Ranked #5 in popularity, communication & media studies is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 19 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Communication & Media Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in North Carolina ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 2,381 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
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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor'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 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 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 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 in North Carolina list to help you make the college decision.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a great option for individuals interested in 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.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill make $9,995 more than the typical communications graduate.
It's hard to beat Elon University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. Elon is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Elon.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Elon University receive $15,284 more than the average communications grad.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies has to check out Wake Forest University. Located in the large city of Winston-Salem, Wake Forest University is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Wake Forest University earn $8,702 more than the average communications grad.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies needs to look into East Carolina University. Located in the city of Greenville, ECU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies major at East Carolina University earn $4,460 above the standard graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Raleigh, NC State is a public university with a very large student population.
Communication & Media Studies bachelor's degree recipients from North Carolina State University earn a boost of around $6,536 over the average income of communication & media studies graduates.
UNC Charlotte is a very large public university located in the city of Charlotte.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from University of North Carolina at Charlotte earn $4,881 more than the typical communications student.
UNCW is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Wilmington.
Communication & Media Studies bachelor's degree recipients from University of North Carolina at Wilmington get an earnings boost of around $3,342 above the average earnings of communication & media studies graduates.
Appalachian State is a very large public university located in the town of Boone.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Appalachian State University make $4,978 more than the average communications student.
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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
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