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2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Making $0-$30k

4 Ranked Colleges
98 Degrees Awarded
$9,500 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor's in Pennsylvania For Those Making $0-$30k

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. At College Factual, we’re committed to helping you make that decision by providing information such as that found in our “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking.

In 2019-2020, 6,199 people earned their degree in public policy, making the major the 116th most popular in the United States. 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 Pennsylvania, there were 308 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $66,300 and $48,733 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 98 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking, we looked at 4 colleges that offer 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.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the public policy program at the school and the cost to attend the school once aid has been awarded. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

More Ways to Rank Public Policy Schools

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 “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Making $0-$30k”.

In addition to College Factual’s rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest 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 Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Making $0-$30k

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

Top 4 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy (Income $0-$30k) in Pennsylvania

#1

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
#1 in overall quality

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Pennsylvania. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Making $0-$30k. UPenn is a large private not-for-profit school situated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It awarded 23 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

UPenn not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” list. It costs about $3,181 for Pennsylvania Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students whose families make $0-$30k per year to attend University of Pennsylvania.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 95%. The student loan default rate at the school is 1.4%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Read full report on Public Policy at University of Pennsylvania

#2

Dickinson College

Carlisle, Pennsylvania

Out of the 4 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Making $0-$30k that were part of this year’s ranking, Dickinson College landed the #2 spot on the list. Located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, this small private not-for-profit school handed out 18 degrees to qualified bachelors’s public policy students in 2019-2020.

Dickinson also made our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” list, coming in at #3. It costs about $11,046 for Pennsylvania Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students whose families make $0-$30k per year to attend Dickinson.

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 Dickinson

#3

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
#2 in overall quality

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Carnegie Mellon University. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Making $0-$30k. Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this fairly large private not-for-profit school awarded 14 degrees to qualified bachelors’s public policy students in 2019-2020.

Carnegie Mellon also took the #2 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Carnegie Mellon is $12,542 for Pennsylvania Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students whose families make $0-$30k.

The low student loan default rate of 0.6% 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%. The student-to-faculty ratio of 5 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one. With a freshman retention rate of 96%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.

Read full report on Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University

#4

Gettysburg College

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Gettysburg College. The school came in at #4 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Making $0-$30k. This small school is located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and it awarded 16 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

Gettysburg also took the #4 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Gettysburg is $11,244 for pennsylvania bachelor’s degree public policy students whose families make $0-$30k.

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%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 90%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The impressive student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.

Full Gettysburg Public Policy Report

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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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