2024 Best Colleges for Criminal Justice

SUMMARY

Majoring in Criminal Justice is a valuable choice and commonly a necessary first step for scholars aspiring to pursue a career as a litigation paralegal, a criminal justice lawyer, or a public safety officer. In fact, nationally, criminal justice is a very popular major choice, ranking as the 8th most popular area of study. Last year alone, there were 55,297 criminal justice diplomas received. In-state tuition for criminal justice at private colleges is, on average, 3 times more spendy than their public rivals.

With an impressive 1005 institutions offering criminal justice odds are that any colleges you are interested in will have an option for you. If you're hoping to surround yourself with other criminal justice students, consider universities in California which have the most undergrads admitted to criminal justice annually. More generally, the best region to get a degree in criminal justice is in the Southeast region with Florida State University, Liberty University, and American Public University System best representing the region. Interestingly, our selection of the top conference to major in criminal justice is the Conference USA with Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, and The University of Texas at El Paso representing the conference. From our comprehensive list of the best colleges, our belief is that the best university for criminal justice is Northeastern University.

The objectively 'best' school does not have to be the 'best' school for every student. There might be lots of facets to consider when deciding on institution. Things such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food would definitely modify one's decision on where to go to school. At Authority, we have weighed the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you want to know which criminal justice university has the top campus, the answer is Northeastern University. If you are very interested in which college is home to the best campus, we have a whole page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through student reviews, professor reviews, government databases, and more so we can compare every major in an unbiased and informative way. You can find our well researched list for the schools with the best student life&nbsphere and, from that list, our choice for the university with the best student life for criminal justice is The College of New Jersey. Curious why? Keep scrolling to discover more about our top choices. Some of our decisions will probably surprise you.

If expense is a primary influence in your decision on where to go to college, you might consider avoiding George Washington University. George Washington University&nbspappears to be our most expensive school for criminal justice, at least for out of state enrollment. That being said, we have a list of the most expensive&nbspschools that could put the expense of George Washington University&nbspinto perspective. For more context, you may be interested to know that criminal justice is the 156th most expensive major in the US, with an average associated cost of $33,100. To zoom out a little, the most costly state for criminal justice nationally is Vermont with expenses at the primary three schools amounting to $27,984 at Castleton University, equalling $41,728 at Champlain College, and costs amounting to $41,728 at Norwich University. Even more broadly, the most expensive region for criminal justice is the New England region which is best demonstrated with Quinnipiac University with a cost of $46,790, Sacred Heart University with a cost of $42,800, and Northeastern University with a cost of $52,420.

Our cheapest region for criminal justice is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by Colorado Technical University-Colorado Springs with a cost of $11,896, Aspen University with a cost of $3,600, and Colorado State University-Global Campus with a cost of $8,400. In better news, the most affordable college for criminal justice is CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Authority.org's full list of the most affordable colleges can be explored here.

In-state learners can expect to pay around $9,200 for a degree in criminal justice. That price swells by a lot to an average of $19,400 for the out-of-state public-school undergrad. On that note, our selection for the college constituting the best value for criminal justice: George Washington University. Through this link you will see our comprehensive list for the schools we see as being the best value&nbspoverall. That being said, this idea is based on out-of-state tuition costs. A discussion of value changes when in-state tuition costs are considered, as such, we are using out-of-state tuition as the baseline.

Earnings for criminal justice majors can cover a wide range, but within two-years of leaving college students will typically make around $41,100. While there is a lot of variation in salary; highest paid earners can rake in up to $80,300. Even straight out of college, the minimum earning positions within the criminal justice field make $20,000, which could be worse. The highest earning grads for criminal justice have come from Northeastern University&nbspand if you want to find the universities with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.

The overall diversity of criminal justice stands high, being within the 81st percentile of majors nationally. The college with the highest composite diversity for criminal justice is George Washington University&nbspand here you can find our general list of the colleges which have the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of Criminal Justice ranks only within the 53rd percentile of all majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, ranking in the 77th percentile. White collegians compose the largest share, 51%, of students studying criminal justice. Additionally, 55% of undergrads pursuing a criminal justice major are women.

The median rating for criminal justice's professors is 4.3 stars, a score which is 8% greater than the average score across every major; this is a fairly good score. If you are searching for the most popular criminal justice professor in the country, look no further than Douglas Klutz from The University of Alabama. It might come as a surprise, but the best rated professors for criminal justice from student rankings come from CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice. If we consider data other than simply rankings it becomes clear that the school possessing the best professors for criminal justice is Northeastern University. You can find more detail on our ever evolving ranking methodology for the best overall professors here, along with some of the best examples of professors in the U.S.

Finally, the most difficult college to get into for criminal justice is Northeastern University. While we think of this list more as a novelty, we have a general list for the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, here at Authority we do hope you understand that looking at higher education with a lens only formed from superlatives can cause issues. We hope you look at some of our more nuanced pages on individual topics and read some of Authority's background pages on beneficial details to look for as you continue your school search.