When it comes to popularity, photojournalism sits in the middle of the road, ranking #883 out of 1506 majors in the country. So, you may have to do some digging around to find quality schools that offer the degree program. This list can help with that.
College Factual looked at 7 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Photojournalism Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 116 degrees in photojournalism to qualified students.
Your choice of photojournalism school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Photojournalism 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 photojournalism 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 Photojournalism Schools.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Photojournalism in the United States
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the photojournalism degrees they offer, see the list below.
Syracuse University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in photojournalism. Syracuse is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Syracuse. A Best Colleges rank of #62 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Syracuse is a great university overall.
There were roughly 27 photojournalism students who graduated with this degree at Syracuse in the most recent year we have data available.
It is difficult to beat George Washington University if you want to pursue a degree in photojournalism. GWU is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Washington. A Best Colleges rank of #25 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means GWU is a great university overall.
There were approximately 15 photojournalism students who graduated with this degree at GWU in the most recent data year.
Ohio University - Athens Campus is a wonderful decision for students interested in a degree in photojournalism. OHIO Athens is a very large public university located in the distant town of Athens. A Best Colleges rank of #184 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means OHIO Athens is a great university overall.
There were about 20 photojournalism students who graduated with this degree at OHIO Athens in the most recent year we have data available.
Columbia College Chicago is a good decision for students pursuing a degree in photojournalism. Located in the large city of Chicago, Columbia is a private not-for-profit college with a moderately-sized student population. This college ranks 9th out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were approximately 5 photojournalism students who graduated with this degree at Columbia in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Bowling Green, WKU is a public university with a large student population. This university ranks 6th out of 39 colleges for overall quality in the state of Kentucky.
There were about 8 photojournalism students who graduated with this degree at WKU in the most recent data year.
Central Michigan is a large public university located in the distant town of Mount Pleasant. This university ranks 6th out of 56 colleges for overall quality in the state of Michigan.
There were about 8 photojournalism students who graduated with this degree at Central Michigan in the most recent year we have data available.
UCO is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Edmond. This university ranks 8th out of 31 colleges for overall quality in the state of Oklahoma.
There were roughly 15 photojournalism students who graduated with this degree at UCO in the most recent data year.
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).
Credit for the banner image above goes to Jfurrer.
Your choice of photojournalism school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Photojournalism School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
