Communication & Media Studies is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #5 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual looked at 99 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Communication & Media Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 7,910 bachelor's degrees in communication & media studies to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Communication & Media Studies School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of communication & media studies for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on communication & media studies students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other communication & media studies students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt communication & media studies students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized communication & media studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for communication & media studies students working on their bachelor's degree.
The communications 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 Communication & Media Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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Featured Communication & Media Studies Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
With an online bachelor's degree in communication you'll have the opportunity to pursue a multitude of career options. From journalism and social media, to public relations, advertising and mass media, earning your BA in communication will allow you to strategize and communicate your ideas.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Communication & Media Studies in the Great Lakes Region
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
14 Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Communications
Northwestern University is a good option for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies program at Northwestern University earn $15,072 more than the standard college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
It is hard to beat University of Michigan - Ann Arbor if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. Located in the midsize city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Communication & Media Studies bachelor's degree recipients from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor get an earnings boost of about $12,243 above the typical earnings of communication & media studies graduates.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies needs to look into University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. UIUC is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Champaign.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies program at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign get $5,143 above the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
It is hard to beat University of Wisconsin - Madison if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in communication & media studies. UW - Madison is a fairly large public university located in the city of Madison.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies major at University of Wisconsin - Madison make $2,488 more than the typical graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Michigan State is a very large public university located in the city of East Lansing.
Communication & Media Studies bachelor's degree recipients from Michigan State University get an earnings boost of about $3,589 over the typical earnings of communication & media studies graduates.
Located in the city of Bloomington, IU Bloomington is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies major at Indiana University - Bloomington get $2,191 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the small city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies program at Purdue University - Main Campus make $4,056 more than the average college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of Columbus, Ohio State is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Ohio State University - Main Campus make $3,835 more than the typical communications grad.
Located in the medium-sized city of Dayton, UDayton is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Dayton earn $6,338 more than the average communications graduate.
Located in the city of Cincinnati, UC is a public university with a very large student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Cincinnati - Main Campus earn $3,143 more than the average communications graduate.
Illinois State is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized suburb of Normal.
Bachelor's recipients from the communication & media studies major at Illinois State University earn $4,127 above the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the small suburb of Granville, Denison is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Those communication & media studies students who get their bachelor's degree from Denison University make $4,615 more than the standard communications graduate.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Communication & Media Studies Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region 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 communication & media studies for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
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