Urban Studies is about average in terms of popularity for master's degrees programs. That is, it ranks #171 out of the 343 majors across the country that we analyze each year. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 4 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Urban Studies Master's Degree Schools in Massachusetts ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 56 master's degrees in urban studies to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Urban Studies School for Your Master's Degree
The urban studies 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. 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 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.
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 master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master'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 urban studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of urban studies students who choose to seek a master'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 urban studies 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 urban studies related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for urban studies students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Urban Studies Master's Degree Schools in Massachusetts ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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It is difficult to beat Tufts University if you want to pursue a master's degree in urban studies. Tufts is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Medford.
Soon after graduation, urban studies master's recipients generally earn about $64,224 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.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
by our College Data Analytics Team
The urban studies 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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
