2023 Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $48-$75k

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $48-$75k” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

Public Policy is the 113th most popular major in the country with 6,430 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, public policy graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $49,451 and had an average of $21,866 in loans still to pay off.

Across the Rocky Mountains region, there were 46 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $48-$75k” ranking analyzed 2 colleges that offered a degree in public policy. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great public policy programs and cost less that 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. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

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 in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $48-$75k”.

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. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $48-$75k

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $48-$75k.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Public Policy (Income $48-$75k) in the Rocky Mountains Region

1

University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah

#2 in overall quality

$13,842 Average Net Price

$51,388 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $48-$75k that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Utah landed the #1 spot on the list. Located in Salt Lake City, Utah, this large public school awarded 9 degrees to qualified ’s public policy students in 2020-2021.

U of U also took the #2 spot in our “Best Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region” ranking. The yearly cost to attend U of U is $13,842 for rocky mountains region public policy students whose families make $48-$75k.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 89%. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 1.7%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Public Policy at University of Utah

2

University of Denver
Denver, Colorado

#1 in overall quality

$27,767 Average Net Price

$51,736 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Denver. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Making $48-$75k list. Denver, Colorado is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out ’s public policy degrees to 26 students in 2020-2021.

DU also took the #1 spot in our “Best Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region” ranking. It costs about $27,767 for rocky mountains region public policy students whose families make $48-$75k per year to attend DU.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.6%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Public Policy at University of Denver

• Best Value Colleges for Public Policy (Income $48-$75k)

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.