If you plan on getting your master's degree in public policy, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #55 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Public Policy Master's Degree Schools in District of Columbia ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 310 master's degrees in public policy to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Public Policy School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of public policy for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality public policy program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to public policy students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other public policy students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt public policy students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized public policy related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for public policy students working on their master's degree.
The public policy school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Public Policy Master's Degree Schools in District of Columbia.
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Featured Public Policy Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
Fit new strategic skills into your public service passion and goals when you earn an MBA in Public Administration from Southern New Hampshire University.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in public policy needs to take a look at George Washington University. GWU is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Washington.
Those public policy students who get their master's degree from George Washington University receive $4,100 more than the average public policy graduate.
Georgetown University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in public policy. Located in the city of Washington, Georgetown is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Public Policy master's degree recipients from Georgetown University get an earnings boost of around $3,669 over the typical income of public policy graduates.
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in public policy needs to look into American University. The American University is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Washington.
Students who graduate with their master's from the public policy program report average early career income of $59,308.
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).
college factual
Your choice of public policy for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality public policy program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
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