2025 Best Sociology Doctor's Degree Schools in Illinois

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.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for sociology students pursuing a doctor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 34 doctor's degrees in sociology during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

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 Illinois list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Sociology in Illinois

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

Top Illinois 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 pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in sociology has to look into Northwestern University. Located in the 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

Best Sociology Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Sociology Colleges in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
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	34

Majors Similar to Sociology

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Economics	117
Anthropology	34
Political Science & Government	33
General Social Sciences	6
Geography & Cartography	2

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.