2022 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Administration in Iowa

With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. 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 Iowa” ranking is part of that endeavor.

Public Administration is the 58th most popular major in the country with 17,269 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. 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 Iowa, there were 164 public administration graduates with average earnings and debt of $49,729 and $50,781 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 47 public administration graduates with average earnings and debt of $39,922 and $25,876 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Iowa” ranking looked at 3 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s 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

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we’ve developed a number of rankings, including this “Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Iowa” list, to help you choose the best school for you.

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. 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 Iowa

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

Top 3 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Administration in Iowa

#1

University of Northern Iowa

Cedar Falls, Iowa

#1 in overall quality

$15,620 Average Net Price

$45,529 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Northern Iowa. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Iowa. UNI is a medium-sized public school situated in Cedar Falls, Iowa. It awarded 11 bachelors’s public admin degrees in 2019-2020.

UNI also took the #1 spot in our “Best Public Administration Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Iowa” ranking. The yearly cost to attend UNI is $15,620 for Iowa Bachelor’s Degree Public Admin students.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 86%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The low student loan default rate of 3.6% 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%.

Read full report on Public Administration at UNI

#2

Upper Iowa University

Fayette, Iowa

#2 in overall quality

$21,624 Average Net Price

$58,221 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Upper Iowa University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Iowa. Fayette, Iowa is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s public admin degrees to 28 students in 2019-2020.

In addition to being on our iowa bachelor’s degree public admin students list, UIU has also earned the #2 rank in our “Best Public Administration Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Iowa” ranking. The yearly cost to attend UIU is $21,624 for iowa bachelor’s degree public admin students.

Read more about Public Administration at Upper Iowa University

#3

Buena Vista University

Storm Lake, Iowa

#3 in overall quality

$17,544 Average Net Price

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Buena Vista University. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Iowa. BVU is a private not-for-profit institution located in Storm Lake, Iowa. The school has a small population, and it awarded 1 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

BVU did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our “Best Public Administration Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Iowa” list. The estimated yearly cost for BVU is $17,544 for Iowa Bachelor’s Degree Public Admin students.

With a student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed.

Full BVU Public Administration Report

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Administration in the Plains States Region
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Administration

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.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to The Official CTBTO Photostream.

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