Ranked #76 in popularity, criminology is one of the most sought-after degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual looked at 4 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Criminology Schools in North Carolina ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 195 degrees in criminology annually.
Your choice of criminology 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 criminology schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Criminology Schools in North Carolina list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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.
The schools below may not offer all types of criminology degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.
University of North Carolina at Wilmington is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in criminology. Located in the midsize city of Wilmington, UNCW is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #415 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UNCW is a great university overall.
There were roughly 100 criminology students who graduated with this degree at UNCW in the most recent year we have data available.
North Carolina State University is a good option for students interested in a degree in criminology. NC State is a very large public university located in the large city of Raleigh. A Best Colleges rank of #122 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means NC State is a great university overall.
There were roughly 55 criminology students who graduated with this degree at NC State in the most recent year we have data available.
Any student pursuing a degree in criminology has to look into William Peace University. WPU is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Raleigh. This university ranks 74th out of 93 schools for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were about 17 criminology students who graduated with this degree at WPU in the most recent data year.
It is hard to beat Johnson C Smith University if you want to pursue a degree in criminology. JCSU is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Charlotte. This university ranks 88th out of 93 colleges for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were approximately 16 criminology students who graduated with this degree at JCSU in the most recent year we have data available.
One of 0 majors within the Criminology area of study, Criminology has other similar majors worth exploring.
Notes and References
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).
Your choice of criminology 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 criminology schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
