2025 Best Social Sciences Doctor's Degree Schools in North Carolina

a doctor's degree in social sciences is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #10 out of 36 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in North Carolina to determine which ones were the best for social sciences students pursuing a doctor's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 116 doctor's degrees in social sciences during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of doctorate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their doctor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on social sciences students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of social sciences students who choose to seek a doctor'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 social sciences to pay back their student loans after receiving their doctor's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized social sciences related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for social sciences students working on their doctor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Social Sciences Schools

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Social Sciences Doctor's Degree Schools in North Carolina list, to help you choose the best school for you.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Social Sciences in North Carolina

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in social sciences.

Top North Carolina Schools for a Doctorate in Social Sciences

1

Duke University
Durham, NC

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

43 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat Duke University if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in social sciences. Duke is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Durham.More information about a doctorate in social sciences from Duke University

2

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

51 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in social sciences. Located in the city of Chapel Hill, UNC Chapel Hill is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in social sciences from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Best Social Sciences Colleges in the Southeast Region

Explore all the Best Social Sciences Colleges in the Southeast Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	29	106
Virginia	29	85
Georgia	28	73
Mississippi	28	17
South Carolina	28	25
Kentucky	26	34
Alabama	25	17
Tennessee	25	41
Louisiana	25	31
Arkansas	23	2
West Virginia	20	12

View All Rankings >

Social Sciences Majors to Study

Major	Annual Graduates
Economics	39
Political Science & Government	29
Sociology	21
Geography & Cartography	15
Anthropology	12

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Theology & Religious Vocations	142
English Language & Literature	37
Foreign Languages & Linguistics	23
Communication & Journalism	22
Philosophy & Religious Studies	17
History	17
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	9
Area, Ethnic, Culture, & Gender Studies	4

Notes and References

• 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.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to AndrГ© KГјnzelmann. More about our data sources and methodologies.