2023 Most Popular Master’s Degree Colleges for Criminal Justice in Massachusetts

With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. Our mission at College Factual is to arm you with as much information as we can to help you make that decision. Our “Most Well Attended Criminal Justice Major in Massachusetts for a Master’s” ranking is one tool we have developed to help in this regard.

In 2020-2021, 32,891 people earned their degree in criminal justice, making the major the 27th most popular in the United States.

Across Massachusetts, there were 852 criminal justice graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 202 criminal justice graduates with average earnings and debt of $64,084 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Most Well Attended Criminal Justice Major in Massachusetts for a Master’s” ranking, we looked at 6 colleges that offer a degree in criminal justice. To top this list, a school must have a successful criminal justice program that graduates more students in the field than other colleges that offer the same major.

See our ranking methodology to learn more.

One Size Does Not Fit All

When choosing the right school for you, it’s important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we’ve created a number of major-specific rankings, including this “Most Well Attended Criminal Justice Major in Massachusetts for a Master’s” list to help you make the college decision.

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. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Most Well Attended Criminal Justice Major in Massachusetts for a Master’s

The following schools top our list of the Best “Most Well Attended Criminal Justice Major in Massachusetts for a Master’s”.

Top 6 Most Popular Master’s Degree Colleges for Criminal Justice in Massachusetts

1

University of Massachusetts - Lowell
Lowell, Massachusetts

#23 overall quality in Massachusetts

Out of the 6 schools in the Most Well Attended Criminal Justice Major in Massachusetts for a Master’s that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Massachusetts - Lowell landed the #1 spot on the list. Lowell, Massachusetts is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out masters’s criminal justice degrees to 98 students in 2020-2021.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 3.5%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Criminal Justice at University of Massachusetts - Lowell

2

Anna Maria College
Paxton, Massachusetts

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Anna Maria College. The school came in at #2 for the Most Well Attended Criminal Justice Major in Massachusetts for a Master’s. Anna Maria is a private not-for-profit institution located in Paxton, Massachusetts. The school has a small population, and it awarded 48 masters’s degrees in 2020-2021.

Read full report on Criminal Justice at Anna Maria College

3

Curry College
Milton, Massachusetts

Out of the 6 schools in the Most Well Attended Criminal Justice Major in Massachusetts for a Master’s that were part of this year’s ranking, Curry College landed the #3 spot on the list. Curry is a small school located in Milton, Massachusetts that handed out 23 masters’s criminal justice degrees in 2020-2021.

Read full report on Criminal Justice at Curry College

4

Merrimack College
North Andover, Massachusetts

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Merrimack College. The school came in at #4 for the Most Well Attended Criminal Justice Major in Massachusetts for a Master’s. North Andover, Massachusetts is the setting for this medium-sized institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out masters’s criminal justice degrees to 22 students in 2020-2021.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 3.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Criminal Justice at Merrimack

5

Salem State University
Salem, Massachusetts

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Salem State University. The school came in at #5 for the Most Well Attended Criminal Justice Major in Massachusetts for a Master’s. This medium-sized school is located in Salem, Massachusetts, and it awarded 11 masters’s criminal justice degrees in 2020-2021.

Full Salem State Criminal Justice Report

6

Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts

#5 overall quality in Massachusetts

With a ranking of #6, Boston University did quite well on the 2023 Most Well Attended Criminal Justice Major in Massachusetts for a Master’s list. This large school is located in Boston, Massachusetts, and it awarded 0 masters’s criminal justice degrees in 2020-2021.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 92%. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.4% 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 undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one.

Full Boston University Criminal Justice Report

• Most Popular Master’s Degree Colleges for Criminal Justice in the New England Region
• Most Popular Master’s Degree Colleges for Criminal Justice

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.