Criminal Justice & Corrections is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #30 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Master's Degree Schools in Kentucky ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 129 master's degrees in criminal justice & corrections to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Criminal Justice & Corrections School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of criminal justice & corrections for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality criminal justice program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to criminal justice & corrections students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of criminal justice & corrections students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt criminal justice & corrections 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 criminal justice & corrections related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for criminal justice & corrections 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 Criminal Justice & Corrections Master's Degree Schools in Kentucky list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Criminal Justice & Corrections in Kentucky
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for criminal justice & corrections students seeking a a master's degree.
Top Kentucky Schools for a Master's in Criminal Justice
University of Louisville is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the large city of Louisville, UofL is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Criminal Justice & Corrections master's degree recipients from University of Louisville earn a boost of around $24,111 above the typical earnings of criminal justice & corrections majors.
Eastern Kentucky University is a good choice for individuals pursuing a master's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Eastern is a fairly large public university located in the town of Richmond.
After graduation, criminal justice master's recipients usually make about $40,493 in the first five years of their career.
It's hard to beat University of the Cumberlands if you want to pursue a master's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Cumberlands is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the remote town of Williamsburg.
Master's students who receive their degree from the criminal justice program earn around $50,379 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.
Your choice of criminal justice & corrections for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality criminal justice program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
