2023 Best Value Journalism Schools in District of Columbia For Those Making $0-$30k

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Best Value Journalism Schools in District of Columbia For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking - to help you make that decision.

In 2020-2021, 13,552 people earned their degree in journalism, making the major the 69th most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, journalism graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $32,953 and had an average of $23,734 in loans still to pay off.

Across District of Columbia, there were 170 journalism graduates with average earnings and debt of $42,859 and $23,438 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Journalism Schools in District of Columbia For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking looked at 3 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in journalism. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great journalism programs and cost less that schools of similar quality.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the journalism program at the school and the cost to attend the school once aid has been awarded. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

More Ways to Rank Journalism Schools

The journalism 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 “Best Value Journalism Schools in District of Columbia For Those Making $0-$30k”.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Best Value Journalism Schools in District of Columbia For Those Making $0-$30k

The colleges and universities below are the best for district of columbia journalism students whose families make $0-$30k.

Top 3 Best Value Colleges for Journalism (Income $0-$30k) in District of Columbia

1

Georgetown University
Washington, District of Columbia

#3 in overall quality

$3,077 Average Net Price

$69,885 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Journalism Schools in District of Columbia For Those Making $0-$30k that were part of this year’s ranking, Georgetown University landed the #1 spot on the list. Washington, District of Columbia is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out ’s journalism degrees to 19 students in 2020-2021.

Georgetown not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #3 on our “Best Journalism Schools in District of Columbia” list. The yearly cost to attend Georgetown is $3,077 for District of Columbia Journalism students whose families make $0-$30k.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 0.7%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 94%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Full Georgetown Journalism Report

2

George Washington University
Washington, District of Columbia

#1 in overall quality

$17,673 Average Net Price

$65,148 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend George Washington University. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Journalism Schools in District of Columbia For Those Making $0-$30k list. George Washington University is a private not-for-profit institution located in Washington, District of Columbia. The school has a large population, and it awarded 53 ’s degrees in 2020-2021.

In addition to being on our district of columbia journalism students whose families make $0-$30k list, GWU has also earned the #1 rank in our “Best Journalism Schools in District of Columbia” ranking. The yearly cost to attend George Washington University is $17,673 for district of columbia journalism students whose families make $0-$30k.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 1.3%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 88%.

Full George Washington University Journalism Report

3

American University
Washington, District of Columbia

#2 in overall quality

$21,108 Average Net Price

$50,575 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend American University. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Value Journalism Schools in District of Columbia For Those Making $0-$30k list. The American University is a private not-for-profit institution located in Washington, District of Columbia. The school has a fairly large population, and it awarded 98 ’s degrees in 2020-2021.

The American University not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #2 on our “Best Journalism Schools in District of Columbia” list. The estimated yearly cost for American University is $21,108 for District of Columbia Journalism students whose families make $0-$30k.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.7%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 85%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read more about Journalism at American University

• Best Value Colleges for Journalism (Income $0-$30k) in the Middle Atlantic Region
• Best Value Colleges for Journalism (Income $0-$30k)

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to Jfurrer.