Urban Studies isn't the most popular bachelor's program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #163 in popularity out of 363 majors in the country. 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.
College Factual looked at 2 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Urban Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 78 bachelor's degrees in urban studies during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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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
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 urban studies students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of urban studies students who choose to seek a bachelor'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 much debt urban studies 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 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 bachelor'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 Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region 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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Cleveland State University is a good decision for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in urban studies. Cleveland State University is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Cleveland.
Soon after graduation, urban studies bachelor's recipients typically earn about $38,929 at the beginning of their careers.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in urban studies needs to check out Wayne State University. Located in the large city of Detroit, Wayne State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Urban Studies bachelor's degree recipients from Wayne State University receive an earnings boost of about $2,441 over the typical income of urban studies graduates.
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).
