How We Rank Criminal Justice Programs

Every program on this site is ranked by the same short set of rules. This page sets them out in the order you’d ask about them: who is ranked, what’s measured, how the measurements become a score, which price is used, and what the model leaves out on purpose. The counts below are worked out from the data each time the site is built, so they always match the rankings.

Who Is Ranked

Criminal justice has no accrediting agency of its own. The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the field’s academic association, says so in its endorsement FAQ: “There is currently no accreditation available for academic criminal justice and criminology programs.” Neither the U.S. Department of Education’s list of recognized programmatic accreditors nor CHEA’s has an accreditor for the field.

With no program-level bar to use, the bar here belongs to the school. A program is ranked at an award level only when all three of these are true:

• Its school takes part in the federal student aid programs, which requires accreditation by an agency the Department of Education recognizes. The Department’s DAPIP database lists each school’s accreditor.
• It clears the award minimum: IPEDS shows enough criminal justice graduates at that level in 2023-24, counted as first majors across the eight codes below.
• A new student can start the program. A school’s own page, or its accreditor’s public notice, saying it has closed or stopped admitting takes it out.

A program needs at least five graduates at its level in 2023-24 to be ranked. A program that confers fewer is listed with its figures and never scored low. The table below sorts every school conferring at each level into one column, so the columns add up to the schools conferring.

Source: IPEDS, completions (C2024_A) and the institutional directory (HD2024). A school counts once at each level it confers. Research doctorates have one national list at the PhD ranking, scored on the same six factors as every other level. A research doctorate is also ranked only when the school's own pages describe the program, because every entry on the PhD ranking is a card built from them; in the table above, a doctorate left off for that reason counts in the fifth column.

The Eight Codes Behind “Criminal Justice”

Criminal justice here means these eight codes from the federal CIP 2020 program classification, the list a school’s completions are reported under. A school that reports several of them at one award level is one program at that level, and its awards are added together.

Police science (43.0107) is criminal justice and stays in. Criminology (45.0401) is a different field and is counted separately, never mixed into a criminal justice ranking. Forensic science, security, cybersecurity, fire science, homeland security and emergency management are other fields too. The definitions are published by NCES.

The Factors and Their Weights

Every program is scored on the same six factors, at every award level: what it costs, what its graduates earn, how many of the school’s students finish, how much of the school’s teaching happens online, how many criminal justice degrees it awards, and its reputation in the field. Each is turned into a score from 0 to 10. The four levels are ranked separately, because a two-year degree and a master’s are different purchases.

Cost Factor

On the online lists, the price of one credit for an online student from another state: the rate the program's own page publishes for online students, else its out-of-state or all-students rate, else the out-of-state per-credit charge the school reported to IPEDS for 2023-24 (its graduate charge for master's programs). A rate per quarter credit is converted to a semester credit first. On the national lists and the state pages, the price a resident pays for a full-time year: in-state tuition and required fees as the school reported them to IPEDS for 2023-24 (graduate tuition and fees for master's and doctoral programs). IPEDS per-credit charges and most published per-credit rates leave required fees out, so a year that includes them is the fairer resident price; a published rate is still shown on the program's card. Either price is scored on a log scale between the 5th and 95th percentile of the programs ranked together, the lowest scoring highest, so a small price difference never swings a score, and a gap between two inexpensive programs counts for more than the same gap between two expensive ones.

Graduate Earnings Factor

College Scorecard's median earnings for the school's graduates in criminal justice and corrections (federal field 43.01) at this award level who received federal aid, four years after they finished, or one year after where that is the only figure Scorecard publishes. It is measured for the field at this school, not school-wide, and scored in dollars between the 5th and 95th percentile of the programs ranked together. Scorecard withholds the figure for small graduating classes.

Completion Factor

IPEDS Outcome Measures (2024 provisional release): of the students who entered the school with credit from another college, full and part time, the share who earned a credential there within eight years; for a school that reports no such students, all of its entering students. Unlike the older graduation rate, which follows only first-time, full-time students, it counts part-time students and students who transferred in. It describes the whole school, not the criminal justice major, and is scored by percentile among the programs ranked together.

Online Experience Factor

The share of the school's students at the level, undergraduates for associate's and bachelor's programs and graduate students for master's and doctoral programs, who were enrolled only in distance education in fall 2024 (IPEDS fall enrollment, 2024 provisional release), scored by percentile among the programs ranked together. A school that teaches a large share of its students online has built its courses, advising and services around them.

Track Record Factor

The criminal justice awards at this level the school conferred from July 2023 to June 2024 (IPEDS completions, first majors, summed across the criminal justice codes it reports), on a log scale between the 5th and 95th percentile of the programs ranked together. A program with a steady graduating class runs its required courses on a schedule, and the log scale keeps the largest programs from swamping the rest.

Graduates are the criminal justice awards at the level the school reported to IPEDS for July 2023 to June 2024, counting each student's first major and adding together the criminal justice codes a school uses: criminal justice administration, criminal justice studies, police science, corrections and the rest. Criminology degrees are counted separately.

Program Reputation Factor

A rating of each program on a five-step scale, from little-known to among the most recognized in the field. It is produced by a language model that reads the program's facts (its school, degree and what its own page says) and what is publicly known about the school's standing in criminal justice, one program at a time and the same way for every program, so a rating never depends on which programs it was rated beside. It is scored by percentile among the programs ranked together. It is a scoring input only: no page states it as a fact about a school.

The ratings in use were made on October 14, 2026.

Why These Weights

The standard weights this model comes from put cost and graduate earnings first, at 20 points each, completion and online experience next, at 15 each, then track record, credential alignment and program reputation, at 10 each. Credential alignment scores a program against its field's accreditor lists, and criminal justice has no program accreditor, so this site gives that factor no weight and shares its 10 points out in proportion to the others: 22 each for cost and graduate earnings, 17 each for completion and online experience, and 11 each for track record and program reputation.

How Scores Are Computed

Each factor is scored on a 0 to 10 bar among the programs ranked together at the same award level, and the score is the weighted total of the six bars, out of 100, to one decimal. It is an absolute score, never rescaled so the top program reads 100.

Associate's, bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs are scored separately. The national lists score every ranked program at the level on the price a resident pays, and a state page lists the state's programs from that ranking. The online lists score the online programs at the level among themselves on the price an online student from another state pays.

A factor with no figure for a program scores the median of the programs ranked with it, at full weight, and is left off the program's card, so a program can't rise because a number is unpublished. Cost is stricter: a program with no price scores at the 25th percentile of the cost scores, as if it costs more than most. A program with no price can’t outscore the best program that has one.

Equal scores are ordered by the cost score, then the graduate earnings score, then the school’s name. The order never depends on the order of a data file. Sponsored listings never change a score or a rank.

How many ranked programs each factor could measure, by award level:

Which Price Is Scored

The same factors apply everywhere. The price differs, because the reader does. A campus program is a local purchase, so state pages and the national lists that include campus programs score the tuition and required fees a resident pays for a full-time year. An online program is a national purchase, so the online lists score what an online student from another state pays for a credit. That is why one program can carry two scores: one on the national list and its state page, and another on an online list.

On the online lists the price scored is what an online student from another state pays for one credit: the rate the program's own page publishes for online students, else its out-of-state or all-students rate, else the out-of-state per-credit charge the school reported to IPEDS. 117 programs on the online lists are scored on their own published rate.

Tuition and fees are what each school reported to IPEDS for a full-time year in 2023-24, tuition plus required fees, before books, housing or financial aid. They are the price scored on the national lists and the state pages, where the resident rate is used; the online lists score the price of one credit instead. Schools set new rates every year, and many price their online programs separately; where a school's own page publishes its rate, the program's card shows it with its source. A resident’s year is taken from IPEDS rather than from a per-credit charge, because the federal per-credit charges, and most rates schools publish, leave out required fees, and in some states the fees are most of the bill.

Which Programs Are Online

IPEDS records distance education once for all of a school’s programs at an award level, and its figures run a year or more behind. So the federal flag only nominates programs to read, and a program is on the online lists only when its school’s own page says it can be completed online. A program whose page doesn’t settle it stays off the online lists and keeps its place in the rankings that cover every format, such as its state page. 48 programs on the online lists are there although IPEDS records no distance education for them, because the school’s page says the program can be completed online. 2 programs at 2 schools are off them because the page gives its format as on campus.

When a page does speak, the statement is recorded as a sentence copied from it, with its link and the date it was read, and a script re-reads every one. A page that says only that some courses are online makes no statement about the program, and pages that disagree with each other settle nothing. The online lists hold 118 ranked online associate degree programs, 187 ranked online bachelor’s degree programs and 57 ranked online master’s degree programs.

Lists by Student Background, Program Feature and Specialization

Eight lists on this site group programs by who the reader is, how the program is built or what the degree is in, and the rankings hub links each one. A list by student background, program feature or specialization is not a ranking of its own. It is the national online ranking at its level, kept to the programs whose school's own page states what the list is about, in the same order and with the same scores, so a program's position counts only the programs on that list. The price an online student from another state pays is the one scored, as on every online list.

Lists by Student Background

• Military & Veterans, at the associate, bachelor’s and master’s levels: a program is on it when its school’s page states a tuition rate, discount, waiver or grant for service members, veterans or military families.
• Working Adults, at the associate, bachelor’s and master’s levels: a program is on it when its school’s page says its classes are asynchronous, with no set meeting times.
• Police Officers, at the associate and bachelor’s levels: a program is on it when its school’s page gives college credit for a completed police academy or peace officer training.

Lists by Program Feature

• Accelerated Programs, at the bachelor’s and master’s levels: a program is on it when its school’s page calls the format accelerated or states a finish shorter than the degree’s usual length.
• No-GRE Master’s, at the master’s level: a program is on it when its school’s page says the GRE is not required for admission.

Lists by Specialization

• Law Enforcement, at the associate, bachelor’s and master’s levels: a program is on it when the online degree its school describes is in law enforcement or policing, or names a concentration in it.
• Corrections, at the associate, bachelor’s and master’s levels: a program is on it when the online degree its school describes is in corrections, or names a concentration in it.
• Homeland Security, at the bachelor’s and master’s levels: a program is on it when the online criminal justice degree its school describes names a homeland security concentration.

Each fact behind a list by student background or program feature is the school's own statement, kept with its exact quote and the page that states it, and the quotes are re-read before the site is published. A card or table row prints a one-line summary of the fact, never more than the quote says. The school pages behind the lists by student background or program feature were read on October 8, 2026.

A list shows a level only when at least 5 programs qualify at it. The first 10 programs at a level are cards and the rest are rows in a table, up to 25 programs in all. The state rankings are collected on the rankings by state page.

Closures and Paused Programs

Federal completions run a year or more behind, so a school can close, or stop admitting, after the data was collected. A program whose school says on its own current page, or whose accreditor’s public notice says, that it has closed or stopped admitting leaves the rankings and stays in the directory with the notice, quoted and dated. A notice about the whole school takes it out of every ranking; a notice about one award level takes out that level only. Right now 4 schools have closed and 7 schools are winding down. A page that has merely disappeared is not evidence of closure, and such a program keeps its place.

• Aspen University, Phoenix, AZ: Bachelor’s program closed to new students

  Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice (all specializations) teach out ended November 7, 2023.

  Read October 12, 2026, aspen.smartcatalogiq.com

• Colorado State University Global, Denver, CO: Master’s program not admitting new students

  Please Note - We are no longer accepting new students into this program.

  Read October 14, 2026, csuglobal.edu

• Oakland City University, Oakland City, IN: Winding down

  The institution has established teach-out agreements that have been approved by HLC with: ... University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, IN ... Webster University, St. Louis, MO

  Read October 7, 2026, hlcommission.org

• Eastern Nazarene College, Quincy, MA: Closed

  Closed May 30, 2025

  Read October 7, 2026, neche.org

• Siena Heights University, Adrian, MI: Closed

  Siena Heights University is now closed.

  Read October 7, 2026, sienaheights.edu

• Saint Cloud State University, Saint Cloud, MN: Criminal justice bachelor’s program not accepting applications

  This program is not accepting applications.

  Read October 7, 2026, stcloudstate.edu

• Eastern Gateway Community College, Steubenville, OH: Closed

  Effective September 30th, 2025 the college is permanently closed.

  Read October 7, 2026, egcc.edu

• Lourdes University, Sylvania, OH: Closed

  Lourdes University has announced it is closing at the end of the 2025-26 academic year.

  Read October 7, 2026, lourdes.edu

• Rogue Community College, Grants Pass, OR: Associate program not admitting new students

  Please note: Effective July 2022, the Criminal Justice program will be suspended. ROLEA will continue as planned.

  Read October 14, 2026, web.archive.org

• Pennsylvania State University-Penn State DuBois, DuBois, PA; Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Fayette- Eberly, Lemont Furnace, PA; Pennsylvania State University-Penn State New Kensington, New Kensington, PA; Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Shenango, Sharon, PA; Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Wilkes-Barre, Dallas, PA: Winding down

  Seven Penn State campuses are scheduled for closure after Spring 2027 ... New students are not being admitted at these campuses.

  Read October 7, 2026, bulletins.psu.edu

• Rosemont College, Rosemont, PA: Winding down

  Per the merger agreement with Villanova University, Rosemont College is no longer admitting new students.

  Read October 7, 2026, rosemont.edu

• Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA: Criminology bachelor’s major not accepting new admits

  This major is not accepting new admits as of Autumn 2023.

  Read October 7, 2026, spu.edu

• Spokane Community College, Spokane, WA: Criminal justice associate program closed to new students

  All 39 students currently enrolled in the program will be provided with an opportunity to complete their 2-year degree in criminal justice at SCC, however, no new students will be enrolled.

  Read October 7, 2026, shared.spokane.edu

ACJS Program Endorsement

ACJS ended its program “Certification” in 2018 and replaced it with a voluntary Program Endorsement, a review of associate, bachelor’s and master’s programs against its program standards. It isn’t accreditation, and this site never calls it that. A program needs at least 85% of the standards, including the one on faculty credentials, to be endorsed at the Meets tier, and 95% puts it in the Exceeds tier. An endorsement lasts seven years.

ACJS’s list, read on October 7, 2026, holds 13 endorsed programs at 10 institutions: 8 at the Exceeds tier and 5 at Meets. A program on it carries an ACJS-endorsed mark on its card. An endorsement is a voluntary review, not an accreditor’s list, so it is shown and never scored.

What the Ranking Leaves Out

• Accreditation of the major. No accrediting agency reviews criminal justice degrees as a field, so there is no program-level accreditation to score, and Methodology v2's credential factor carries no weight here. The school-level accreditation that makes students eligible for federal aid is the entry bar instead. The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences endorses a small number of programs against its standards, and those programs say so on their cards.
• First-time graduation rate. The older IPEDS graduation rate follows only students who start college full time as freshmen, so it leaves out part-time students and students who transfer in. Outcome Measures, the completion factor, counts both, so it replaced the graduation rate in the score. The school tables still show the graduation rate.
• Admission rate. Many of these programs are at open-admission colleges, so an admission rate would score the college rather than the program and would reward turning students away.
• Police academy or officer certification. A degree is not a peace officer license. Each state's officer standards board sets its own training and education rules, and an academy is run by an agency or a regional center rather than by the degree. The state pages give each state's rule from its own board or statute.

Earnings are College Scorecard's median for the school's criminal justice and corrections graduates (federal field 43.01) at the level who received federal aid, four years after finishing, or one year after where that is the only figure Scorecard publishes. Scorecard reports a median only where enough graduates can be counted, and it covers every program the school reports in that field. Source: Scorecard, field-of-study file, CIP 43.01.

How Program Summaries Are Written

The summary on a program card is written from the school’s own program pages, which the card links, with the date they were read. There are 577 of them. Each fact in a summary, and each price, credit count, format and entry requirement, is backed by a sentence copied word for word from those pages, and a script re-fetches the pages and flags any sentence it can no longer find. Rankings, salary claims and testimonials on school pages are not carried over, and a summary never prints a price of its own: a price appears only as the school states it, with its source.

How State Pages Are Built

A state gets its own page when at least four of its programs are ranked at the bachelor’s or the associate level, which is true of 45 states and the District of Columbia. Each state page lists that state’s programs from the national ranking, in the national order and with their national scores, shows the state’s own spread of prices and graduation rates, and carries BLS pay for the state’s police, detective, probation and correctional officers. Where the state’s officer standards board or a statute sets an education rule for police recruits, the page gives it in the rule’s own words with its source. A degree is not a peace officer license, and the pages say so.

Pay and Career Figures

Pay figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey BLS, May 2025 release, and each one is labeled with its occupation. They describe what people in an occupation are paid, not what a degree adds. BLS lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry education for patrol officers and for correctional officers, and a bachelor’s degree for probation officers, so the career pages say which jobs a degree is required for and which it only helps with.

Changes to How We Rank

The ranking is versioned. The version number and date at the top of this page change whenever a weight, a factor or an eligibility rule changes. A correction to one school’s data changes that school’s score without changing the model, and so does each new release of the IPEDS files. This is version 2.0, in effect since October 12, 2026.

• Version 2.0. A new model. Six factors (cost, graduate earnings, completion, online experience, track record and program reputation) replaced tuition and fees, the first-time graduation rate and the number of graduates. A factor with no figure now scores the median instead of keeping a program off the list, a price a program’s own page publishes is scored instead of setting the program aside, and each state page shows the programs’ national scores instead of scores taken within the state.
• Version 1.2. Added the doctorate ranking and the lists by student background, program feature and specialization, which score nothing of their own. No associate’s, bachelor’s or master’s weight, bar or score changed.
• Version 1.1. Stated how a list of one program is scored. No weight, bar or score changed.

Sources for the Ranking Method

• Awards, charges, completion and online enrollment: the Department of Education's IPEDS data: IPEDS completions and distance education, 2023-24; IPEDS tuition and fees and per-credit charges, 2023-24; IPEDS graduation rates; and IPEDS Outcome Measures and fall 2024 enrollment, from the 2024 provisional release. Programs are counted under the criminal justice codes in the federal CIP 43.01 series.
• Graduate earnings: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field-of-study data for Criminal Justice and Corrections (CIP 43.01).
• Program names, credit counts, formats, entry requirements and published prices: each school's own program pages, read between October 7, 2026 and October 14, 2026.
• Wages: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
• Program endorsement: the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences' list of endorsed programs, read on October 7, 2026.
• Federal data files, for anyone who wants to reproduce the counts: IPEDS completions (C2024_A), distance education (C2024DEP), institutional directory (HD2024), tuition and fees (IC2023_AY) and graduation rates (DRVGR2023), Outcome Measures (DRVOM2024) and fall enrollment (DRVEF2024) from the 2024 provisional release, and the College Scorecard field-of-study file (Most-Recent-Cohorts-Field-of-Study_06102026.zip).
• Program definitions: NCES, the Classification of Instructional Programs, CIP 2020.
• School accreditation: the Department of Education’s DAPIP database.
• Statement that no program accreditation exists: the ACJS program endorsement FAQ.

Related Criminal Justice Guides and Rankings

• The national bachelor’s ranking, scored on the price a resident pays
• The online bachelor’s ranking, scored on what an online student from another state pays
• Ranked programs and officer education rules, state by state
• Every ranking, by degree level, student background, program feature, specialization and state
• Who builds this site and how it is funded