a bachelor's degree in criminology is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #53 out of 363 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
College Factual looked at 4 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Criminology Bachelor's Degree Schools in North Carolina ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 188 bachelor's degrees in criminology during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Choosing a Great Criminology School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The criminology bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality criminology program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
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 ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on criminology students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of criminology students who choose to seek a bachelor'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 easy is it for criminology to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminology related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for criminology students working on their bachelor'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 Criminology Bachelor's Degree Schools in North Carolina list, to help you choose the best school for you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Criminology in North Carolina
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in criminology.
Top North Carolina Schools for a Bachelor's in Criminology
University of North Carolina at Wilmington is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in criminology. Located in the midsize city of Wilmington, UNCW is a public university with a large student population.
After graduating, criminology bachelor's recipients generally earn around $34,443 at the beginning of their careers.
North Carolina State University is a good decision for students interested in a bachelor's degree in criminology. NC State is a very large public university located in the large city of Raleigh.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the criminology program earn about $35,076 for their early career.
William Peace University is a wonderful choice for students interested in a bachelor's degree in criminology. WPU is a fairly small private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Raleigh.
Those criminology students who get their bachelor's degree from William Peace University earn $5,564 more than the typical criminology student.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in criminology has to check out Johnson C Smith University. JCSU is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Charlotte.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the criminology program state that they receive average early career income of $32,751.
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.