Theological & Ministerial Studies is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #21 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in Virginia to determine which ones were the best for theological & ministerial studies students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,402 master's degrees in theological & ministerial studies during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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 many resources a school devotes to theological & ministerial studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other theological & ministerial studies 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 much debt theological & ministerial studies students go into to obtain their master'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 theological & ministerial studies related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for theological & ministerial studies students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank Theological & Ministerial Studies Schools
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Theological & Ministerial Studies Master's Degree Schools in Virginia list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Theological & Ministerial Studies in Virginia
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies has to take a look at Liberty University. Liberty University is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Lynchburg.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the theology program earn an average of $50,701 in their early career salary.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies has to take a look at Regent University. Located in the large city of Virginia Beach, Regent is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the theology program state that they receive average early career wages of $49,840.
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).
