2024 Best Urban Studies Master's Degree Schools in California

Urban Studies isn't the most popular master's program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #171 in popularity out of 343 majors in the country. So, you may have to do some digging around to find quality schools that offer the degree program. This list can help with that.

For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for urban studies students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 84 master's degrees in urban studies during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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

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

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to urban studies students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of urban studies students who choose to seek a master'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 urban studies to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized urban studies related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for urban studies students working on their master's degree.

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 Best Urban Studies Master's Degree Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Urban Studies in California

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in urban studies.

Top California Schools for a Master's in Urban Studies

1

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

77 Annual Graduates

University of Southern California is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in urban studies. USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles.More information about a master’s in urban studies from University of Southern California

2

University of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA

7 Annual Graduates

Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in urban studies has to take a look at University of San Francisco. USFCA is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of San Francisco.More information about a master’s in urban studies from University of San Francisco

Best Urban Studies Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Urban Studies Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	183	0
Oregon	158	3

View All Rankings >

Urban Studies Related Rankings by Major

One of 13 majors within the Social Sciences area of study, Urban Studies has other similar majors worth exploring.

Urban Studies Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Urban Studies/Affairs	84

Majors Similar to Urban Studies

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Economics	532
International Relations & National Security	455
Sociology	200
Political Science & Government	163
Geography & Cartography	133
Anthropology	121
Other Social Sciences	82
Demography & Population Studies	33
General Social Sciences	23
Archeology	2

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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Andrew Bossi. More about our data sources and methodologies.