If you pursue a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #21 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 43 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of theological & ministerial studies. Combined, these schools handed out 9,872 master's degrees in theological & ministerial studies to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Theological & Ministerial Studies School for Your Master's Degree
The theology 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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to theological & ministerial studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other theological & ministerial studies students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
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 theological & ministerial studies students go into to obtain their master'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 theological & ministerial studies related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for theological & ministerial studies students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank Theological & Ministerial Studies Schools
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Theological & Ministerial Studies Master's Degree Schools ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is a great choice for students pursuing a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies. Located in the city of Kansas City, MBTS is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.
Master's recipients from the theological & ministerial studies program at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary make $3,966 more than the standard graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies has to look into Liberty University. Liberty University is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Lynchburg.
Students who graduate with their master's from the theology program report average early career wages of $50,701.
Bethel University Minnesota is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies. Bethel University Minnesota is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Saint Paul.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the theology program make around $46,813 in their early career salary.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies has to look into The Master's University and Seminary. Located in the suburb of Santa Clarita, The Master's University is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Those theological & ministerial studies students who get their master's degree from The Master's University and Seminary earn $16,070 more than the typical theology graduate.
Located in the city of Chicago, Moody Theological Seminary and Graduate School is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.
Theological & Ministerial Studies master's degree recipients from Moody Bible Institute earn a boost of about $11,037 above the average income of theological & ministerial 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).