2024 Best Colleges for Urban Studies

SUMMARY

Choosing to study Urban Studies is a valuable choice and ordinarily a mandatory first step for pupils wanting to enter a career as a transportation planner, a materials planner, or an urban geography planner. In fact, urban studies is an uncommon degree ranking as the 207th most popular major. Last year, there were 1,102 urban studies graduates. In-state tuition for urban studies at private colleges is, on average, 4.7 times more pricey than their public counterparts.

With only 102 schools offering this degree there might be limited options as to the institutions you can choose from. If you're looking to surround yourself with other urban studies majors, consider looking at schools in California which have more undergrads admitted to urban studies than any other state. More generally, the best region to major in urban studies is in the Far West region with University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Irvine, and University of Washington-Tacoma Campus best representing the region. Interestingly, our pick of the top conference to major in urban studies is the Ivy League with Barnard College, University of Pennsylvania, and Brown University representing the conference. On that topic, our belief is that the best university for urban studies is Stanford University, and here you can find our comprehensive list for the best colleges.

The 'best' school is not necessarily the 'best' school for every student. There might be lots of factors to weigh when deciding on institution. Features like campus amenities, transportation services, and food would definitely refashion your thoughts on which school to attend. At Authority, we've evaluated the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you want to know which urban studies university has the top campus, the winner is New York University. If, for example, you are very interested in which university has the top campus, we have a whole list dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through government databases, student reviews, professor reviews, and more to compare every major in an unbiased and informative way. You can explore our well researched list for the universities with the best student life&nbsphere and, from that list, our pick for the university with the best student life for urban studies is Barnard College. Curious why? Keep scrolling to find out more about Authority's top recommendations. Some of our picks might surprise you.

If cost is a significant factor in your choice of where you attend university, you might be cautious about Columbia University in the City of New York. Columbia University in the City of New York&nbspis the most expensive school for urban studies, at least regarding out of state enrollment. We do have a page for the most expensive&nbspcolleges that might put the expense of Columbia University in the City of New York&nbspinto perspective. For more context, you may want to know that urban studies is the 174th most expensive degree in the nation, with an average bill of $32,100. On a broader scale, the most expensive state for urban studies nationally is Rhode Island with expenses at the primary college, Brown University, of $57,112. Even more broadly, the most expensive region for urban studies is the New England region which is best demonstrated with Trinity College with a cost of $56,380, University of Connecticut with a cost of $36,466, and Brown University with a cost of $57,112.

Our cheapest region for urban studies is the Southeast region which is represented by College of Charleston with a cost of $70, Tennessee State University with a cost of $20,574, and Virginia Commonwealth University with a cost of $32,825. In better news, the most affordable school for urban studies is CUNY Hunter College. Authority.org's entire list of the most affordable universities can be explored here.

In-state students can expect to pay around $11,500 for a degree in urban studies. The cost balloons dramatically to an average of $27,200 for the out-of-state public-school student. Our choice for the school representing the best value for urban studies: Stanford University. Here you can see our comprehensive list for the colleges we see as being the best value&nbspoverall. Bear in mind, this section is based on the assumption that you are an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when it comes to in-state tuition, but as we do not know what state(s) you might qualify for in-state tuition, we are approaching this discussion through out-of-state tuition costs.

Earnings for urban studies majors can vary, but within two years finishing the degree graduates will typically earn around $46,900. There is a lot of variation in earnings potential; highest paid earners can experience pay up to $85,100. Right out of college, the lowest end jobs within the urban studies field make $26,100, which isn't that bad. The top earning graduates from urban studies have come from Stanford University&nbspand if you are looking for colleges with all of the highest earning graduates, Authority has that too.

The general diversity of urban studies stands high, coming within the 83rd percentile of majors nationally. The school with the most composite diversity for urban studies is New York University&nbspand here you can find our comprehensive list for the colleges which have the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of the Urban Studies major only ranks within the 60th percentile of all majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, ranking in the 78th percentile. White students make up the largest proportion at 53% of students studying urban studies. Additionally, 51% of scholars pursuing an urban studies major are men.

The median rating of urban studies professors is 4 stars, a rating that is exactly the average across all majors; this is a fine. If you are searching for the most popular urban studies instructor in the nation, look no further than Robert Cacciatore from CUNY Hunter College. This might come as a shock, but the best rated instructors for urban studies from student rankings come from CUNY Queens College. If we including information other than basic rankings we find that the college possessing the overall best instructors for urban studies is Stanford University. You will find more detail on our ever evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, as well as some of the finest examples of instructors in the country.

Finally, the hardest college to get into for urban studies is Stanford University. While we are unsure why you would be interested, we have a comprehensive page of the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, here at Authority we do hope you understand that considering higher education from examples mainly shaped by superlatives could cause issues. We hope you look at some of our other pages on individual universities and read a few of our insightful background pages on useful things to think about as you continue your university search.