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.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 540 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for communication & media studies students pursuing a bachelor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 44,674 bachelor's degrees in communication & media studies during the <nil> academic year.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Media Communication (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Media Communication (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 1
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 1 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 1
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 0 offers with relevance >= 1.0
DEBUG: Backfilling with 0 offers with relevance >= 0.9
DEBUG: Backfilling with 1 offers with relevance >= 0.8
Choosing a Great Communication & Media Studies School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of communication & media studies for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
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 communication & media studies students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other communication & media studies students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor'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 communication & media 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 communication & media studies related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for communication & media studies students working on their bachelor's degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Communication & Media Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools list to help you make the college decision.
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.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "communication-journalism-media//communication-media-studies"
DEBUG: Checking offer "Media Communication (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Media Communication (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 1
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 1 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 1
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 0 offers with relevance >= 1.0
DEBUG: Backfilling with 0 offers with relevance >= 0.9
DEBUG: Backfilling with 1 offers with relevance >= 0.8
ADBLOCK #171
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Communication & Media Studies in the United States
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies needs to take a look at University of Southern California. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies program at University of Southern California get $12,451 above the typical graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
It's hard to beat Cornell University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. Located in the small city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies program at Cornell University make $26,982 above the standard college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Northwestern University is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Northwestern University receive $17,010 more than the average communications graduate.
It's difficult to beat University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. Located in the small city of Chapel Hill, UNC Chapel Hill is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies major at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill get $8,148 above the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Located in the city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies major at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor get $15,356 more than the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Villanova is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Villanova.
Communication & Media Studies bachelor's degree recipients from Villanova University earn a boost of around $17,094 above the typical earnings of communication & media studies graduates.
UIUC is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Champaign.
Communication & Media Studies bachelor's degree recipients from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign get an earnings boost of around $2,608 above the typical income of communication & media studies majors.
UPenn is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Philadelphia.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies major at University of Pennsylvania make $17,822 above the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the suburb of College Park, UMCP is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Maryland - College Park make $8,496 more than the typical communications student.
University of Arizona is a very large public university located in the large city of Tucson.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies program at University of Arizona get $7,793 more than the typical college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
UCSB is a fairly large public university located in the midsize suburb of Santa Barbara.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from University of California - Santa Barbara receive $11,398 more than the standard communications graduate.
Texas A&M College Station is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of College Station.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University - College Station earn $8,095 more than the average communications student.
UC Davis is a fairly large public university located in the small suburb of Davis.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies degree program at University of California - Davis earn $7,369 more than the average graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the large city of Boston, Northeastern is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Northeastern University receive $12,265 more than the average communications graduate.
UW - Madison is a very large public university located in the large city of Madison.
Communication & Media Studies bachelor's degree recipients from University of Wisconsin - Madison get an earnings boost of around $2,086 over the average income of communication & media studies majors.
Located in the city of Boulder, CU - Boulder is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Communication & Media Studies bachelor's degree recipients from University of Colorado Boulder earn a boost of around $4,538 above the average earnings of communication & media studies graduates.
Located in the city of Tempe, ASU - Tempe is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies major at Arizona State University - Tempe earn $9,371 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the city of Chestnut Hill, Boston College is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.
Communication & Media Studies bachelor's degree recipients from Boston College earn a boost of approximately $19,962 over the typical income of communication & media studies graduates.
UCONN is a very large public university located in the fringe town of Storrs.
Communication & Media Studies bachelor's degree recipients from University of Connecticut get an earnings boost of around $5,273 above the typical earnings of communication & media studies majors.
UT Austin is a very large public university located in the large city of Austin.
Communication & Media Studies bachelor's degree recipients from The University of Texas at Austin receive an earnings boost of approximately $8,648 over the typical earnings of communication & media studies majors.
UW Seattle is a very large public university located in the large city of Seattle.
Communication & Media Studies bachelor's degree recipients from University of Washington - Seattle Campus receive an earnings boost of about $9,438 over the typical earnings of communication & media studies majors.
Located in the city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies degree program at University of California - Berkeley make $8,496 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the large city of Boston, Boston U is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Communication & Media Studies bachelor's degree recipients from Boston University earn a boost of approximately $12,149 above the average earnings of communication & media studies graduates.
DEBUG: No relevant offers, showing generic ESYOH widget
Additional Award Winners
This list shows the remainder of the colleges awarded a Best Communication & Media Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools badge.
Showing in this list means the college was ranked in the top 20% of the 540 different United States communication & media studies schools we analyzed.
Here are some additional great schools for Communication & Media Studies students that almost earned our Best Communication & Media Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools 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).
Your choice of communication & media studies for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
,_Helsinki_Finland_(11643271925).jpg){kind=link}