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2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

There are about 25,350 students enrolled in Criminology in the USA.

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popularity

Above Average

Compared to national avg.

Diplomas received last year

10,344

Vs. National Avg.

-35%

popularity Rank

#90

cost

Average

Compared to national avg.

Median degree cost

$30K

Vs. National Avg.

23%

cost Rank

#140

salary

Average

Compared to national avg.

Average Salary Two Years Out of School

$43K

Vs. National Avg.

8%

salary Rank

#168

professors

Below Average

Compared to national avg.

Professor Rating

C+

Vs. National Avg.

2%

professors Rank

#220

students

Below Average

Compared to national avg.

Diversity Rating

B-

Vs. National Avg.

1%

students Rank

#219

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.

Top 25 Best Colleges for Criminology

Search for the best Criminology colleges according to your filter parameters.

A+

Rating

#1 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of California-Irvine

Irvine, CA | www.uci.edu/

30%

Acceptance

39,059

Students

#77

Ranking

$44K

Tuition

A+

Rating

#2 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of Florida

Gainesville, FL | www.ufl.edu/

31%

Acceptance

58,857

Students

#76

Ranking

$29K

Tuition

A+

Rating

#3 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA | www.upenn.edu/

9%

Acceptance

30,688

Students

#7

Ranking

$60K

Tuition

A+

Rating

#4 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Madison, WI | www.wisc.edu/

57%

Acceptance

47,831

Students

#101

Ranking

$39K

Tuition

A+

Rating

#5 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of Miami

Coral Gables, FL | www.miami.edu/

33%

Acceptance

19,971

Students

#73

Ranking

$54K

Tuition

A+

Rating

#6 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

Villanova University

Villanova, PA | www.villanova.edu/

31%

Acceptance

12,231

Students

#64

Ranking

$57K

Tuition

A

Rating

#7 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

Ohio State University-Main Campus

Columbus, OH | www.osu.edu/

68%

Acceptance

66,017

Students

#194

Ranking

$34K

Tuition

A

Rating

#8 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of South Florida

Tampa, FL | www.usf.edu/

49%

Acceptance

60,343

Students

#220

Ranking

$17K

Tuition

A+

Rating

#9 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of Maryland-College Park

College Park, MD | www.umd.edu/

51%

Acceptance

44,404

Students

#98

Ranking

$37K

Tuition

A+

Rating

#10 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

North Carolina State University at Raleigh

Raleigh, NC | www.ncsu.edu/

46%

Acceptance

40,537

Students

#136

Ranking

$29K

Tuition

A+

Rating

#11 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

Clemson University

Clemson, SC | www.clemson.edu/

62%

Acceptance

28,933

Students

#153

Ranking

$39K

Tuition

A+

Rating

#12 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of Delaware

Newark, DE | www.udel.edu/

66%

Acceptance

26,527

Students

#142

Ranking

$36K

Tuition

A+

Rating

#13 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Minneapolis, MN | https://twin-cities.umn.edu/

70%

Acceptance

63,760

Students

#159

Ranking

$33K

Tuition

F

Rating

#14 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of South Florida-St Petersburg

St. Petersburg, FL | https://www.usfsp.edu

0%

Acceptance

0

Students

#0

Ranking

$0

Tuition

A

Rating

#15 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of Iowa

Iowa City, IA | www.uiowa.edu/

84%

Acceptance

34,495

Students

#315

Ranking

$32K

Tuition

A+

Rating

#16 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

Drexel University

Philadelphia, PA | https://drexel.edu/

77%

Acceptance

27,720

Students

#161

Ranking

$56K

Tuition

B

Rating

#17 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

Mississippi State University

Mississippi State, MS | https://www.msstate.edu/

80%

Acceptance

24,449

Students

#772

Ranking

$24K

Tuition

A−

Rating

#18 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

The University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, AL | www.ua.edu/

80%

Acceptance

42,096

Students

#403

Ranking

$31K

Tuition

F

Rating

#19 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of South Florida-Sarasota-Manatee

Sarasota, FL | usfsm.edu/

0%

Acceptance

0

Students

#0

Ranking

$0

Tuition

A

Rating

#20 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of Utah

Salt Lake City, UT | www.utah.edu/

79%

Acceptance

38,335

Students

#354

Ranking

$27K

Tuition

A−

Rating

#21 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice

New York, NY | www.jjay.cuny.edu/

37%

Acceptance

19,553

Students

#467

Ranking

$15K

Tuition

A

Rating

#22 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

The University of Texas at Dallas

Richardson, TX | www.utdallas.edu/

79%

Acceptance

32,043

Students

#233

Ranking

$39K

Tuition

B

Rating

#23 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University of St Thomas

Houston, TX | https://www.stthom.edu/

96%

Acceptance

3,938

Students

#927

Ranking

$32K

Tuition

A

Rating

#24 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

DePaul University

Chicago, IL | https://www.depaul.edu/

70%

Acceptance

25,937

Students

#323

Ranking

$41K

Tuition

A

Rating

#25 2024 Best Colleges for Criminology

University at Buffalo

Buffalo, NY | www.buffalo.edu/

67%

Acceptance

35,509

Students

#264

Ranking

$28K

Tuition

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