & Media Studies Master's Degree Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Featured Communication & Media Studies Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
Effective communicators are always in demand, no matter the industry. The Master's in Communication degree from Southern New Hampshire University is a cutting-edge program designed for forward-thinking professionals.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Communication & Media Studies in the United States
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in communication and media studies. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Northwestern University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in communication and media studies. Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Those communication and media studies students who get their master's degree from Northwestern University make $20,429 more than the average communications grad.
It is hard to beat University of Southern California if you wish to pursue a master's degree in communication and media studies. Located in the city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Those communication and media studies students who get their master's degree from University of Southern California make $15,807 more than the standard communications student.
It's hard to beat Columbia University in the City of New York if you want to pursue a master's degree in communication and media studies. Columbia is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York.
Those communication and media studies students who get their master's degree from Columbia University in the City of New York earn $47,791 more than the standard communications grad.
Johns Hopkins University is a wonderful decision for students interested in a master's degree in communication and media studies. Located in the large city of Baltimore, Johns Hopkins is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Master's recipients from the communication and media studies program at Johns Hopkins University earn $26,538 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the small city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's recipients from the communication and media studies program at Purdue University - Main Campus get $15,192 more than the typical college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Master's recipients from the communication and media studies major at Stanford University make $5,156 above the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of Washington, The American University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Master's recipients from the communication and media studies program at American University get $11,613 more than the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
DU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Denver.
Master's recipients from the communication and media studies major at University of Denver make $6,621 more than the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Here are some additional great schools for Communication & Media Studies students that almost earned our Best Communication & Media Studies Master's Degree 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).
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The communications master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
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