2023 Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Social Sciences Major in the Great Lakes Region

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Social Sciences Major in the Great Lakes Region” ranking - to help you make that decision.

In 2020-2021, 18,997 people earned their degree in general social sciences, making the major the 54th most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, general social sciences graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $32,991 and had an average of $24,438 in loans still to pay off.

Across the Great Lakes region, there were 568 general social sciences graduates with average earnings and debt of $33,813 and $28,816 respectively. At the doctor’s degree level specifically, there were 6 general social sciences graduates with average earnings and debt of $74,305 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Social Sciences Major in the Great Lakes Region” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree in general social sciences. That schools that top this list have a program in general social sciences in which the largest percentage of students at the school are enrolled.

For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

One Size Does Not Fit All

The social sciences 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 Doctorate Highly Focused on Social Sciences Major in the Great Lakes Region”.

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. 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 Doctorate Highly Focused on Social Sciences Major in the Great Lakes Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for great lakes region doctor’s degree social sciences students.

Top 2 Most Focused Doctor’s Degree Colleges for General Social Sciences in the Great Lakes Region

1

University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois

#2 overall quality in Great Lakes

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Chicago. The school came in at #1 for the Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Social Sciences Major in the Great Lakes Region. UChicago is a private not-for-profit institution located in Chicago, Illinois. The school has a fairly large population, and it awarded 6 doctorate’s degrees in 2020-2021.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 1.0%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 100%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 5 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one.

Read full report on General Social Sciences at UChicago

2

Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Carbondale, Illinois

Out of the 2 schools in the Schools for a Doctorate Highly Focused on Social Sciences Major in the Great Lakes Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Southern Illinois University Carbondale landed the #2 spot on the list. Located in Carbondale, Illinois, this fairly large public school awarded 0 degrees to qualified doctorate’s social sciences students in 2020-2021.

Read more about General Social Sciences at Southern Illinois University Carbondale

• Most Focused Doctor’s Degree Colleges for General Social Sciences

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 Manfred Werner (Tsui).