2025 Best Criminology Bachelor's Degree Schools
Criminology is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #53 most popular bachelor's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 128 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Criminology Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 9,522 bachelor's degrees in criminology during the 2021-2022 academic year.
What's on this page: * Our Methodology
Choosing a Great Criminology School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of criminology for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
- Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to criminology students as compared to other majors.
- Major Demand - How many other criminology students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
- Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
- Student Debt - How much debt criminology students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
- 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 bachelor's degree.
One Size Does Not Fit All
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Criminology Bachelor's Degree Schools list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Criminology in the United States
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for criminology students seeking a a bachelor's degree. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
25 Top Schools for a Bachelor's in Criminology
It is hard to beat University of Maryland - College Park if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in criminology. Located in the large suburb of College Park, UMCP is a public university with a very large student population.
Criminology bachelor's degree recipients from University of Maryland - College Park get an earnings boost of approximately $6,949 above the typical income of criminology graduates.
More information about a bachelor’s in criminology from University of Maryland - College Park
University of California - Irvine is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in criminology. Located in the city of Irvine, UC Irvine is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the criminology program make about $34,522 in their early career salary.
More information about a bachelor’s in criminology from University of California - Irvine
University of Florida is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in criminology. UF is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Gainesville.
Soon after graduating, criminology bachelor's recipients generally earn about $35,096 in their early careers.
More information about a bachelor’s in criminology from University of Florida
University of Pennsylvania is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in criminology. UPenn is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Philadelphia.More information about a bachelor’s in criminology from University of Pennsylvania
Located in the suburb of Newark, UD is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the criminology program earn around $35,968 in the first couple years of their career.
More information about a bachelor’s in criminology from University of Delaware