Communication Sciences is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #24 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.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 6 schools in Virginia to determine which ones were the best for communication sciences students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 153 master's degrees in communication sciences during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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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. 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 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 Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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 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 Virginia list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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University of Virginia - Main Campus is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in communication sciences. Located in the midsize suburb of Charlottesville, University of Virginia is a public university with a very large student population.
Those communication sciences students who get their master's degree from University of Virginia - Main Campus make $4,669 more than the average communication sciences student.
It is hard to beat James Madison University if you want to pursue a master's degree in communication sciences. JMU is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Harrisonburg.
Master's students who receive their degree from the communication sciences program earn around $60,393 for their early career.
It's hard to beat Radford University if you want to pursue a master's degree in communication sciences. Radford is a moderately-sized public university located in the fringe town of Radford.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the communication sciences program earn an average of $53,735 for their early career.
Any student who is interested in a master's degree in communication sciences needs to take a look at Old Dominion University. Located in the medium-sized city of Norfolk, Old Dominion is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's recipients from the communication sciences major at Old Dominion University earn $6,215 more than the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
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 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
