If you plan on majoring in religious studies, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #90 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for religious studies students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 338 degrees in religious studies annually.
Your choice of religious studies school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for religious studies schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
The religion 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 Religious Studies Schools in California.
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.
The schools below may not offer all types of religion degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.
Any student pursuing a degree in religious studies has to take a look at University of California - Santa Barbara. UCSB is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized suburb of Santa Barbara. A Best Colleges rank of #47 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UCSB is a great university overall.
There were roughly 41 religious studies students who graduated with this degree at UCSB in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the religion program state that they receive average early career wages of $19,911.
It's difficult to beat California State University - Long Beach if you wish to pursue a degree in religious studies. Located in the city of Long Beach, CSULB is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 36th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were approximately 11 religious studies students who graduated with this degree at CSULB in the most recent year we have data available.
University of California - Davis is a good choice for students interested in a degree in religious studies. UC Davis is a very large public university located in the suburb of Davis. A Best Colleges rank of #55 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UC Davis is a great university overall.
There were roughly 11 religious studies students who graduated with this degree at UC Davis in the most recent data year.
California Baptist University is a wonderful option for students interested in a degree in religious studies. Cal Baptist is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Riverside. This university ranks 66th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were roughly 23 religious studies students who graduated with this degree at Cal Baptist in the most recent data year. Graduates who receive their degree from the religion program earn an average of $29,582 for their early career.
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 religious studies school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for religious studies schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
