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 10 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of theological & ministerial studies. Combined, these schools handed out 1,393 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 good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of different 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
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 Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region.
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University of Notre Dame is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies. Notre Dame is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Notre Dame.
Soon after graduation, theology master's recipients generally earn around $43,439 at the beginning of their careers.
It is difficult to beat Moody Bible Institute if you want to pursue a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies. Located in the large 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 around $10,528 above the average earnings of theological & ministerial studies majors.
Trinity International University - Illinois is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies. TIU Illinois is a fairly small private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Deerfield.
Master's students who receive their degree from the theology program earn around $50,178 in the first couple years of their career.
IWU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the rural area of Marion.
Theological & Ministerial Studies master's degree recipients from Indiana Wesleyan University - National & Global get an earnings boost of around $5,757 over the average earnings of theological & ministerial studies graduates.
Located in the large suburb of Wheaton, Wheaton College Illinois is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Those theological & ministerial studies students who get their master's degree from Wheaton College Illinois receive $4,707 more than the standard theology grad.
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 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:
