If you plan on majoring in criminology, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #80 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 4 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Criminology Schools in North Carolina ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 195 degrees in criminology annually.
Your choice of criminology school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Criminology 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 criminology 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 Criminology Schools in North Carolina.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
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 criminology degrees they offer, see the list below.
Every student pursuing a degree in criminology has to check out University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Located in the midsize city of Wilmington, UNCW is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #415 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UNCW is a great university overall.
There were about 100 criminology students who graduated with this degree at UNCW in the most recent data year. After graduation, criminology degree recipients usually make an average of $34,443 at the beginning of their careers.
It is hard to beat North Carolina State University if you want to pursue a degree in criminology. NC State is a very large public university located in the large city of Raleigh. A Best Colleges rank of #122 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means NC State is a great university overall.
There were roughly 55 criminology students who graduated with this degree at NC State in the most recent data year. Students who receive their degree from the criminology program earn about $35,076 in the first couple years of working.
William Peace University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a degree in criminology. WPU is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Raleigh. This university ranks 74th out of 93 schools for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were roughly 17 criminology students who graduated with this degree at WPU in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the criminology program at William Peace University get $2,471 above the average college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Johnson C Smith University is a good choice for students pursuing a degree in criminology. JCSU is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Charlotte. This university ranks 88th out of 93 schools for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were approximately 16 criminology students who graduated with this degree at JCSU in the most recent data year. After graduating, criminology degree recipients generally make about $32,751 at the beginning of their careers.
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 criminology school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Criminology School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
