Sociology is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #19 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 89 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Sociology Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 3,747 bachelor's degrees in sociology to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Sociology School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The sociology bachelor'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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
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 - How many other sociology students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor'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 sociology 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 sociology related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for sociology 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 Sociology Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region 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 Sociology in the Middle Atlantic Region
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in sociology. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
17 Top Middle Atlantic Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Sociology
Columbia University in the City of New York is a great choice for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in sociology. Columbia is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York.
Bachelor's recipients from the sociology program at Columbia University in the City of New York make $24,385 above the standard graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Cornell University is a good option for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in sociology. Located in the city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the sociology degree program at Cornell University earn $2,553 more than the standard graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
It is difficult to beat University of Maryland - College Park if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in sociology. Located in the large suburb of College Park, UMCP is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the sociology program make about $34,150 for their early career.
Georgetown is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Washington.
Bachelor's recipients from the sociology program at Georgetown University get $5,923 above the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of Washington, The American University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the sociology major at American University make $5,963 more than the typical graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Barnard is a small private not-for-profit college located in the city of New York.
Bachelor's recipients from the sociology degree program at Barnard College get $14,059 above the average college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Rest of the Top Best Sociology Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region
Honorable Mentions
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Sociology Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region award.
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).
The sociology bachelor'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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
