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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 2023 rankings named California State University - Long Beach the best value school in California for communication and journalism students working on their master’s degree. CSULB is a very large public school located in the large city of Long Beach.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at CSULB are $8,280 per year.

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A rank of #2 on this year’s list means California State University - Sacramento is a great value for communication and journalism students working on their master’s degree. Located in the large city of Sacramento, Sac State is a public college with a fairly large student population.

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

Full Communication & Journalism at California State University - Sacramento Report

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#3

San Diego State University

San Diego, CA

A rank of #3 on this year’s list means San Diego State University is a great value for communication and journalism students working on their master’s degree. Located in the city of San Diego, SDSU is a public school with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at SDSU are $9,570 a year.

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#4

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, CA

Out of the 25 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, San Francisco State University landed the # 4 spot on the list. Located in the city of San Francisco, SFSU is a public school with a very large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at SFSU are $8,738 a year.

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The excellent master’s degree programs at University of California - Santa Barbara helped the school earn the #5 place on this year’s ranking of the best value communication and journalism schools in California. UCSB is a fairly large public school located in the midsize suburb of Santa Barbara.

UCSB graduate students pay an average of $13,581 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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

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San Jose State University 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 #6 on the list. San Jose State is a very large public school located in the large city of San Jose.

San Jose State graduate students pay an average of $9,286 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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With a ranking of #7, California State University - Fresno did quite well on this year’s best value schools for communication and journalism students working on their master’s degree. Located in the city of Fresno, Fresno State is a public school with a fairly large student population.

Fresno State graduate students pay an average of $8,087 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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California State University - East Bay landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree communication and journalism programs. Located in the large suburb of Hayward, Cal State East Bay is a public school with a fairly large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Cal State East Bay are $8,429 per year.

Full Communication & Journalism at California State University - East Bay Report

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University of California - Davis landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree communication and journalism programs. UC Davis is a fairly large public school located in the small suburb of Davis.

UC Davis graduate students pay an average of $13,608 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Communication & Journalism at University of California - Davis Report

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With a ranking of #10, California State University - Chico did quite well on this year’s best value schools for communication and journalism students working on their master’s degree. Chico State is a fairly large public school located in the medium-sized city of Chico.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Chico State are $9,298 a 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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