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Best Value Communication & Journalism Master's Degree Schools in California

2023 Best Value Communication & Journalism Master's Degree Schools in California

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

25 Colleges
$17,412 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$47,415 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Communication & Journalism Master's Degree School for You

Communication & Journalism is the #12 most popular major in California with 17,589 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Course Advisor has created the Best Value Communication & Journalism Master's Degree Schools in California to help you in your search for the best school for you. This report analyzed 25 schools in California to see which ones offered the best value master's degree programs for communication and journalism students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

Top 10 Best Communication & Journalism Master's Degree Schools

Our analysis found California State University - Long Beach to be the best value school for communication and journalism students who want to pursue a master’s degree in California. CSULB is a very large public school located in the city of Long Beach.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at CSULB are $8,280 a year.

Full Communication & Journalism at California State University - Long Beach Report

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Out of the 25 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, California State University - Sacramento landed the # 2 spot on the list. Located in the large city of Sacramento, Sac State is a public school with a fairly large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Sac State are $8,826 per year.

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#3

San Diego State University

San Diego, CA

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend San Diego State University. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Value Communication & Journalism Master’s Degree Schools in California list. Located in the large city of San Diego, SDSU is a public school with a fairly large student population.

SDSU graduate students pay an average of $9,570 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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#4

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, CA

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend San Francisco State University. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Best Value Communication & Journalism Master’s Degree Schools in California list. Located in the large city of San Francisco, SFSU is a public college with a very large student population.

SFSU graduate students pay an average of $8,738 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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A rank of #5 on this year’s list means University of California - Santa Barbara is a great value for communication and journalism students working on their master’s degree. UCSB is a fairly large public school located in the medium-sized suburb of Santa Barbara.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UCSB are $13,581 per year.

Full Communication & Journalism at University of California - Santa Barbara Report

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San Jose State University came in at #6 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Communication & Journalism Master’s Degree Schools in California ranking. San Jose State is a very large public school located in the city of San Jose.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at San Jose State are $9,286 a year.

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California State University - Fresno landed the #7 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree communication and journalism programs. Located in the city of Fresno, Fresno State is a public school with a fairly large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Fresno State are $8,087 per year.

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California State University - East Bay ranked #8 on this year’s Best Value Communication & Journalism Master’s Degree Schools in California list. Located in the large suburb of Hayward, Cal State East Bay is a public school with a large student population.

Cal State East Bay graduate students pay an average of $8,429 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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University of California - Davis did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for communication and journalism students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #9 on the list. UC Davis is a fairly large public school located in the suburb of Davis.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UC Davis are $13,608 per year.

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California State University - Chico landed the #10 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree communication and journalism programs. Chico State is a large public school located in the midsize city of Chico.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Chico State are $9,298 per year.

Read full report on Communication & Journalism at California State University - Chico

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Best Value Communication & Journalism Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Value Communication & Journalism Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 2,086
Oregon 1,375
Hawaii 292
Nevada 523
Alaska 30

Communication & Journalism Majors to Study

Major Annual Graduates
Communication & Media Studies 66,787
Public Relations & Advertising 21,099
Radio, Television & Digital Communication 17,669
Journalism 13,552
Communication & Journalism (Other) 1,128
Publishing 336

Related Major Annual Graduates
Education 327,871
Social Sciences 205,984
Psychology 195,678
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences 55,820
History 32,731

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.

  • 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 Josh Hallett.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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