If you pursue a degree in communications, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #67 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual looked at 163 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Communications Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 12,001 degrees in communications during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Your choice of communications school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for communications schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
The communication arts school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Communications Schools.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for Communications in the United States
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the communication arts degrees they offer, see the list below. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Every student pursuing a degree in communications needs to take a look at Cornell University. Located in the city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #22 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Cornell is a great university overall.
There were roughly 99 communications students who graduated with this degree at Cornell in the most recent data year.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in communications. UIUC is a fairly large public university located in the city of Champaign. A Best Colleges rank of #34 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were roughly 291 communications students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent year we have data available.
It's hard to beat University of California - Davis if you wish to pursue a degree in communications. UC Davis is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Davis. A Best Colleges rank of #52 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UC Davis is a great university overall.
There were about 300 communications students who graduated with this degree at UC Davis in the most recent data year.
University of California - Santa Barbara is a wonderful option for students interested in a degree in communications. UCSB is a very large public university located in the suburb of Santa Barbara. A Best Colleges rank of #45 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UCSB is a great university overall.
There were approximately 469 communications students who graduated with this degree at UCSB in the most recent year we have data available.
Texas A&M College Station is a fairly large public university located in the city of College Station. A Best Colleges rank of #44 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Texas A&M College Station is a great university overall.
There were roughly 471 communications students who graduated with this degree at Texas A&M College Station in the most recent data year.
Located in the large city of La Jolla, UCSD is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #38 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UCSD is a great university overall.
There were approximately 271 communications students who graduated with this degree at UCSD in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the small city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #40 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Purdue is a great university overall.
There were approximately 149 communications students who graduated with this degree at Purdue in the most recent data year.
UMass Amherst is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Amherst. A Best Colleges rank of #81 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UMass Amherst is a great university overall.
There were about 325 communications students who graduated with this degree at UMass Amherst in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Waco, Baylor is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. This university ranks 7th out of 115 colleges for overall quality in the state of Texas.
There were approximately 174 communications students who graduated with this degree at Baylor in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Winston-Salem, Wake Forest University is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. This university ranks 4th out of 93 schools for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were roughly 156 communications students who graduated with this degree at Wake Forest University in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Boston, Boston U is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #54 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Boston U is a great university overall.
There were about 456 communications students who graduated with this degree at Boston U in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Washington, GWU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #49 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means GWU is a great university overall.
There were about 47 communications students who graduated with this degree at GWU in the most recent year we have data available.
Fordham U is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Bronx. This university ranks 10th out of 142 schools for overall quality in the state of New York.
There were roughly 119 communications students who graduated with this degree at Fordham U in the most recent year we have data available.
Marist is a medium-sized private not-for-profit college located in the large suburb of Poughkeepsie. This college ranks 30th out of 142 schools for overall quality in the state of New York.
There were roughly 172 communications students who graduated with this degree at Marist in the most recent year we have data available.
Marquette is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Milwaukee. This university ranks 2nd out of 46 colleges for overall quality in the state of Wisconsin.
There were roughly 44 communications students who graduated with this degree at Marquette in the most recent data year.
Pepperdine is a large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Malibu. A Best Colleges rank of #94 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Pepperdine is a great university overall.
There were approximately 13 communications students who graduated with this degree at Pepperdine in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Worcester, Clark is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 23rd out of 63 colleges for overall quality in the state of Massachusetts.
There were approximately 34 communications students who graduated with this degree at Clark in the most recent year we have data available.
Concordia College Moorhead is a small private not-for-profit college located in the midsize suburb of Moorhead. This college ranks 20th out of 52 colleges for overall quality in the state of Minnesota.
There were approximately 21 communications students who graduated with this degree at Concordia College Moorhead in the most recent data year.
Located in the large suburb of Kent, Kent State is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 14th out of 96 schools for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were roughly 176 communications students who graduated with this degree at Kent State in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Chicago, UIC is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 6th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 126 communications students who graduated with this degree at UIC in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Saint Cloud, St. Cloud State University is a public university with a large student population. This university ranks 24th out of 52 schools for overall quality in the state of Minnesota.
There were roughly 46 communications students who graduated with this degree at St. Cloud State University in the most recent year we have data available.
UND is a large public university located in the small city of Grand Forks. This university ranks 1st out of 12 schools for overall quality in the state of North Dakota.
There were roughly 104 communications students who graduated with this degree at UND in the most recent data year.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Communications Schools award.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
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Your choice of communications school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for communications schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
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