a bachelor's degree in criminology is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #53 out of 363 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in Indiana to determine which ones were the best for criminology students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 154 bachelor's degrees in criminology to qualified students.
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Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
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 criminology students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of criminology 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 easy is it for criminology to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminology related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for criminology students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Criminology Bachelor's Degree Schools in Indiana ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
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It's hard to beat Indiana State University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in criminology. Indiana State is a medium-sized public university located in the small city of Terre Haute.
Criminology bachelor's degree recipients from Indiana State University earn a boost of about $4,558 over the average earnings of criminology graduates.
Valparaiso University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in criminology. Located in the small suburb of Valparaiso, Valpo is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Soon after graduation, criminology bachelor's recipients typically make about $30,653 in their early 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.