If you pursue a master's degree in criminal justice & corrections, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #30 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 4 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Master's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 281 master's degrees in criminal justice & corrections during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Criminal Justice & Corrections School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of criminal justice & corrections for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality criminal justice program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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 criminal justice & corrections students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of criminal justice & corrections students who choose to seek a master'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 much debt criminal justice & corrections 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 criminal justice & corrections related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for criminal justice & corrections 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 Criminal Justice & Corrections Master's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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It is difficult to beat University of Nebraska at Omaha if you want to pursue a master's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the city of Omaha, UNOMAHA is a public university with a large student population.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the criminal justice program make an average of $53,038 in their early career salary.
Concordia University, Saint Paul is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Concordia University, Saint Paul is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Saint Paul.
Criminal Justice & Corrections master's degree recipients from Concordia University, Saint Paul earn a boost of about $33,036 above the typical earnings of criminal justice & corrections majors.
Columbia College is a good decision for individuals interested in a master's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Columbia College Missouri is a medium-sized private not-for-profit college located in the medium-sized city of Columbia.
After graduating, criminal justice master's recipients generally earn about $46,087 at the beginning of their careers.
Wichita State University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in criminal justice & corrections. WSU is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Wichita.
Soon after graduation, criminal justice master's recipients usually earn an average of $49,924 at the beginning of their careers.
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.
Your choice of criminal justice & corrections for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality criminal justice program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
