If you pursue a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #21 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Theological & Ministerial Studies Master's Degree Schools in Massachusetts ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 523 master's degrees in theological & ministerial studies during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Choosing a Great Theological & Ministerial Studies School for Your Master's Degree
The theology master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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 master's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection 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 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
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 theological & ministerial studies students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other theological & ministerial studies students want to attend this school to pursue a master'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 theological & ministerial studies students go into to obtain their master'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 theological & ministerial studies related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for theological & ministerial studies students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank Theological & Ministerial Studies Schools
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 Theological & Ministerial Studies Master's Degree Schools in Massachusetts list to help you make the college decision.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Theological & Ministerial Studies in Massachusetts
Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for theological & ministerial studies students seeking a a master's degree.
Top Massachusetts Schools for a Master's in Theology
It is difficult to beat Harvard University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies. Located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge, Harvard is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the theology program earn about $30,004 for their early career.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies needs to check out Boston College. Located in the city of Chestnut Hill, Boston College is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.
Master's recipients from the theological & ministerial studies program at Boston College earn $6,339 more than the standard college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
It's hard to beat Gordon - Conwell Theological Seminary if you wish to pursue a master's degree in theological & ministerial studies. Gordon - Conwell Seminary is a small private not-for-profit school located in the large suburb of South Hamilton.
Theological & Ministerial Studies master's degree recipients from Gordon - Conwell Theological Seminary get an earnings boost of about $6,266 over the typical earnings of theological & ministerial studies graduates.
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).