If you pursue a doctor's degree in theological & ministerial studies, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #18 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 looked at 2 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Theological & Ministerial Studies Doctor's Degree Schools in Virginia ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 472 doctor's degrees in theological & ministerial studies during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their doctor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their doctor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on theological & ministerial studies students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other theological & ministerial studies students want to attend this school to pursue a doctor's degree.
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 theological & ministerial studies students go into to obtain their doctor'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 full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for theological & ministerial studies students working on their doctor's degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Theological & Ministerial Studies Doctor's Degree Schools in Virginia list to help you make the college decision.
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Liberty University is a great choice for individuals pursuing a doctor's degree in theological & ministerial studies. Located in the small city of Lynchburg, Liberty University is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Soon after graduating, theology doctorate recipients typically make about $56,551 at the beginning of their 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).
