2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

SUMMARY

A degree in Criminology is not only a valuable choice, but commonly a mandatory first step for scholars wishing to pursue a career as a criminal investigator, a detective, or an investigator. Interestingly, criminology is fairly common ranking as the 60th most popular degree. Last academic year alone, there were 8,478 criminology diplomas received. In-state tuition for criminology at private universities is, on average, 3.5 times more pricey than their public rivals.

There are 194 colleges which offer criminology. 194 universities is on par with other degrees offered in the United States. If you are looking to surround yourself with other criminology majors, look at universities in California which have the most undergraduates admitted to criminology annually. Zooming out, the best region to get a degree in criminology is in the Southeast region with University of Florida, University of South Florida-Main Campus, and Old Dominion University best representing the region. Interestingly, our selection of the top conference to major in criminology is the Big Ten Conference with University of Maryland-College Park, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and Ohio State University-Main Campus representing the conference. From our comprehensive list of the best colleges, our selection for the best college for criminology is University of Pennsylvania.

The objectively best school might not actually be the 'best' school for you. There are lots more angels to consider when selecting ​university. Things like campus amenities, transportation services, and food might affect your thoughts of where to go to university. At authority.org, we have weighed the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you are interested in which criminology college is home to the best college campus, the answer is University of Maryland-College Park. If, for example, you are mostly interested in which school has the finest campus, we have a whole page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through professor reviews, student reviews, government databases, and more in order to compare every major in the United States in an unbiased and informative way. Here you can explore our comprehensive list for the universities with the best student life&nbspand from that list, our choice for the university with the best student life for criminology is University of Pennsylvania. Are you curious why? Continue scrolling to find out more about Authority's top recommendations. Many of our picks just might shock you.

If cost is a significant deciding factor in your decisions, you might be cautious about University of Pennsylvania. University of Pennsylvania&nbspis the most expensive school for criminology, at least for out of state students. We do have an entire page for the most expensive&nbspschools that might put the price tag of University of Pennsylvania&nbspinto perspective. You may also care to know that criminology is the 131st most expensive program in America, with an average expense of $35,200. To zoom out a little, the most expensive state for criminology nationally is Oregon demonstrated with a cost of $45,344 at the main college in the state Pacific University. To zoom out even further, the most expensive region for criminology is the Rocky Mountains region which is best demonstrated with University of Denver with a cost of $51,336, Regis University with a cost of $37,830, and University of Utah with a cost of $26,017.

Our cheapest region for criminology is the Southeast region which is represented by Arkansas State University-Main Campus with a cost of $13,500, University of Central Arkansas with a cost of $13,620, and University of Florida-Online with a cost of $15,000. In better news, the most affordable college for criminology is CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Our full list of the most affordable schools can be found here.

In-state learners can expect to pay about $10,000 for a degree in criminology. The price grows significantly to an average of $22,900 for an out-of-state public-school student. As such, you might be interested in our choice for the college representing the best value for criminology: University of Pennsylvania. Through this link you will see our comprehensive list for the universities we believe to be the best value&nbspin general. Bear in mind, this discussion is based on being an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when it comes to in-state tuition, but we do not know in which states any one student has residency.

Earnings for criminology students range widely, but two-years after finishing the degree students will typically make around $46,000. There is a lot of variation in salary; top earners can enjoy pay up to $78,100. Even right out of university, the lowest earning opportunities within the criminology field earn $27,000, which is an alright wage. The highest earning graduates for criminology come from University of Pennsylvania&nbspand if you are looking for schools with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.

The prevailing diversity of criminology is pretty high, coming in the 77th percentile of all programs. The school with the highest composite diversity for criminology is University of Pennsylvania&nbspand here you can find our comprehensive list of the universities which have the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of the Criminology major only ranks in the 79th percentile compared to all other majors. Racial diversity is even further below average in the 71st percentile. White students make up the largest proportion at 53% of those studying criminology. Additionally, 59% of scholars seeking a criminology degree are women.

The median score of criminology professors is 4.3 stars, a rating that is 8% above the average score for every major; which is a fairly good ranking. If you are searching for the most popular criminology professor nationally, consider looking up John Owen from California State University-Fresno. It might be shocking, but the highest ranked professors for criminology according to students are at California State University-Fresno. If we including data beyond simply rankings we find that the school with the best instructors for criminology is University of Pennsylvania. One will find an explanation of our evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, along with many of the finest professors in the U.S.

Finally, the most difficult college to get into for criminology is University of Pennsylvania. While we are unsure why you would be interested, we do have a general page of the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, here at Authority we hope you understand that approaching university with a lens only formed from superlatives can create problems. We at Authority hope you look at some of our more focused pages on different colleges and read a few of our helpful background pages on useful details to think about as your school search develops.