SUMMARY
Majoring in Communication and Media Studies is not only a valuable choice, but frequently an essential first step for scholars aspiring to pursue a career as a marketing communications coordinator, a media communications specialist, or an event coordinator. In fact, communication and media studies is a surprisingly popular major choice, ranking as the 9th most popular major. In the last year, there were 55,113 communication and media studies diplomas received. In-state tuition for communication and media studies at private institutions is, on average, 3.7 times more spendy than their public fellows.
With an impressive 1109 universities having programs for communication and media studies chances are that any institutions you are excited about will have a degree program for you. If you're hoping to immerse yourself with other communication and media studies undergrads, consider colleges in California which have more undergraduates admitted to communication and media studies than any other state. less precisely, the best region to major in communication and media studies is in the Southeast region with Florida International University, University of South Florida-Main Campus, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill best representing the region. Interestingly, our selection of the top conference to study communication and media studies is the Big Ten Conference with Indiana University-Bloomington, Michigan State University, and Ohio State University-Main Campus representing the conference. That said, our belief is that the best school for communication and media studies is Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and here you can find our comprehensive list for the best colleges.
The objectively best school is not necessarily the 'best' school for every student. There might be many more factors to think about when selecting ​university. Features such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food would impact your decision of where to go to college. At Authority, we have evaluated the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you want to know which communication and media studies university is home to the top campus, the answer is Stanford University. If you are mostly interested in which school is home to the best campus, we have a whole list dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through government databases, professor reviews, student reviews, and more so we can compare every U.S. major in an unbiased and informative way. Here you can find our well researched list for the schools with the best student life and our selection of the school with the best student life for communication and media studies is Cornell University. Curious why? Keep scrolling to learn more about our top selections. Many of our decisions will probably shock you.
If cost is a significant deciding factor in your decision on where to go to college, you might consider avoiding University of Southern California. University of Southern California is the most expensive college for communication and media studies, at least for out of state students. We have a page for the most expensive schools that could put the expense at University of Southern California into perspective. Additionally, you may want to know that communication and media studies is the 75th most expensive degree in the US, with an average associated cost of $41,500. On a broader scale, the most expensive state for communication and media studies on our list is District of Columbia at American University, The Catholic University of America, and The Catholic University of America - the primary universities in the state - of $49,070, $46,950, and $46,950. Even more broadly, the most expensive region of the U.S. for communication and media studies is the New England region which is best demonstrated with Boston College with a cost of $56,780, Boston University with a cost of $54,720, and Brown University with a cost of $57,112.
Our cheapest region for communication and media studies is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by Brigham Young University-Idaho with a cost of $4,208, Brigham Young University-Provo with a cost of $5,790, and Colorado State University-Global Campus with a cost of $8,400. More optimistically, the most affordable university for communication and media studies is University of South Florida-Main Campus. Authority.org's entire list of the most affordable universities can be found here.
In-state students can anticipate paying in the neighborhood of $9,700 for a degree in communication and media studies. That cost balloons by a lot to an average of $21,600 for an out-of-state public-school student. On that note, our choice for the university with the best value for communication and media studies: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Through this link you can find our comprehensive list of the colleges we believe to be the best value in general. Bear in mind, this section is predicated on the assumption that you are an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when in-state tuition costs are considered, but we do not know where you live (and are not trying to collect that kind of data).
Earnings for communication and media studies students vary a lot, but within two-years of leaving college students will regularly make in the neighborhood of $41,800. While there can be much variation in pay; top earners can experience pay up to $89,400. Straight out of university, the minimum earning positions within the communication and media studies field earn $20,000, which could be worse. The highest earning grads from communication and media studies graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and if you are looking for universities with all of the highest earning graduates, Authority has that too.
The all-around diversity of communication and media studies ranks on the higher end, being in the 68th percentile of all majors. The university with the most composite diversity for communication and media studies is Massachusetts Institute of Technology and here you can find our comprehensive list for the universities which have the most diversity. The financial diversity of the Communication and Media Studies major only is within the 30th percentile of all majors. Racial diversity is greater than financial diversity, ranking in the 62nd percentile. White collegians make up the largest share at 58% of those studying communication and media studies. Additionally, 68% of scholars seeking a communication and media studies major are women.
The median ranking of communication and media studies professors is 4.2 stars, a score that is 5% greater than the median across every major; which is a good ranking. If you are curious about the most popular communication and media studies instructor in the nation, take a look at Thomas Brecheisen from The Art Institute of Las Vegas. It may be surprising, but the top rated professors for communication and media studies by student come from CUNY Bernard M Baruch College. As we consider information other than simply rankings it becomes clear that the university with the overall best professors for communication and media studies is Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You can find more detail on our evolving ranking methodology for the best overall professors here, as well as many of the finest examples of instructors in the U.S.
Finally, the hardest school to get into for communication and media studies is Stanford University. While we are unsure why you would be interested, we do have an extensive list for the hardest colleges to get into. Although, we do hope you believe that considering university with a perspective mainly derived from superlatives could be said to be the root of many of higher education's fundamental problems. We hope you look at some of our other pages on different universities and peruse a couple of our insightful background articles on beneficial details to consider as your university search develops.