2023 Schools Highly Focused on Public Admin Major in District of Columbia

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 “Schools Highly Focused on Public Admin Major in District of Columbia” ranking is part of that endeavor.

In 2021-2022, 16,043 people earned their degree in public administration, making the major the 60th most popular in the United States. In , public administration graduates who were awarded their degree in , earned an average of $51,600 and had an average of $39,769 in loans still to pay off.

Across District of Columbia, there were 265 public administration graduates with average earnings and debt of $57,659 and $66,356 respectively.

For this year’s “Schools Highly Focused on Public Admin Major in District of Columbia” ranking, we looked at 7 colleges that offer a degree in public administration. The colleges and universities that top this list are recognized because their public administration program is one of the largest majors offered at the school.

Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

More Ways to Rank Public Administration Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Schools Highly Focused on Public Admin Major in District of Columbia” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

One of our other unique offerings is College Combat. This tool lets you build your own customized comparisons utilizing the factors that are most important 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.

Schools Highly Focused on Public Admin Major in District of Columbia

The following schools top our list of the Best “Schools Highly Focused on Public Admin Major in District of Columbia”.

Top 7 Most Focused Colleges for Public Administration in District of Columbia

1

American University
Washington, District of Columbia

#3 overall quality in District of Columbia

$50,575 Average Early-Career Earnings

$39,485 Average Student Debt

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend American University. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Schools Highly Focused on Public Admin Major in District of Columbia list. This fairly large school is located in Washington, District of Columbia, and it awarded 164 ’s public admin degrees in 2021-2022.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 0.9%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 90%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read full report on Public Administration at American University

2

University of the District of Columbia
Washington, District of Columbia

#8 overall quality in District of Columbia

$44,806 Average Early-Career Earnings

$39,648 Average Student Debt

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of the District of Columbia. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Schools Highly Focused on Public Admin Major in District of Columbia list. University of the District of Columbia is a small public school situated in Washington, District of Columbia. It awarded 2 ’s public admin degrees in 2021-2022.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 3.1%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. With a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of 8 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed.

Full University of the District of Columbia Public Administration Report

5

George Washington University
Washington, District of Columbia

#2 overall quality in District of Columbia

$65,148 Average Early-Career Earnings

$46,805 Average Student Debt

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend George Washington University. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Schools Highly Focused on Public Admin Major in District of Columbia list. GWU is a large private not-for-profit school situated in Washington, District of Columbia. It awarded 60 ’s public admin degrees in 2021-2022.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 91%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.4%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Public Administration at George Washington University

6

Georgetown University
Washington, District of Columbia

#1 overall quality in District of Columbia

$69,885 Average Early-Career Earnings

$58,147 Average Student Debt

With a ranking of #6, Georgetown University did quite well on the 2023 Schools Highly Focused on Public Admin Major in District of Columbia list. Georgetown is a large school located in Washington, District of Columbia that handed out 13 ’s public admin degrees in 2021-2022.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.2%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 98%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read full report on Public Administration at Georgetown

7

Howard University
Washington, District of Columbia

#6 overall quality in District of Columbia

$50,572 Average Early-Career Earnings

$69,091 Average Student Debt

Howard University came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Schools Highly Focused on Public Admin Major in District of Columbia ranking. Howard is located in Washington, District of Columbia and, has a fairly large student population. In 2021-2022, this school awarded 0 ’s public admin degrees to qualified students.

With a freshman retention rate of 91%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 2.7%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Public Administration at Howard

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

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate 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.