2025 Best Social Sciences Master's Degree Schools in Tennessee

a master's degree in social sciences is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #9 out of 37 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Social Sciences Master's Degree Schools in Tennessee ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 137 master's degrees in social sciences during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

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 master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on social sciences students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other social sciences students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How easy is it for social sciences to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized social sciences related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for social sciences students working on their master's degree.

More Ways to Rank Social Sciences Schools

The social sciences 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 Social Sciences Master's Degree Schools in Tennessee.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Social Sciences in Tennessee

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in social sciences.

Top Tennessee Schools for a Master's in Social Sciences

1

Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

54 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat Vanderbilt University if you want to pursue a master's degree in social sciences. Located in the city of Nashville, Vanderbilt is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a master’s in social sciences from Vanderbilt University

2

The University of Tennessee - Knoxville
Knoxville, TN

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

29 Annual Graduates

It's difficult to beat The University of Tennessee - Knoxville if you wish to pursue a master's degree in social sciences. UT Knoxville is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Knoxville.More information about a master’s in social sciences from The University of Tennessee - Knoxville

Best Social Sciences Colleges in the Southeast Region

Explore all the Best Social Sciences Colleges in the Southeast Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Mississippi	34	48
Florida	34	470
Virginia	33	479
Georgia	32	346
North Carolina	31	365
Kentucky	31	96
West Virginia	30	69
Alabama	30	210
Louisiana	30	116
South Carolina	30	52
Arkansas	30	43

View All Rankings >

Social Sciences Majors to Study

Major	Annual Graduates
Economics	57
Anthropology	26
Political Science & Government	18
Sociology	14
International Relations & National Security	13
Geography & Cartography	4
Archeology	3
General Social Sciences	2

Majors Similar to Social Sciences

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Theology & Religious Vocations	306
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities	180
Communication & Journalism	177
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	92
English Language & Literature	91
Philosophy & Religious Studies	55
History	47
Foreign Languages & Linguistics	16
Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies	7

Notes and References

• 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 AndrГ© KГјnzelmann. More about our data sources and methodologies.