If you plan on getting your master's degree in communication & media studies, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #44 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 31 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Communication & Media Studies Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,328 master's degrees in communication & media studies to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Communication & Media Studies School for Your Master's Degree
The communications master'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. 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 for a Master's Degree 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 master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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 communication & media studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other communication & media studies students want to attend this school to pursue a master'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 easy is it for communication & media studies to pay back their student loans after receiving their master'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 schools for communication & media studies students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank Communication & Media Studies Schools
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Communication & Media Studies Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Any student who is interested in a master's degree in communication & media studies needs to check out University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. UNC Chapel Hill is a very large public university located in the small city of Chapel Hill.
Communication & Media Studies master's degree recipients from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill get an earnings boost of approximately $8,837 over the average income of communication & media studies majors.
It's difficult to beat University of Florida if you want to pursue a master's degree in communication & media studies. Located in the city of Gainesville, UF is a public university with a very large student population.
Communication & Media Studies master's degree recipients from University of Florida get an earnings boost of about $11,199 over the average earnings of communication & media studies graduates.
University of Georgia is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in communication & media studies. Located in the medium-sized city of Athens, UGA is a public university with a very large student population.
After graduating, communications master's recipients generally earn about $33,150 at the beginning of their careers.
UA is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Tuscaloosa.
Master's recipients from the communication & media studies major at The University of Alabama earn $12,114 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
FIU is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Miami.
Communication & Media Studies master's degree recipients from Florida International University receive an earnings boost of approximately $4,440 over the average income of communication & media studies graduates.
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 communications master'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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
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