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2022 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy (Income $0-$30k) in California

5 Ranked Colleges
206 Degrees Awarded
$12,900 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor's in California For Those Making $0-$30k

With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking - to help you make that decision.

Public Policy is the 116th most popular major in the country with 6,199 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. In 2017-2018, public policy graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $52,077 and had an average of $35,743 in loans still to pay off.

Across California, there were 722 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $55,286 and $47,721 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 206 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $37,907 and $21,546 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking analyzed 5 colleges that offered a degree in public policy. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality public policy programs that also have a lower cost than 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 policy program at the school. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Public Policy Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Making $0-$30k

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Making $0-$30k.

Top 5 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy (Income $0-$30k) in California

#1

Stanford University

Stanford, California
#1 in overall quality

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Stanford University. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Making $0-$30k. Stanford University is a fairly large private not-for-profit school situated in Stanford, California. It awarded 20 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

Stanford not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list. The yearly cost to attend Stanford University is $-1,387 for California Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students whose families make $0-$30k. The negative number means the student will receive more financial aid on average than it costs to attend the school.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 86%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 4 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors. The student loan default rate at the school is 0.5%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Full Stanford University Public Policy Report

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of California - Riverside. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Making $0-$30k list. University of California - Riverside is located in Riverside, California and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 83 bachelors’s public policy degrees to qualified students.

UCR did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list. The yearly cost to attend UCR is $8,366 for California Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students whose families make $0-$30k.

With a freshman retention rate of 91%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. The low student loan default rate of 2.1% 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 more about Public Policy at UCR

#3

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, California
#2 in overall quality

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Southern California. It ranked #3 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Making $0-$30k list. University of Southern California is located in Los Angeles, California and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 46 bachelors’s public policy degrees to qualified students.

USC also made our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list, coming in at #2. It costs about $14,668 for California Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students whose families make $0-$30k per year to attend University of Southern California.

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 school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 1.2%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed.

Full University of Southern California Public Policy Report

#4

Mills College

Oakland, California
#4 in overall quality

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Mills College. It ranked #4 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Making $0-$30k list. Mills College is a small private not-for-profit school situated in Oakland, California. It awarded 8 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

Mills not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #4 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list. The estimated yearly cost for Mills College is $15,749 for california bachelor’s degree public policy students whose families make $0-$30k.

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%. Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 8 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Read more about Public Policy at Mills College

#5

Mount Saint Mary's University

Los Angeles, California

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Mount Saint Mary’s University. The school came in at #5 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Making $0-$30k. Mount Saint Mary’s University is a small school located in Los Angeles, California that handed out 7 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at MSMU, the school also landed the #5 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” ranking. It costs about $27,107 for California Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students whose families make $0-$30k per year to attend MSMU.

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. The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 2.2%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Public Policy at Mount Saint Mary’s University

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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