Ranked #24 in popularity, communication sciences is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 5 schools in Alabama to determine which ones were the best for communication sciences students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 156 master's degrees in communication sciences to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Communication Sciences School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of communication sciences for getting your master'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
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 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 master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on communication sciences students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other communication sciences 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 much debt communication sciences students go into to obtain their master'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 sciences related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for communication sciences students working on their master's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Communication Sciences Master's Degree Schools in Alabama list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Any student who is interested in a master's degree in communication sciences needs to check out Auburn University. Auburn is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Auburn.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the communication sciences program earn around $49,963 in their early career salary.
Samford University is a great decision for individuals interested in a master's degree in communication sciences. Located in the large suburb of Birmingham, Samford is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
After graduation, communication sciences master's recipients usually earn around $47,835 at the beginning of their careers.
The University of Alabama is a good decision for individuals interested in a master's degree in communication sciences. UA is a fairly large public university located in the city of Tuscaloosa.
Communication Sciences master's degree recipients from The University of Alabama earn a boost of approximately $6,288 above the average income of communication sciences graduates.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in communication sciences has to look into University of South Alabama. USA is a large public university located in the medium-sized city of Mobile.
Communication Sciences master's degree recipients from University of South Alabama earn a boost of approximately $5,465 above the typical earnings of communication sciences 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).