Sociology is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #19 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual looked at 460 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Sociology Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 25,951 bachelor's degrees in sociology during the <nil> academic year.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Sociology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Sociology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "BA in Sociology" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "BA in Sociology" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "BSW - Social Work (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "BSW - Social Work (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "DSW - Social Work (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "DSW - Social Work (I Have a Masters)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "MSW - Social Work (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "MSW - Social Work (I Have a Bachelors)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "PhD - Social Work (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "PhD - Social Work (I Have a Masters)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Doctorate Programs (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Doctorate Programs (I Have a Masters)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Masters Programs (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Masters Programs (I Have a Bachelors)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Science & Engineering Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Science & Engineering Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Science & Engineering Diploma Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Science & Engineering Diploma Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 2
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 1 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 1
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 1 offers with relevance >= 1.0
Choosing a Great Sociology School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of sociology for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
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 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 many resources a school devotes to sociology students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of sociology 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 sociology 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 sociology related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for sociology 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 Sociology Bachelor's Degree Schools 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.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "social-sciences//sociology"
DEBUG: Checking offer "Sociology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Sociology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "BA in Sociology" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "BA in Sociology" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "BSW - Social Work (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "BSW - Social Work (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Science & Engineering Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Science & Engineering Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Science & Engineering Diploma Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Science & Engineering Diploma Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 2
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 1 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 1
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 1 offers with relevance >= 1.0
ADBLOCK #171
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Sociology in the United States
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in sociology. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
University of California - Los Angeles is a wonderful option for students interested in a bachelor's degree in sociology. Located in the city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the sociology program make about $34,121 for their early career.
It's hard to beat University of California - Berkeley if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in sociology. UC Berkeley is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Berkeley.
Those sociology students who get their bachelor's degree from University of California - Berkeley earn $6,377 more than the standard sociology graduate.
Columbia University in the City of New York is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in sociology. Located in the city of New York, Columbia is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the sociology program at Columbia University in the City of New York earn $24,144 above the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the sociology degree program at Duke University make $11,154 more than the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Boston College is a fairly large private not-for-profit college located in the city of Chestnut Hill.
Sociology bachelor's degree recipients from Boston College receive an earnings boost of about $13,694 above the typical earnings of sociology graduates.
Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston.
Sociology bachelor's degree recipients from Northwestern University get an earnings boost of about $4,005 over the typical earnings of sociology majors.
Located in the city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Sociology bachelor's degree recipients from University of Washington - Seattle Campus get an earnings boost of about $5,665 above the typical earnings of sociology majors.
Cornell is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Ithaca.
Bachelor's recipients from the sociology major at Cornell University earn $2,312 above the average graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the midsize suburb of Charlottesville, University of Virginia is a public university with a very large student population.
Sociology bachelor's degree recipients from University of Virginia - Main Campus earn a boost of approximately $11,389 over the average income of sociology graduates.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Science & Engineering Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Science & Engineering Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Science & Engineering Diploma Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Science & Engineering Diploma Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 3
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 3 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.5
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 3
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 0 offers with relevance >= 1.0
DEBUG: Backfilling with 0 offers with relevance >= 0.9
DEBUG: Backfilling with 0 offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: Backfilling with 1 offers with relevance >= 0.7
Remaining Award Winners
This list shows the remainder of the schools awarded a Best Sociology Bachelor's Degree Schools badge.
Showing in this list means the school was ranked in the top 20% of the 460 different United States sociology schools we analyzed.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Sociology Bachelor's Degree Schools 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.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).