2024 Best Criminology Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region

Criminology is about average in terms of popularity for doctor's degrees programs. That is, it ranks #139 out of the 306 majors across the country that we analyze each year. So, it might take a little more work to find colleges and universities that offer the degree program.

In 2024, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Criminology Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 13 doctor's degrees in criminology during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Criminology School for Your Doctor's Degree

Your choice of criminology for getting your doctor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality criminology program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

The overall quality of a doctor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of doctorate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their doctor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on criminology students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of criminology students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How easy is it for criminology to pay back their student loans after receiving their doctor's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized criminology related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for criminology students working on their doctor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Criminology Schools

The criminology 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 Criminology Doctor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region.

 

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Criminology in the Southeast Region

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in criminology.

Top Southeast Region Schools for a Doctorate in Criminology

1

University of Florida
Gainesville, FL

4 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a doctor's degree in criminology has to take a look at University of Florida. Located in the midsize city of Gainesville, UF is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in criminology from University of Florida

2

Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA

2 Annual Graduates

Old Dominion University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a doctor's degree in criminology. Located in the city of Norfolk, Old Dominion is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a doctorate in criminology from Old Dominion University

2

University of South Florida - Main Campus
Tampa, FL

3 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat University of South Florida - Main Campus if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in criminology. USF Tampa is a very large public university located in the large city of Tampa.More information about a doctorate in criminology from University of South Florida - Main Campus

3

University of South Carolina - Columbia
Columbia, SC

4 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a doctor's degree in criminology has to take a look at University of South Carolina - Columbia. UofSC is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Columbia.More information about a doctorate in criminology from University of South Carolina - Columbia

Best Criminology Colleges by State

Explore the best criminology schools for a specific state in the Southeast Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	138	7
Virginia	127	2
Mississippi	113	0
Louisiana	103	0
South Carolina	91	4

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Criminology

Criminology is one of 0 different types of <nil> programs to choose from.

Criminology Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Criminology	13

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). More about our data sources and methodologies.