2025 Best Urban Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region

Urban Studies isn't the most popular bachelor's program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #163 in popularity out of 363 majors in the country. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.

College Factual looked at 2 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Urban Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 78 bachelor's degrees in urban studies during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’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 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 urban studies students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of urban studies students who choose to seek a bachelor'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 urban studies students go into to obtain their bachelor'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 urban studies related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for urban studies students working on their bachelor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Urban Studies Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Urban Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

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 Urban Studies in the Great Lakes Region

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in urban studies.

Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Urban Studies

1

Cleveland State University
Cleveland, OH

29 Annual Graduates

$38,929 Median Starting Salary

Cleveland State University is a good choice for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in urban studies. Cleveland State University is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Cleveland.

Soon after graduating, urban studies bachelor's recipients usually make about $38,929 in their early careers.

More information about a bachelor’s in urban studies from Cleveland State University

2

Wayne State University
Detroit, MI

11 Annual Graduates

$43,811 Median Starting Salary

Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in urban studies has to take a look at Wayne State University. Located in the large city of Detroit, Wayne State is a public university with a very large student population.

Urban Studies bachelor's degree recipients from Wayne State University earn a boost of around $2,441 over the typical income of urban studies majors.

More information about a bachelor’s in urban studies from Wayne State University

Best Urban Studies Colleges by State

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Michigan	261	20
Ohio	252	71
Illinois	241	11
Wisconsin	213	8

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Urban Studies

One of 13 majors within the Social Sciences area of study, Urban Studies has other similar majors worth exploring.

Urban Studies Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Urban Studies/Affairs	78

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Economics	5,259
Political Science & Government	5,015
Sociology	2,344
Anthropology	971
International Relations & National Security	810
Geography & Cartography	487
General Social Sciences	420
Sociology & Anthropology	93
Other Social Sciences	93
Archeology	66

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 Andrew Bossi. More about our data sources and methodologies.