Homeland Security is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #64 most popular master's degree program in the country. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
College Factual looked at 9 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Homeland Security Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 703 master's degrees in homeland security during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Homeland Security School for Your Master's Degree
The homeland security master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. 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 much a school focuses on homeland security students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other homeland security 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 easy is it for homeland security to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized homeland security related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for homeland security 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 Homeland Security Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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George Mason University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in homeland security. GMU is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Fairfax.
Master's recipients from the homeland security major at George Mason University make $52,660 more than the average graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Any student who is interested in a master's degree in homeland security has to take a look at Columbia Southern University. Located in the town of Orange Beach, Columbia Southern University is a private for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the homeland security program state that they receive average early career wages of $85,364.
American Public University System is a great choice for students pursuing a master's degree in homeland security. Located in the fringe town of Charles Town, American Military University is a private for-profit university with a very large student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the homeland security program make about $77,276 in their early career salary.
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.
The homeland security master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
