2023 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Journalism in California

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. Our mission at College Factual is to arm you with as much information as we can to help you make that decision. Our “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Journalism Major in California” ranking is one tool we have developed to help in this regard.

Journalism is the 69th most popular major in the country with 13,552 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. 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 California, there were 1,640 journalism graduates with average earnings and debt of $33,623 and $21,695 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 45 journalism graduates with average earnings and debt of $62,974 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Journalism Major in California” ranking, we looked at 3 colleges that offer a degree in journalism. The colleges and universities that top this list are recognized because their journalism program is one of the largest majors offered at the school.

For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Journalism Major in California”.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Journalism Major in California

The following schools top our list of the Best “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Journalism Major in California”.

Top 3 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Journalism in California

1

Academy of Art University
San Francisco, California

#22 overall quality in California

$39,016 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Academy of Art University. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Journalism Major in California list. Academy of Art University is a medium-sized private for-profit school situated in San Francisco, California. It awarded 9 masters’s journalism degrees in 2020-2021.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 5.0%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Journalism at Academy of Art University

2

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California

#4 overall quality in California

$37,963 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Journalism Major in California that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Southern California landed the #2 spot on the list. University of Southern California is a private not-for-profit institution located in Los Angeles, California. The school has a large population, and it awarded 36 masters’s degrees in 2020-2021.

The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.3% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 91%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read full report on Journalism at University of Southern California

3

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, California

#3 overall quality in California

$39,356 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of California - Berkeley. The school came in at #3 for the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Journalism Major in California. UC Berkeley is a public institution located in Berkeley, California. The school has a large population, and it awarded 0 masters’s degrees in 2020-2021.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.8% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 96%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Full UC Berkeley Journalism Report

• Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Journalism in the Far Western US Region
• Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Journalism

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

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate 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.