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 98 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of communication & media studies. Combined, these schools handed out 4,471 master's degrees in communication & media studies to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Communication & Media Studies School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of communication & media studies for getting your master's degree school matters. 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 good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection 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 & media studies students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of communication & 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 & 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 & media studies related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for communication & 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.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Communication & Media Studies in the United States
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in communication & media studies. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in communication & media studies has to take a look at University of Southern California. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Master's recipients from the communication & media studies program at University of Southern California make $16,413 above the average graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
It's difficult to beat American University if you want to pursue a master's degree in communication & media studies. Located in the city of Washington, The American University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their master's degree from American University make $16,125 more than the average communications graduate.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in communication & media studies needs to take a look at Purdue University - Main Campus. Located in the city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public university with a very large student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their master's degree from Purdue University - Main Campus make $17,938 more than the average communications student.
Located in the city of Chapel Hill, UNC Chapel Hill is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their master's degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earn $4,460 more than the standard communications graduate.
DU is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Denver.
Those communication & media studies students who get their master's degree from University of Denver earn $11,609 more than the average communications student.
UF is a very large public university located in the city of Gainesville.
Master's recipients from the communication & media studies degree program at University of Florida make $6,822 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the medium-sized city of Tuscaloosa, UA is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's recipients from the communication & media studies program at The University of Alabama get $7,737 above the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Rest of the Top Best Communication & Media Studies Master's Degree Schools
Honorable Mentions
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).
Your choice of communication & media studies for getting your master's degree school matters. 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:
,_Helsinki_Finland_(11643271925).jpg){kind=link}