If you pursue a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #5 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 42 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Communication & Media Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the New England Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 2,721 bachelor's degrees in communication & media studies to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Communication & Media Studies School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The communications bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality communications program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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 communication & media studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of communication & media studies students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
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 easy is it for communication & media studies 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 communication & media studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for communication & media studies students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Communication & Media Studies Schools
The communications school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Communication & Media Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the New England Region.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
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It's difficult to beat Northeastern University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. Northeastern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Boston.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Northeastern University earn $11,785 more than the typical communications student.
It's difficult to beat Boston College if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. Boston College is a fairly large private not-for-profit college located in the small city of Chestnut Hill.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies degree program at Boston College earn $19,482 more than the typical college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies has to look into University of Connecticut. Located in the town of Storrs, UCONN is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies degree program at University of Connecticut make $4,793 above the typical college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Boston University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. Boston U is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Boston.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies program at Boston University earn $11,669 above the average graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Fairfield U is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Fairfield.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Fairfield University receive $10,997 more than the typical communications graduate.
UNH is a large public university located in the town of Durham.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies major at University of New Hampshire - Main Campus earn $7,871 above the typical college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Boston, Emerson is a private not-for-profit college with a moderately-sized student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies major at Emerson College get $8,428 more than the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
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).