Communication & Journalismdoctorate programs are on the lower end of the spectrum in terms of popularity. In fact, the major degree program ranks #22 out of the 36 majors we look at each year. While this may limit the number of schools that offer the degree program, there are still top-quality ones to be found.
College Factual looked at 19 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Communication & Journalism Doctor's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 685 doctor's degrees in communication & journalism to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Communication & Journalism School for Your Doctor's Degree
The communication & journalism doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality communication & journalism 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 take this into account we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their doctor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their doctor'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 & journalism students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of communication & journalism students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
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 & journalism students go into to obtain their doctor'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 & journalism related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for communication & journalism students working on their doctor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Communication & Journalism Schools
The communication & journalism 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 & Journalism Doctor's Degree Schools.
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With an online bachelor's degree in communication you'll have the opportunity to pursue a multitude of career options. From journalism and social media, to public relations, advertising and mass media, earning your BA in communication will allow you to strategize and communicate your ideas.
Effective communicators are always in demand, no matter the industry. The Master's in Communication degree from Southern New Hampshire University is a cutting-edge program designed for forward-thinking professionals.
Explore the digital frontier as it relates to today's communications strategies with this specialized online bachelor's from Southern New Hampshire University.
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).