Ranked #7 in popularity, criminal justice & corrections is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. 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 51 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 2,618 bachelor'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 Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of criminal justice & corrections for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality criminal justice 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 criminal justice & corrections students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of criminal justice & corrections 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 much debt criminal justice & corrections students go into to obtain their bachelor'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 schools for criminal justice & corrections students working on their bachelor's degree.
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 Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region 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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ADBLOCK #171
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Criminal Justice & Corrections in the Plains States Region
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
10 Top Plains States Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice
It is hard to beat Minnesota State University - Mankato if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the city of Mankato, Minnesota State Mankato is a public university with a large student population.
Those criminal justice & corrections students who get their bachelor's degree from Minnesota State University - Mankato receive $6,859 more than the standard criminal justice graduate.
It is difficult to beat Metropolitan State University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the city of Saint Paul, Metro State is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the criminal justice & corrections program at Metropolitan State University get $9,965 above the average graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Iowa State University is a great decision for students interested in a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the small city of Ames, Iowa State is a public university with a very large student population.
After graduation, criminal justice bachelor's recipients generally make around $41,624 in their early careers.
University of Nebraska at Omaha is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in criminal justice & corrections. Located in the city of Omaha, UNOMAHA is a public university with a large student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the criminal justice program earn an average of $38,756 in the first couple years of working.
SLU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Saint Louis.
Those criminal justice & corrections students who get their bachelor's degree from Saint Louis University earn $3,549 more than the average criminal justice student.
St. Cloud State University is a large public university located in the small city of Saint Cloud.
Those criminal justice & corrections students who get their bachelor's degree from Saint Cloud State University earn $7,252 more than the average criminal justice graduate.
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Additional Noteworthy Schools
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Criminal Justice & Corrections Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region award.
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 bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality criminal justice program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
