2025 Best Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication Schools
64Colleges in the United States
4,517Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication Degrees Awarded
A degree in public relations, advertising, & applied communication is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #170 out of 1506 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 64 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 4,517 degrees in public relations, advertising, & applied communication to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication School
Your choice of public relations, advertising, & applied communication school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication 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.
Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication Rankings by Degree Level
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication Schools ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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 Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication 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 public relations, advertising, and applied communication degrees they offer, see the list below. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
12 Top Schools in Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication
It's difficult to beat Michigan State University if you want to pursue a degree in public relations, advertising, & applied communication. Located in the city of East Lansing, Michigan State is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #54 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Michigan State is a great university overall.
There were roughly 10 public relations, advertising, & applied communication students who graduated with this degree at Michigan State in the most recent year we have data available.
125Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication Degrees Awarded
Syracuse University is a good choice for students pursuing a degree in public relations, advertising, & applied communication. Syracuse is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of Syracuse. A Best Colleges rank of #62 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Syracuse is a great university overall.
There were approximately 125 public relations, advertising, & applied communication students who graduated with this degree at Syracuse in the most recent data year.
39Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication Degrees Awarded
It is difficult to beat University of Southern California if you want to pursue a degree in public relations, advertising, & applied communication. USC is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles. A Best Colleges rank of #13 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means USC is a great university overall.
There were roughly 39 public relations, advertising, & applied communication students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent data year.
93Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication Degrees Awarded
It is hard to beat Washington State University if you want to pursue a degree in public relations, advertising, & applied communication. Located in the distant town of Pullman, Wazzu is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 3rd out of 50 schools for overall quality in the state of Washington.
There were roughly 93 public relations, advertising, & applied communication students who graduated with this degree at Wazzu in the most recent data year.
Located in the suburb of Malibu, Pepperdine is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #63 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Pepperdine is a great university overall.
There were roughly 18 public relations, advertising, & applied communication students who graduated with this degree at Pepperdine in the most recent year we have data available.
174Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication Degrees Awarded
UNL is a fairly large public university located in the city of Lincoln. This university ranks 2nd out of 19 schools for overall quality in the state of Nebraska.
There were approximately 174 public relations, advertising, & applied communication students who graduated with this degree at UNL in the most recent data year.
79Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication Degrees Awarded
Ithaca is a small private not-for-profit college located in the small suburb of Ithaca. This college ranks 23rd out of 136 schools for overall quality in the state of New York.
There were about 79 public relations, advertising, & applied communication students who graduated with this degree at Ithaca in the most recent data year.
159Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication Degrees Awarded
Located in the large city of Fort Worth, TCU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #112 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means TCU is a great university overall.
There were approximately 159 public relations, advertising, & applied communication students who graduated with this degree at TCU in the most recent year we have data available.
35Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication Degrees Awarded
Located in the city of Boston, Emerson is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #127 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Emerson is a great college overall.
There were approximately 35 public relations, advertising, & applied communication students who graduated with this degree at Emerson in the most recent data year.
427Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication Degrees Awarded
CU - Boulder is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Boulder. A Best Colleges rank of #145 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means CU - Boulder is a great university overall.
There were about 427 public relations, advertising, & applied communication students who graduated with this degree at CU - Boulder in the most recent data year.
Located in the suburb of Hamden, Quinnipiac is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #162 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Quinnipiac is a great university overall.
There were approximately 8 public relations, advertising, & applied communication students who graduated with this degree at Quinnipiac in the most recent data year.
UO is a fairly large public university located in the city of Eugene. A Best Colleges rank of #167 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UO is a great university overall.
There were approximately 10 public relations, advertising, & applied communication students who graduated with this degree at UO in the most recent data year.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication Schools award.
Rankings in Majors Related to Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication
One of 10 majors within the Public Relations & Advertising area of study, Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication has other similar majors worth exploring.
Most Popular Majors Related to Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication
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 Bill Koplitz.
Your choice of public relations, advertising, & applied communication school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Public Relations, Advertising, & Applied Communication School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
