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2022 Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania

5 Ranked Colleges
30 Degrees Awarded
$28,400 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor's in Pennsylvania

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania” ranking is part of that endeavor.

In 2019-2020, 17,269 people earned their degree in public administration, making the major the 58th most popular in the United States. In 2017-2018, public administration graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $48,859 and had an average of $42,077 in loans still to pay off.

Across Pennsylvania, there were 454 public administration graduates with average earnings and debt of $55,978 and $48,486 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 30 public administration graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania” ranking, we looked at 5 colleges that offer a degree in public administration. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent public administration programs, but they also cost less that schools of similar quality.

To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as the cost to attend the school after aid is awarded and overall quality of the public administration program at the school. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

When choosing the right school for you, it’s important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we’ve created a number of major-specific rankings, including this “Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania” list to help you make the college decision.

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania.

Top 5 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Administration in Pennsylvania

#1

Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

Kutztown, Pennsylvania
#5 in overall quality

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. It ranked #1 on our 2022 Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania list. Kutztown University of Pennsylvania is a public institution located in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. The school has a medium-sized population, and it awarded 3 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

Kutztown University also took the #5 spot in our “Best Public Administration Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Kutztown University of Pennsylvania is $22,422 for Pennsylvania Bachelor’s Degree Public Admin students.

Full Kutztown University of Pennsylvania Public Administration Report

#2

Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania

Shippensburg, Pennsylvania

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania list. Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania is a medium-sized public school situated in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. It awarded 5 bachelors’s public admin degrees in 2019-2020.

Ship also took the #4 spot in our “Best Public Administration Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking. It costs about $22,054 for Pennsylvania Bachelor’s Degree Public Admin students per year to attend Ship.

Read full report on Public Administration at Ship

#3 in overall quality

Out of the 5 schools in the Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus landed the #3 spot on the list. Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this large public school awarded 10 diplomas to qualified bachelors’s public admin students in 2019-2020.

Pitt did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our “Best Public Administration Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” list. The yearly cost to attend University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus is $27,938 for Pennsylvania Bachelor’s Degree Public Admin students.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 93%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 3.5%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Public Administration at University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus

#4

Saint Francis University

Loretto, Pennsylvania
#2 in overall quality

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Saint Francis University. The school came in at #4 for the Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania. Saint Francis University is a small private not-for-profit school situated in Loretto, Pennsylvania. It awarded 1 bachelors’s public admin degrees in 2019-2020.

Saint Francis also took the #2 spot in our “Best Public Administration Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Saint Francis University is $28,643 for Pennsylvania Bachelor’s Degree Public Admin students.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 2.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 96%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.

Read full report on Public Administration at Saint Francis University

#5

Villanova University

Villanova, Pennsylvania
#1 in overall quality

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Villanova University. It ranked #5 on our 2022 Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania list. Villanova University is located in Villanova, Pennsylvania and, has a fairly large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 2 bachelors’s public admin degrees to qualified students.

Villanova did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our “Best Public Administration Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” list. The yearly cost to attend Villanova University is $41,027 for Pennsylvania Bachelor’s Degree Public Admin students.

The low student loan default rate of 1.5% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 96%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.

Read more about Public Administration at Villanova University

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Notes and References

References

  • 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%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

  • *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
  • Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

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