Criminology is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #130 most popular master's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Criminology Master's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 112 master's degrees in criminology during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Criminology School for Your Master's Degree
The criminology 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to criminology students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of criminology students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for criminology 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 criminology related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for criminology 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 Criminology Master's Degree Schools in Pennsylvania list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Gain the management, leadership, data analysis and budgeting skills you need to advance in the criminal justice field with this online master's from Southern New Hampshire University.
Saint Joseph's University is a wonderful decision for individuals interested in a master's degree in criminology. Located in the large city of Philadelphia, St. Joe's is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.
Those criminology students who get their master's degree from Saint Joseph's University earn $6,912 more than the typical criminology graduate.
Every student who is interested in a master's degree in criminology needs to check out Indiana University of Pennsylvania - Main Campus. IUP is a medium-sized public university located in the distant town of Indiana.
After graduating, criminology master's recipients usually earn an average of $45,821 at the beginning of their careers.
Cabrini University is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a master's degree in criminology. Located in the large suburb of Radnor, Cabrini University is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.More information about a master’s in criminology from Cabrini University
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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 criminology 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
