Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Criminology (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Criminology earn a median of $55,556 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $41,042 and $73,111. We rank the 84 U.S. colleges whose Criminology programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 8,620 graduates in all. That puts Criminology at #85 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank by national median earnings.
University of Massachusetts Global, in California, leads at $75,745, 37% above the median ranked school ($55,284). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $50,398 and $59,340, and the lowest earns $40,965, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 39 of the 84 ranked schools (46%) match or beat the national median.
The top 20 mix sectors: 10 public, 10 private nonprofit and 0 for-profit. The top 20 are spread across 13 states, with Massachusetts the most common (3).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $21,638 a year, against $17,415 across all 84 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $23,591 in federal loans, about 38% of one year of earnings. Measured against a typical high-school graduate in the same state, the median top-20 school recovers its net cost in about 3.5 years.
Showing the top 50 of 84 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | University of Massachusetts Global Aliso Viejo, CA Public · 4-year | $75,745 | 50 | $23,807 | $32,654 | 3.4 |
| 2 | University of Miami Coral Gables, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $70,461 | 32 † | $16,062 | $37,244 | 4.1 |
| 3 | Saint Anselm College Manchester, NH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $69,676 | 61 | $27,000 | $34,779 | 5.0 |
| 4 | Assumption University Worcester, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $67,883 | 27 † | $27,000 | $29,498 | 4.4 |
| 5 | University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD Public · 4-year | $67,258 | 305 | $18,031 | $15,678 | 2.1 |
| 6 | University of Nevada-Reno Reno, NV Public · 4-year | $66,273 | 175 | $17,930 | $15,927 | 2.2 |
| 7 | Stonehill College Easton, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $64,957 | 54 | $25,000 | $33,016 | 5.5 |
| 8 | University of Delaware Newark, DE Public · 4-year | $63,553 | 168 | $23,375 | $17,799 | 2.6 |
| 9 | University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Whitewater, WI Public · 4-year | $63,365 | 101 | $25,283 | $14,158 | 2.2 |
| 10 | Central Connecticut State University New Britain, CT Public · 4-year | $61,950 | 210 | $21,500 | $16,857 | 2.8 |
| 11 | Lycoming College Williamsport, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $61,144 | 46 | $27,000 | $19,140 | 3.1 |
| 12 | University at Albany Albany, NY Public · 4-year | $61,102 | 171 | $19,400 | $17,167 | 2.7 |
| 13 | University of Iowa Iowa City, IA Public · 4-year | $60,947 | 43 | $21,500 | $22,531 | 3.8 |
| 14 | Hamline University Saint Paul, MN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,757 | 52 | $25,000 | $20,744 | 3.6 |
| 15 | The University of Tampa Tampa, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,742 | 118 | $23,250 | $36,211 | 5.5 |
| 16 | Hofstra University Hempstead, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,697 | 38 † | $25,250 | $34,176 | 5.5 |
| 17 | St. John Fisher University Rochester, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,481 | 38 † | $23,188 | $28,945 | 4.7 |
| 18 | Mount St. Mary's University Emmitsburg, MD Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,428 | 54 | $27,000 | $22,655 | 4.0 |
| 19 | Framingham State University Framingham, MA Public · 4-year | $59,857 | 72 | $25,000 | $16,114 | 3.4 |
| 20 | University of Minnesota-Duluth Duluth, MN Public · 4-year | $59,754 | 76 | $22,885 | $18,743 | 3.4 |
| 21 | University of New Hampshire-Main Campus Durham, NH Public · 4-year | $59,549 | 80 | $27,000 | $23,805 | 5.4 |
| 22 | University of Southern Maine Portland, ME Public · 4-year | $59,270 | 34 † | $22,549 | $13,596 | 2.6 |
| 23 | Marquette University Milwaukee, WI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $59,083 | 79 | $25,000 | $31,487 | 5.9 |
| 24 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN Public · 4-year | $59,022 | 150 | $19,500 | $16,778 | 3.2 |
| 25 | Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH Public · 4-year | $58,865 | 193 | $19,500 | $17,339 | 3.0 |
| 26 | Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania Slippery Rock, PA Public · 4-year | $58,115 | 98 | $23,875 | $19,608 | 3.6 |
| 27 | University of Florida Gainesville, FL Public · 4-year | $57,953 | 216 | $15,224 | $6,541 | 1.1 |
| 28 | University of California-Irvine Irvine, CA Public · 4-year | $57,935 | 388 | $15,383 | $14,251 | 2.7 |
| 29 | University of Denver Denver, CO Private nonprofit · 4-year | $57,858 | 26 † | $22,000 | $36,131 | 8.4 |
| 30 | University of Wisconsin-Stout Menomonie, WI Public · 4-year | $57,529 | 40 | $25,852 | $17,490 | 3.5 |
| 31 | CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice New York, NY Public · 4-year | $57,396 | 324 | $8,600 | $3,203 | 0.6 |
| 32 | William Peace University Raleigh, NC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $57,305 | 36 † | $22,737 | $21,649 | 3.7 |
| 33 | National Louis University Chicago, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $56,989 | 32 † | $21,036 | $12,641 | 2.4 |
| 34 | Upper Iowa University Fayette, IA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $56,767 | 75 | $30,701 | $20,942 | 4.3 |
| 35 | Lasell University Newton, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $56,766 | 27 † | $27,000 | $27,511 | 7.0 |
| 36 | Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ Public · 4-year | $56,676 | 328 | $19,500 | $14,158 | 2.8 |
| 37 | Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA Public · 4-year | $56,659 | 305 | $23,825 | $14,638 | 2.9 |
| 38 | State University of New York at Cortland Cortland, NY Public · 4-year | $56,593 | 68 | $19,500 | $22,345 | 4.3 |
| 39 | Eastern Washington University Cheney, WA Public · 4-year | $55,621 | 93 | $17,500 | $13,886 | 3.7 |
| 40 | California State University-San Marcos San Marcos, CA Public · 4-year | $55,418 | 247 | $14,810 | $10,229 | 2.2 |
| 41 | Stockton University Galloway, NJ Public · 4-year | $55,408 | 238 | $20,636 | $20,670 | 4.5 |
| 42 | North Carolina State University at Raleigh Raleigh, NC Public · 4-year | $55,303 | 46 | $20,374 | $17,303 | 3.3 |
| 43 | Lakeland University Plymouth, WI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $55,265 | 25 † | $25,000 | $24,212 | 5.5 |
| 44 | California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt Arcata, CA Public · 4-year | $55,174 | 57 | $16,475 | $13,171 | 2.9 |
| 45 | University of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls, IA Public · 4-year | $54,993 | 87 | $20,278 | $15,901 | 3.6 |
| 46 | University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth North Dartmouth, MA Public · 4-year | $54,174 | 122 | $25,204 | $20,927 | 6.4 |
| 47 | University of South Florida Tampa, FL Public · 4-year | $53,883 | 430 | $17,464 | $9,812 | 2.0 |
| 48 | Georgia Southern University Statesboro, GA Public · 4-year | $53,766 | 80 | $21,500 | $15,267 | 3.1 |
| 49 | Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana, PA Public · 4-year | $53,762 | 255 | $27,000 | $16,804 | 3.9 |
| 50 | Delaware State University Dover, DE Public · 4-year | $53,128 | 68 | $26,000 | $13,910 | 3.3 |
How this ranking is built
A school appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Which programs count
- Main campuses only, one entry per institution. Scorecard reports program outcomes for the whole six-digit federal ID (OPEID6), so branch campuses share their parent’s numbers and are not listed twice.
- Only bachelor's degree programs in Criminology (CIP 4504, the four-digit code Scorecard uses to group related programs).
- At least 25 graduates in the earnings sample. Smaller samples are left out because their medians swing too much and the counts carry a little privacy noise.
- A major gets a page only when at least 20 schools qualify. This one has 84.
- Ranked by median earnings 4 years after completing, highest first. Ties go to the larger sample, then to the school name.
- Schools missing earnings or a sample size are left out rather than estimated.
- What the numbers mean
- Earnings: median annual earnings of graduates four years after completing. The cohort completed in academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 and was measured in calendar years 2022 and 2023, in 2024 dollars.
- Who is counted: graduates who received federal student aid (Title IV grants or loans), and only those who were working and not enrolled in more school that year. Graduates without federal aid, those who went on to further study and those with no earnings are not in the median.
- Scorecard adds privacy noise to counts and medians and hides values it cannot protect, so a gap of a few percent between two schools is not meaningful.
- Graduates: the number of graduates in that earnings sample. A † marks fewer than 40, where the figure is less precise.
- Debt: median federal loan debt (Stafford and Grad PLUS loans disbursed at that school) of graduates who borrowed, from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 completers. Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Net price: average yearly cost after grants and scholarships for the whole institution, not this major, academic year 2023-24.
- Payback: 4 years of net price divided by how much these earnings exceed a high-school graduate’s in the school’s state. Shown only when that gap is at least $2,000, the same formula as the rest of the site.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data, June 2026 release.
Top states for Criminology earnings
Median of the school medians for states with at least 3 ranked schools. The best school in each state is shown.
| State | Median earnings | Ranked schools | Top school |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | $59,857 | 5 | Assumption University |
| Minnesota | $59,754 | 3 | Hamline University |
| New York | $58,939 | 6 | University at Albany |
| Wisconsin | $58,306 | 4 | University of Wisconsin-Whitewater |
| Iowa | $56,767 | 3 | University of Iowa |
| Florida | $55,918 | 6 | University of Miami |
| California | $55,296 | 6 | University of Massachusetts Global |
| Pennsylvania | $53,762 | 5 | Lycoming College |
| Illinois | $52,916 | 3 | National Louis University |
| North Carolina | $52,909 | 4 | William Peace University |
Related majors
Other fields to compare, by what graduates earn.
-
Political Science (Bachelor's)
$63,293 national median · 390 schools
-
Sociology (Bachelor's)
$52,657 national median · 314 schools
-
Economics (Bachelor's)
$82,686 national median · 274 schools
-
Anthropology (Bachelor's)
$46,676 national median · 110 schools
-
International Relations (Bachelor's)
$66,596 national median · 79 schools
-
Social Sciences (Bachelor's)
$53,366 national median · 56 schools
-
Geography (Bachelor's)
$57,853 national median · 54 schools
-
Experimental Psychology (Bachelor's)
$55,695 national median · 57 schools
All majors College rankings How to read Scorecard earnings data Community college vs. four-year college