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Key takeaway: Public relations is the practice of managing what an organization says, to whom, and when – through the press, through its own channels, and through the people who speak on its behalf. Unlike some specializations, public relations exists as a standalone degree title at both the bachelor’s and master’s level, and it has a real programmatic accreditor in ACEJMC, which reviews journalism and mass communications programs. The field also has a separate professional credential, the APR, that practitioners earn after they are working. Compare accredited programs below.
Public relations sits where writing, research, and organizational strategy meet. Coursework generally starts with writing – the news release, the pitch, the statement, the executive memo – then layers on media relations, campaign planning, research and measurement, digital and social strategy, and communication law and ethics. Accredited online programs generally deliver the same curriculum and degree titles as campus programs; browse the best accredited online colleges to compare schools that offer them.
These accredited schools offer online programs. Request information to compare programs, costs, and formats.
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Public relations graduates work in agencies, corporate communications departments, hospitals and health systems, universities, nonprofits, trade associations, political campaigns, and government public affairs offices. The occupations below are commonly associated with public relations coursework. Median annual wages come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program.
The gap between the two public relations occupations above is worth reading carefully rather than as a promise. Public relations specialists, the standard entry-level and mid-career practitioner role, had a median annual wage of $74,750 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS). Public relations managers – a supervisory occupation that directs communication programs, sets strategy, and typically manages staff and budgets – had a median annual wage of $146,910 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS). That difference is a career-progression gap earned over years of practice, not a difference a degree confers on its own; managers are counted separately by BLS precisely because the job is different work. News analysts, reporters, and journalists had a median annual wage of $62,200 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS), which matters here because many public relations programs sit inside journalism schools and because movement between newsrooms and communication offices is common in both directions. A median means half of workers in the occupation earned less. Individual outcomes vary by employer, geography, sector, and experience.
A public relations degree trains you to plan, write, and evaluate communication between an organization and the audiences it depends on – press, customers, employees, regulators, donors, and the public. It exists as a standalone bachelor’s degree, commonly a BA or BS in Public Relations, and as a master’s degree, often titled MA in Public Relations, Strategic Communication, or Communication Management.
Public relations programs cover writing for public relations across formats, media relations, campaign planning and account management, research and measurement, digital and social media strategy, crisis and risk communication, and communication law and ethics. Most programs finish with a campaign course, capstone, or portfolio requirement.
Communications is the broader umbrella and covers interpersonal, organizational, and mass communication theory alongside applied practice. Marketing is oriented toward demand, pricing, product, and paid channels. Public relations focuses specifically on earned and owned communication and on relationships with publics that a company cannot simply buy access to. See the communications program guide for the wider field and the marketing program guide for the demand side.
Yes, though it is not universal. The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) accredits journalism and mass communications units, which at many schools includes the public relations program. ACEJMC accreditation is voluntary and many respectable programs do not hold it, so its absence is not disqualifying – but its presence is a meaningful signal. Verify institutional accreditation regardless through the U.S. Department of Education database.
The APR, or Accredited in Public Relations, is a professional credential for working practitioners administered by the Universal Accreditation Board. It is earned after you have professional experience, through a panel readiness review and an examination, and it is entirely separate from your degree. No entry-level job requires it. It is something to consider several years into practice, not while choosing a program.
Public relations curricula generally move through three layers, and the first one is less glamorous than students expect.
The first layer is writing. Public relations is a writing profession before it is anything else, and programs that are serious about it require several writing courses, not one. You learn the news release and why its conventions exist, the media pitch, the fact sheet and backgrounder, the executive statement, the internal memo, the social post, and the long-form owned-media piece. The skill being trained is not style but discipline: writing accurately, in another person’s voice, under a deadline, for an audience that did not ask to hear from you. Programs typically pair this with a media writing or reporting course, which is why so many public relations degrees live in journalism schools.
The second layer is practice areas. Media relations covers building and maintaining relationships with reporters and understanding what actually makes something a story. Campaign planning covers the research-objectives-strategy-tactics-evaluation cycle that structures professional work, usually delivered through a semester-long client project. Digital and social strategy covers channel selection, content planning, community management, and the difference between paid, earned, shared, and owned media. Crisis and risk communication covers preparing before an incident, the first-hour decisions, holding statements, and the reputational math of disclosing bad news yourself versus having it disclosed for you.
The third layer is research, measurement, and judgment. This is where programs differ most. Stronger curricula teach formative research – surveys, focus groups, media audits, stakeholder mapping – so that a campaign begins with evidence rather than a guess, and they teach evaluation against stated objectives rather than counting impressions. They also cover communication law: defamation, privacy, copyright, and the disclosure rules that apply to sponsored content and to publicly traded companies. Ethics coursework covers conflicts of interest, transparency about who is paying, and the point at which advocacy becomes deception.
At the bachelor’s level, expect roughly 120 credits, with the public relations major occupying a sequence of about 30 to 40 credits inside it. At the master’s level, expect roughly 30 to 36 credits, usually a required core plus electives and either a thesis or an applied capstone.
The work splits roughly into three settings, and they suit different people.
Agency work means serving multiple clients at once, often across unrelated industries, with billable-hour discipline and rapid switching between accounts. It is the fastest way to accumulate varied experience early in a career and the most demanding in terms of pace. In-house work means serving one organization – corporate communications, hospital or university communications, an association – with deeper subject knowledge, more internal stakeholder management, and more time spent on employee communication and executive support than agency work involves. Government and public-sector work, often titled public information officer or public affairs specialist, covers communicating with residents and press on behalf of an agency, frequently including emergency and incident communication; these roles carry procedural constraints and public-records obligations that private-sector roles do not.
Titles are inconsistent across employers. “Communications coordinator,” “public relations specialist,” “account executive,” and “media relations associate” can describe nearly identical work. Read the responsibilities rather than the title. For general labor-market context on these occupations, see the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Public relations or a related field? Choose public relations for depth in earned and owned communication, media relations, and reputation work. Consider communications for the broader theoretical and applied survey, strategic communications if you want an integrated planning emphasis that spans paid, earned, shared, and owned channels, marketing if your interest is demand generation and the commercial side, or journalism if you would rather report the story than place it.
Program availability and the local employer mix vary by state. Browse public relations programs by state to compare options where you live.
Wondering where it leads? See what you can do with a public relations degree for the jobs and BLS salary data behind the degree. Compare programs by topic:
