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2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Getting Aid

5 Ranked Colleges
206 Degrees Awarded
$21,100 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor's in California For Those Getting Aid

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 Getting Aid” 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.

For this year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Getting Aid” ranking, we looked at 5 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.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the public policy program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 Getting Aid” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Getting Aid

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Getting Aid.

Top 5 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in California (With Aid)

#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 Getting Aid. Stanford is a private not-for-profit institution located in Stanford, California. The school has a fairly large population, and it awarded 20 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Stanford, the school also landed the #1 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Stanford University is $11,496 for California Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students with aid.

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. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 86%. 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%.

Read more about Public Policy at Stanford University

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 Getting Aid list. UCR is a large school located in Riverside, California that handed out 83 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

UCR also made our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list, coming in at #3. It costs about $12,871 for california bachelor’s degree public policy students with aid per year to attend University of California - Riverside.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 2.1%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 91%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read full report on Public Policy at University of California - Riverside

#3

Mills College

Oakland, California
#4 in overall quality

Out of the 5 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Getting Aid that were part of this year’s ranking, Mills College landed the #3 spot on the list. This small school is located in Oakland, California, and it awarded 8 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

Mills also made our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” list, coming in at #4. The estimated yearly cost for Mills is $22,202 for California Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students with aid.

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. The low student loan default rate of 2.3% 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 Mills College

#4

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 #4 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Getting Aid. Los Angeles, California is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s public policy degrees to 7 students in 2019-2020.

In addition to being on our california bachelor’s degree public policy students with aid list, MSMU has also earned the #5 rank in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Mount Saint Mary’s University is $29,214 for California Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students with aid.

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%.

Full MSMU Public Policy Report

#5

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 #5 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in California For Those Getting Aid list. Located in Los Angeles, California, this large private not-for-profit school awarded 46 degrees to qualified bachelors’s public policy students in 2019-2020.

USC also took the #2 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in California” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for University of Southern California is $29,528 for California Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students with aid.

The student loan default rate at the school is 1.2%, which is quite low when compared to the national default 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. With a freshman retention rate of 91%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.

Read more about Public Policy at University of Southern California

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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