MSc Criminology vs MSc Criminal Justice

Hi,

I am currently trying to decide between two different Master's programs, one at Boston University and the other at Regis University. I guess I have two questions about how to make my decision:

1) Is there a prestige difference between a criminology degree and a criminal justice degree? I feel like the criminology degree would be better received, but I don't actually know for sure. I am hoping to use the degree to become a crime analyst (short term goal) and eventually an intelligence analyst for CSIS (Canada's CIA - long term goal). I don't intend to be an academic/researcher.

2) I am assuming there is a prestige difference between the two schools, since I had never heard of Regis prior to looking into doing a Master's program. Regis is also much cheaper than BU ($20K vs $33K). They both seem to be well ranked by US News though. So my question - given my assumptions about school prestige, which degree would be better?

Thanks for any help!!!

 

For most applications, the functional difference is almost non-existent, mostly semantics.

One important question; what do you do plan to do with your degree once you complete it? In my opinion, there are better options for both criminology and criminal justice degrees.

 

I would like to work as a civilian investigator or a crime analyst with my local metro police department, and eventually move into a similar role in the federal government, with either the RCMP or CSIS.

I guess my concern is that given that the Master's degree is going to be one line on my resume, if both schools are equal in terms of quality, which will give me the best bang for my buck? I am open to other suggestions in terms of schools...

 

In the short term, I would like to work as a civilian investigator or crime analyst for my local metro police department. In the long term, I would like to work in a similar role for the federal government, with either the RCMP or for CSIS.

I guess my question is, given that the degree will ultimately be one line on my resume, if both programs are similar in terms of content which one will look better? I am certainly open to other suggestions of schools, or to hearing anyone's experiences at either school.

 

Save yourself 13k and go with the less expensive alternative. There are also other RA alternatives that cost even less.

 

I keep responding to the thread, but they aren't being posted for some reason...

In the short-term I would like to work as a civilian investigator or crime analyst for my local metro police department. In the longer-term I would like to work in a similar role for the federal government, with either the RCMP or CSIS.

I guess my question is, assuming that both programs are equal (if they are), and given that the Master's degree is going to end up as one line on my resume, which one will look better or will be more marketable?

I am certainly up for other suggestions of schools, or to hear anyone's experiences at Regis or BU.

 

I see problems with both BU and Regis;

BU - Very good name recognition, but the program is ridiculously expensive, and the last I checked, the online program was administered by a private company out of Florida. Also, BU doesn't have a department of criminal justice, so therefore they don't engage in research or offer a doctoral program; the degree will be from "Metropolitan College", which some snobs won't consider to be "the real BU".

Regis - Not good name recognition, both nationally and within the CJ/criminology communities, and they also don't offer a doctoral program.

For online CJ/criminology programs, the top programs IMO (in no particular order) are;

University of Cincinnati - Online Criminal Justice Degree: Earn a Masters in Criminal Justice

Florida State University - https://www.criminology.fsu.edu/p/academic-deg-online-masters.php

Michigan State University - School of Criminal Justice | Online Masters Program

UMass-Lowell - Online Criminal Justice Masters Degree from UMass Lowell

Indiana State University - Indiana State University Distance Learning: Criminology and Criminal Justice (M.A., M.S.)

 

Bruce - thanks for your comments, those are both good points.

Given that I'm not planning on joining law enforcement as an officer, does it make sense to do a CJ degree? Will it help me as a civilian member? Or do you think I would be better to go with a criminology degree? I will check out the schools you mentioned for sure, I have also been looking at UC-Irvine's MAS program in criminology, law, and society. Have you heard anything about that?

Thanks for your help!!

 

No problem....if you're not planning or are not interested in becoming a police officer or other law enforcement professional, I would not bother with a CJ or criminology Master's degree, unless you're looking to go on for a doctorate and a faculty position at a college/university. The ROI just isn't there, since there are a ton of police officers out there with Master's degrees, and their experience is going to trump you for any adjunct faculty position.

Having said that......as I said before, there isn't much difference between a CJ and criminology degree for most applications. The only difference might be if you want to go on for a criminology doctorate, which would be more theory-based than a CJ doctorate. Then again, I'm currently in a criminology doctorate program, and my M.A. in CJ was accepted without question.

The UC-Irvine program has among the best name recognition of all, it's a very solid program, but the funky degree title (Master of Advanced Study) is a turnoff for me. It screams "Not *really* the University of California!!!", and might also send the same message to potential employers/graduate schools.

 

Michigan State is one of the top CJ schools in the country, but I'm not familiar with their Intelligence & Analysis program. It looks very interesting, but unfortunately that's not my bailiwick.

 

I had a similiar reaction to the UC-Irvine title, plus I found the courses a bit boring. I have been looking into the programs at MSU that you suggested, and they seem really interesting. One issue I have is that in Canada, Criminal Justice degrees tend to be conferred by community colleges. So even though I would be pursuing one at a master's level, I think the perception would be that it wasn't a 'real' degree. Luckily MSU also offers an MSc in Law Enforcement Intelligence and Analysis that requires many of the same courses, but focuses less on the sociological aspects and more on the intelligence gathering ones. You make a good point about the competition between uniformed officers and civilian ones, I'm hoping that with the LEIA title I would be set apart a bit... I still need to do some more research on it, but it sounds good!

 

Two identical posts, 39 minutes apart.

 

I am doing the online MS at the school of criminal justice at Michigan State University right now. I applied to University of Cincinnati and MSU but chose MSU for their better name recognition and unique Intelligence Analysis program which is a fully integrated part of their criminal justice school/graduate program. the degree would be great preparation for a crime analyst career. The cost is pretty fair as well ($18000), I believe it is the cheapest of the top ranked Criminology grad programs (top 10). I know FSU's MS in criminal justice is like $40000 even thought it is an online program and UC recently raised their online MS tuition to around $23000.

 

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