Communication & Media Studies is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #5 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.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 17 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Communication & Media Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in Minnesota ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 592 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. 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 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 complete 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
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 Minnesota list to help you make the college decision.
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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It's hard to beat Minnesota State University - Mankato if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. Located in the city of Mankato, Minnesota State Mankato is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Soon after graduating, communications bachelor's recipients typically make an average of $39,798 in the first five years of their career.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies needs to check out Saint Cloud State University. St. Cloud State University is a fairly large public university located in the city of Saint Cloud.
After graduation, communications bachelor's recipients generally make about $40,279 in the first five years of their career.
Winona State University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. Winona State is a medium-sized public university located in the distant town of Winona.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the communications program earn about $38,197 in their early career salary.
Located in the medium-sized suburb of Saint Joseph, CSB is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies degree program at College of Saint Benedict earn $4,071 above the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Saint Paul, UST MN is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies program at University of St Thomas Minnesota make $3,469 above the typical college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the fringe town of Saint Peter, Gustavus Adolphus is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Gustavus Adolphus College earn $8,443 more than the typical 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).