Marketing is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #11 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 118 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for marketing students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 8,377 bachelor's degrees in marketing to qualified students.
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DEBUG: Checking offer "MS in Marketing - Marketing Research & Analytics" with relevance 0.7
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Choosing a Great Marketing School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The marketing bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality marketing 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 make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to marketing students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other marketing students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt marketing 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 marketing related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for marketing 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 Marketing Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Marketing in the Great Lakes Region
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in marketing. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
23 Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Marketing
University of Wisconsin - Madison is a good option for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in marketing. Located in the city of Madison, UW - Madison is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the marketing degree program at University of Wisconsin - Madison make $18,166 above the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
It's hard to beat University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in marketing. Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Marketing bachelor's degree recipients from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign receive an earnings boost of about $22,215 over the average earnings of marketing majors.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in marketing needs to take a look at University of Notre Dame. Located in the suburb of Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Marketing bachelor's degree recipients from University of Notre Dame earn a boost of about $16,848 over the average income of marketing majors.
Michigan State University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in marketing. Located in the small city of East Lansing, Michigan State is a public university with a very large student population.
Those marketing students who get their bachelor's degree from Michigan State University make $10,217 more than the average marketing graduate.
Ohio State is a fairly large public university located in the city of Columbus.
Bachelor's recipients from the marketing degree program at Ohio State University - Main Campus get $9,407 more than the standard college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
UC is a fairly large public university located in the city of Cincinnati.
Bachelor's recipients from the marketing degree program at University of Cincinnati - Main Campus get $3,578 above the standard college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Purdue is a very large public university located in the city of West Lafayette.
Marketing bachelor's degree recipients from Purdue University - Main Campus earn a boost of approximately $9,610 over the average earnings of marketing graduates.
Located in the medium-sized suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public university with a very large student population.
Marketing bachelor's degree recipients from Illinois State University receive an earnings boost of about $4,629 over the average income of marketing majors.
Located in the city of Toledo, University of Toledo is a public university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the marketing major at University of Toledo earn $3,948 above the average graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the small city of Eau Claire, UW - Eau Claire is a public university with a medium-sized student population.
Marketing bachelor's degree recipients from University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire receive an earnings boost of about $4,563 above the typical income of marketing graduates.
Increase revenue for your organization when you learn to incorporate targeted digital strategies and real-time analytics into your overall marketing plans. The BS in Marketing with a concentration in Digital Marketing teaches the fundamentals that can give you the edge in this dynamic field.
Gain an in-depth understanding of today's constantly evolving social media world with this specialized online bachelor's from Southern New Hampshire University.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Marketing Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes 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 marketing bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality marketing program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
