Ranked #18 in popularity, theological & ministerial studies is one of the most sought-after doctor's degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 9 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for theological & ministerial studies students pursuing a doctor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 1,871 doctor's degrees in theological & ministerial studies to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Theological & Ministerial Studies School for Your Doctor's Degree
The theology doctor'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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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 many resources a school devotes to theological & ministerial studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of theological & ministerial studies 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 theological & ministerial studies 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 theological & ministerial studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for theological & ministerial studies students working on their doctor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Theological & Ministerial Studies Schools
The theology school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Theological & Ministerial Studies Doctor's Degree Schools.
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Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in theological & ministerial studies. Located in the large city of Kansas City, MBTS is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.
Those theological & ministerial studies students who get their doctor's degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary make $17,956 more than the typical theology student.
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).
The theology doctor'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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
