2023 Best Master's Degree Schools
There are lots of options to pick from today when trying to decide which program is right for you. Along with traditional schools that require in-person attendence, you can attend one of many reputable online schools. Some programs even offer a hybrid experience. Also, there are a number of trade schools and bootcamp with offerings that you might find attractive.
To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Course Advisor has created its Best Master's Degree Schools ranking. This report analyzed 1,033 schools in the United States to see which ones offered the best master's degree programs for students. Factors related to overall quality of the school, post-graduation earnings, average student debt, and more accumulated were considered when coming up with this list.
View our full ranking methodology.
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Top Master's Degree Schools in the United States
Learn more about these excellent schools below:
Our analysis found Keck Graduate Institute to be the best school for students who want to pursue a master’s degree in the United States.
KGI does offer online graduate classes for certain degree levels. Of all the graduate students enrolled at the school during the 2019-2020 academic year, around 4% took at least some of their classes online.
You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Master’s Degree Schools list.
Since the graduate programs at MIT are primarily online school, so it is a great choice for returning adults and students who work full time.
You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Stanford University. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Master’s Degree Schools list.
Depending on your major, you may be able to take online graduate classes at Stanford. In fact, around 10% of the graduate population registered for at least one online class in 2019-2020.
Out of the 1,033 schools in the United States that were part of this year’s ranking, Rice University landed the # 4 spot on the list.
You may have the opportunity to take online graduate classes at Rice. To give an idea of how popular online courses are at the school, 86% of graduates took at least one course online in 2019-2020.
Out of the 1,033 schools in the United States that were part of this year’s ranking, Princeton University landed the # 5 spot on the list.
Princeton does have options available for those who want to take online graduate classes. You will need to check with the school to see if they are available for your specific major. In fact, around 53% of the graduate population registered for at least one online class in 2019-2020.
Dartmouth College ranked #6 on this year’s Best Master’s Degree Schools list.
Depending on your major, you may be able to take online graduate classes at Dartmouth. During the 2019-2020 year, about 57% of the graduate students at the school took at least one online course.
Duke University came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Best Master’s Degree Schools ranking.
If you are interested in distance education, be sure to check with the school since Duke does offer online graduate classes for certain majors. In fact, around 2% of the graduate population registered for at least one online class in 2019-2020.
Northwestern University landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best master’s degree programs.
You may have the opportunity to take online graduate classes at Northwestern. Of all the graduate students enrolled at the school during the 2019-2020 academic year, around 2% took at least some of their classes online.
Georgia Institute of Technology - Main Campus landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best master’s degree programs.
Depending on your major, you may be able to take online graduate classes at Georgia Tech. During the 2019-2020 year, about 88% of the graduate students at the school took at least one online course.
University of Notre Dame came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Master’s Degree Schools ranking.
Notre Dame does have options available for those who want to take online graduate classes. You will need to check with the school to see if they are available for your specific major. To give an idea of how popular online courses are at the school, 45% of graduates took at least one course online in 2019-2020.
With a ranking of #11, University of Chicago did quite well on this year’s best schools for students working on their master’s degree.
Cornell University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #12 on the list.
Depending on your major, you may be able to take online graduate classes at Cornell. In fact, around 85% of the graduate population registered for at least one online class in 2019-2020.
Carnegie Mellon University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #13 on the list.
Some students may be able to take online graduate classes at Carnegie Mellon. Of all the graduate students enrolled at the school during the 2019-2020 academic year, around 6% took at least some of their classes online.
Brown University ranked #14 on this year’s Best Master’s Degree Schools list.
Online graduate courses are available at Brown, but you will need to check with the school to see if they are available for your field of interest. Of all the graduate students enrolled at the school during the 2019-2020 academic year, around 59% took at least some of their classes online.
University of Pennsylvania came in at #15 in this year’s edition of the Best Master’s Degree Schools ranking.
One thing to take note of is that UPenn does offer online graduate classes in some areas. Of all the graduate students enrolled at the school during the 2019-2020 academic year, around 74% took at least some of their classes online.
Teachers College at Columbia University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #16 on the list.
Online graduate courses are available at Teachers College, but you will need to check with the school to see if they are available for your field of interest. In fact, around 98% of the graduate population registered for at least one online class in 2019-2020.
University of California - Berkeley came in at #17 in this year’s edition of the Best Master’s Degree Schools ranking.
You may have the opportunity to take online graduate classes at UC Berkeley. In 2019-2020 about 90% of the graduate students at the school chose to take one or more online courses.
Santa Clara University came in at #18 in this year’s edition of the Best Master’s Degree Schools ranking.
If you are interested in distance education, be sure to check with the school since SCU does offer online graduate classes for certain majors. Of all the graduate students enrolled at the school during the 2019-2020 academic year, around 10% took at least some of their classes online.
Georgetown University came in at #19 in this year’s edition of the Best Master’s Degree Schools ranking.
Interested in an online degree? Then you definitely want to check out Georgetown. Every graduate student at the school took at least one class online.
With a ranking of #20, University of Virginia - Main Campus did quite well on this year’s best schools for students working on their master’s degree.
Some students may be able to take online graduate classes at University of Virginia. In fact, around 75% of the graduate population registered for at least one online class in 2019-2020.
Vanderbilt University came in at #21 in this year’s edition of the Best Master’s Degree Schools ranking.
You may have the opportunity to take online graduate classes at Vanderbilt. To give an idea of how popular online courses are at the school, 67% of graduates took at least one course online in 2019-2020.
Yale University landed the #22 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best master’s degree programs.
One thing to take note of is that Yale does offer online graduate classes in some areas. In 2019-2020 about 98% of the graduate students at the school chose to take one or more online courses.
Johns Hopkins University landed the #23 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best master’s degree programs.
Johns Hopkins does offer online graduate classes for certain degree levels. In 2019-2020 about 85% of the graduate students at the school chose to take one or more online courses.
Harvard University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #24 on the list.
Harvard does offer online graduate classes for certain degree levels. Of all the graduate students enrolled at the school during the 2019-2020 academic year, around 96% took at least some of their classes online.
With a ranking of #25, University of California - Los Angeles did quite well on this year’s best schools for students working on their master’s degree.
UCLA does have options available for those who want to take online graduate classes. You will need to check with the school to see if they are available for your specific major. In 2019-2020 about 79% of the graduate students at the school chose to take one or more online courses.
Rest of the Top 50 Best Master's Degree Schools in the United States
Not only did these schools make the top 50 list, but they also landed in the top 15% of this year’s ranking:
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Rest of the Top 15% Best Master's Degree Schools in the United States
To learn more about the schools below, just click on their names:
Honorable Mentions
These schools also performed well in our best schools ranking:
Notes and References
Footnotes
*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.
References
- Read more about our ranking methodology.
- 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 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).
- Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.
More about our data sources and methodologies.
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