2025 Best Sociology Doctor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region

a doctor's degree in sociology is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #45 out of 306 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

College Factual looked at 4 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Sociology Doctor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 114 doctor's degrees in sociology to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Sociology School for Your Doctor's Degree

The sociology doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality sociology 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 account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their doctor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their doctor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

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 sociology students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of sociology students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
• 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 much debt sociology students go into to obtain their doctor'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 sociology related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for sociology students working on their doctor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Sociology Schools

When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Sociology Doctor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Sociology in the Great Lakes Region

Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for sociology students seeking a a doctor's degree.

Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Doctorate in Sociology

1

University of Chicago
Chicago, IL

13 Annual Graduates

University of Chicago is a great choice for students pursuing a doctor's degree in sociology. UChicago is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Chicago.More information about a doctorate in sociology from University of Chicago

2

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

13 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a doctor's degree in sociology needs to take a look at Northwestern University. Located in the small city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in sociology from Northwestern University

3

University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI

14 Annual Graduates

Any student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in sociology has to take a look at University of Wisconsin - Madison. UW - Madison is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Madison.More information about a doctorate in sociology from University of Wisconsin - Madison

4

Ohio State University - Main Campus
Columbus, OH

13 Annual Graduates

Ohio State University - Main Campus is one of the best schools in the country for getting a doctor's degree in sociology. Located in the large city of Columbus, Ohio State is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in sociology from Ohio State University - Main Campus

Best Sociology Colleges by State

Explore the best sociology colleges for a specific state in the Great Lakes Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Illinois	153	38
Michigan	149	11
Ohio	144	32
Indiana	132	22
Wisconsin	108	24

View All Rankings >

Sociology Related Rankings by Major

Sociology is one of 13 different types of Social Sciences programs to choose from.

Sociology Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Sociology	114

Majors Similar to Sociology

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Economics	254
Political Science & Government	101
Anthropology	85
Geography & Cartography	22
General Social Sciences	7
Urban Studies	5
Archeology	1

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 Kontos. More about our data sources and methodologies.