2024 Best Public Administration Schools in the Southeast Region
86Colleges in the Southeast Region
3,743Public Admin Degrees Awarded
$46,873Avg Early-Career Salary
If you plan on majoring in public administration, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #60 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual looked at 86 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Public Administration Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 3,743 degrees in public administration during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Your choice of public administration school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Public Administration School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Public Administration Schools in the Southeast Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Public Administration in the Southeast Region
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the public admin degrees they offer, see the list below. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Virginia Tech is a great choice for students interested in a degree in public administration. Located in the small city of Blacksburg, Virginia Tech is a public school with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #62 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Virginia Tech is a great school overall.
There were approximately 44 public administration students who graduated with this degree at Virginia Tech in the most recent data year. Public Administration degree recipients from Virginia Tech get an earnings boost of approximately $12,497 above the typical income of public administration majors.
Any student pursuing a degree in public administration needs to check out George Mason University. GMU is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Fairfax. A Best Colleges rank of #117 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means GMU is a great university overall.
There were approximately 118 public administration students who graduated with this degree at GMU in the most recent year we have data available. Those public administration students who get their degree from George Mason University earn $6,045 more than the standard public admin student.
Florida International University is a wonderful choice for students interested in a degree in public administration. FIU is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Miami. A Best Colleges rank of #183 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means FIU is a great university overall.
There were approximately 262 public administration students who graduated with this degree at FIU in the most recent data year. Public Administration degree recipients from Florida International University earn a boost of approximately $4,402 above the average income of public administration majors.
Clemson University is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a degree in public administration. Located in the large suburb of Clemson, Clemson is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #107 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Clemson is a great university overall.
There were roughly 45 public administration students who graduated with this degree at Clemson in the most recent year we have data available. Those public administration students who get their degree from Clemson University receive $22,175 more than the average public admin grad.
Located in the medium-sized city of Athens, UGA is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #72 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UGA is a great university overall.
There were roughly 81 public administration students who graduated with this degree at UGA in the most recent data year. After graduation, public admin degree recipients usually earn an average of $47,593 in their early careers.
Auburn is a fairly large public university located in the city of Auburn. A Best Colleges rank of #154 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Auburn is a great university overall.
There were roughly 60 public administration students who graduated with this degree at Auburn in the most recent data year. Students who receive their degree from the public admin program make an average of $35,723 in the first couple years of their career.
UNC Chapel Hill is a very large public university located in the small city of Chapel Hill. A Best Colleges rank of #43 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UNC Chapel Hill is a great university overall.
There were about 60 public administration students who graduated with this degree at UNC Chapel Hill in the most recent year we have data available. Those public administration students who get their degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earn $10,132 more than the typical public admin student.
NC State is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Raleigh. A Best Colleges rank of #92 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means NC State is a great university overall.
There were approximately 41 public administration students who graduated with this degree at NC State in the most recent data year. Public Administration degree recipients from North Carolina State University receive an earnings boost of around $5,737 over the average income of public administration graduates.
Located in the town of Orange Beach, Columbia Southern University is a private for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #114 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Columbia Southern University is a great university overall.
There were roughly 129 public administration students who graduated with this degree at Columbia Southern University in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the public administration degree program at Columbia Southern University make $10,427 above the typical graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
UCF is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Orlando. A Best Colleges rank of #193 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UCF is a great university overall.
There were approximately 222 public administration students who graduated with this degree at UCF in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the public admin program report average early career earnings of $40,012.
Located in the midsize city of Tallahassee, Florida State is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #121 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Florida State is a great university overall.
There were about 59 public administration students who graduated with this degree at Florida State in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the public administration major at Florida State University earn $4,172 above the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
WCU is a fairly large public university located in the town of Cullowhee. This university ranks 17th out of 93 colleges for overall quality in the state of North Carolina.
There were roughly 86 public administration students who graduated with this degree at WCU in the most recent year we have data available. Those public administration students who get their degree from Western Carolina University make $2,023 more than the standard public admin grad.
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Here are some additional great schools for Public Administration students in the Southeast Region that almost earned our Best Public Administration Schools in the Southeast Region award.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
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).